Yes, I know the work is ruff, I never have thought of myself as a writer. I did hire a editor on my first novel.I will definitely need a couple of people to look at it.
Thanks for all the wonderful input.
new boy
JoinedPosts by new boy
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Chapter 16 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave
by new boy inchapter 16. the tour .
my three days of housekeeping duty were over and i reported to the bethel office the next morning.
it was customary then get a tour of both the factory and the bethel home.
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Chapter 16 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave
by new boy inchapter 16. the tour .
my three days of housekeeping duty were over and i reported to the bethel office the next morning.
it was customary then get a tour of both the factory and the bethel home.
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new boy
Chapter 16
The tour
My three days of housekeeping duty were over and I reported to the Bethel office the next morning. It was customary then get a tour of both the factory and the Bethel home. At the end of the tours they would give you your job assignment.
The tour of the factory was nothing short of amazing. Hundreds of brothers in different departments all working with only one goal in mind. There was the bindery in building three with the sewing machines, the end sheet gluers, the bindery lines, the gathers, the case makers and the trimmers. Building one with the hand bindery, the plate and linotype departments. The fifth floor ink room, where they made everything from ink to glue and even hand soap. Fourth floor job press for the smaller printing jobs. The third floor deluxe department and the second floor carpenter shop where the actually made all the furniture that was used at bethel.
The most impressive sight there was the pressroom in building one. The biggest presses there were on the six floor, they were the mighty Cottrells and two of these mighty beasts set side by side, press six and press seven. The noise was deafening as the “Watchtowers” and “Awakes” magazines were pouring out of them. I stood there speechless as the brothers stopped the press to change the giant sixty inch paper roll. It was a race to see how last they could change the role and get the press back on line. I have tears in my eyes as I write these words. This is the very heart of the factory and I would have given anything to be working there in the pressroom, I thought.
Then we went through the home with its many offices, we saw the waiter crews who spent hours preparing the tables for the next meal. The kitchen staff preparing meals for over a fifteen hundred people at a time. We toured the laundry where brothers sorted, washed and dried thousands of garments a day. They had their own dry cleans and even had a shoe repair shop too. The home was the support group for the factory workers. So the home was quite nice there but not as impressive as the factory, where the real action was.
There were six of us standing around at the end of our tour in the lobby of the 124 building. Brother Lang finally came down from the Bethel office with the news we were all waiting for. He handed each person a piece of paper but told us what it said before we could read it. Maybe he did this to see our reactions, I don’t know.
“Brother Casarona you are assigned the Laundry.”
I don’t remembered what I thought back then. I did know the laundry was a long way from the factory and the press room. I found out later that once you were assigned in the home odds of getting moved to the factory were extremely low. As fate would have it, years later I would be in the factory. Not only that, I ended my Bethel career in the press room on Hoe 10, Spanish Awake. Probably the only brother in Bethel history to start in the laundry and end up in the press room. It would be a long and strange road with many stops a long the way, in the sewing department, bindery and building one elevator.
Wherever they put me I was determined to give it my all and I did from the very first day at Bethel to my last, I did give it my all.
I think I was liked by some there and disliked by others, but no matter what you thought about me I wasn’t a “Jack.”
If you called someone a “Jack” at Bethel, it meant he was a lazy slacker. No one then knew where the term came from. It was used long before 1970 and is still used till this day. Just another thing passed down from one generation of Bethelities to the next.
Back then I wanted to please everybody. I wanted to be liked by everybody. When you are young you might think you can actually do this. But in truth, this isn’t possible and really should not be even wished for. If you are trying to please everyone, what do you believe in? What do you stand for? You want to be liked by all, really? Then you better get off this planet. It’s not possible.
Years later, I figured it out. I call it the Keith Casarona “80% 10% 10% rule” It goes like this.
Say, you met 100 people or even just 10 people. No matter how you act or what you say, one person out of the ten people, will love you to death. One person out of the ten will hate your guts for whatever reason. The other eight people won’t care about you one way or the other.
You just can’t please everyone if you are a real person.
There were many “brown noses” at Bethel back then. I’m sure there are many still there today. People willing to kiss anyone’s ass to get where they want to go.
In fact, one of old timers there told me that before he became president. Knorr’s nick name back in the old days was “Knorr the nose.”
The guy who had his nose up Rutherford’s ass would be our next president, what a surprise.
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Chapter 15 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave
by new boy inchapter 15. inwood.
it turned out that in 1970 there was a lot of changes being made at bethel.
one of the major changes was that a bethelite didn’t have to go to kings county or the brooklyn heights congregations first before getting assigned out to a local kingdom hall in the new york city area.
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new boy
Chapter 15
Inwood
It turned out that in 1970 there was a lot of changes being made at Bethel. One of the major changes was that a Bethelite didn’t have to go to Kings County or the Brooklyn Heights congregations first before getting assigned out to a local kingdom hall in the New York City area. So instead of waiting six months I was assigned to the Inwood congregation in upper Manhattan.
I was assigned there with another new boy, John who came in the same week as me. John was a quiet kind of guy who always had a strange confused look on his face. His brother was a Bethel heavy there. It was always a good thing if you had some family there and John’s brother was a factory floor overseer. If you were going to make Bethel your career having family members there in positions of power helps. It didn’t help poor John, however. A couple of years later John had a break down and tried killing himself at the Watchtower Farm. Having a bunch of family around was good thing as long as you were happy. If you’re not happy and want to leave the lord’s house you got extra guilt and shame.
Daryl Christianson met us both in front of the 124 building and we headed to the subway station. The trip to our new congregation would take about an hour. Once on the train we met another brother who was going to the Inwood hall also. It turned out that it was going to be his last congregation meeting there. He had been at Bethel for four years and was leaving. Daryl had just hit his four year mark too but he was staying. My guess is, they had both came in together like John and I.
I couldn’t help but think to myself why would anyone ever leave Bethel, being so close to 1975? He didn’t say much after we were introduced. I found out soon enough that guys who had been there awhile didn’t have much to say to the new boys. They were in two different worlds. Just like the guys in Viet Nam that have much to say to new recruits. There was nothing you can tell them that they won’t figure for themselves eventually, if they didn’t get killed first. He just set there with his eyes glazed over looking at the bill boards and graffiti inside the subway car. It was one of his last subway rides and he looked numb setting there. I wondered what experiences he had while he was there. His last day was my first day the changing of the guard so to speak. After a few minutes I had to ask.
“So since you have been here for four years, do you have any advice to give a new guy like me?”
He set there for a few seconds and then looked at me with my shit eating grin. He said, with a blank look in his eyes.
“Yeah….Just do your work and keep your mouth shut. They don’t care about you here.” Then he turned and looked way.
Wow, I was dumb founded. What an attitude I thought. I will never be like this guy, I thought to myself.
The congregation you were assigned to could a big difference in your stay at Bethel. Some brothers got great jobs and shitty congregations, other brothers got great congregations and shitty jobs. Then the truly lucky guys got great jobs and great congregations. These brothers were called “Golden Boys.” Their stay a Bethel was like a walk in the park.
What constituted a good congregation? The first thing was there wasn’t too many Bethelites in it. Inwood had only four initially. Daryl Christianson, Larry Fisher, John and me.
At Midtown were I went to the memorial at, there was over sixty Bethelities at the meetings. The odds of getting invited to a meal out or getting any food from the local brothers and sisters was practically zone. Food was a big deal too. Because it took so long to get to our meetings there was no time for many Bethelites to go to the dinner at Bethel. We had leave work, clean up and head straight to the meetings. The wonderful sisters at the Inwood hall, would make up a brown bag full of food. We got the bags at the end of the meetings. So we had our dinner at about 10:00 p.m. at night on the subway train heading back home. We got back there at about 11:00 and up again at 6:30. Sundays after the meetings there was always a place for us at one of their houses for a home cooked meal.
Inwood congregation had about 50% blacks 25% Porto Ricans and 25% mixed nationalities. It was my first mostly black congregation. After fifty years and dozens of Kingdom halls, I must say the blacks have the best congregations. They are truly wonderful people. They are the real deal and if you are real too, they would do anything for you. However, if you are an uppity self-righteous white boy, they will stand clear of you. They saw lots of us, young white Bethelitites who were full of ourselves come and go. Some didn’t leave on the best terms.
We got two more new boys assigned to our hall in the next couple years, Dave Paro and Dennis Miller. Many a Bethelite would leave Bethel and marry a local girl from their kingdom hall. Dave Paro married a Porto Rican sister from Inwood.
Most of the available sisters in the New York area were either black or Porto Rican. Ninety percent all Bethelites were white. The few white sisters there were either very young or already snapped up by other Bethelities. So of course, there was a lot of mixed marriages. Which of course is fine. Except there was a few weird ones too. Like the nineteen year old, skinny white kid from Wisconsin, who married the forty two year old, three hundred pound black sister from the Bronx. She also had three teenage boys of her own. One of her teenage boys was the same age as him. I wondered what his folks thought when he left Bethel before his time and brought her back home to Wisconsin?
There was an old saying at Bethel. “They longer you are here the whiter they look.”
If you were looking for available white sisters over sixteen years of age, odds are you needed to get at least a hundred miles away from New York City.
Having just got there, girls were the last thing on my mind. It fact I was quite a jerk about it still.
A beautiful sister from Kansas wrote me a letter after I was there a few months. I think she was interested in me. I wrote her back a fiery letter stating “What are you thinking? I have made a four year commitment here, so please don’t write me anymore!” What a jerk I was.
Anyway Inwood was a wonderful Congregation. There was a few whack jobs there like any otherb kingdom Hall.
Sister Cornell would come up to me and show me her field service report. “Look at this Brother Casarona twenty two hours in field service, ten return visits, three books and nineteen magazines placed.”
“Very good Sister Cornell keep up the good work.” She was German and very overbearing. I felt sorry for her two teenage kids and her ex-husband who I never met. In her living room was a huge portrait of her father, dress up in his Nazis uniform.
Sometimes when you were giving a talk, the Black brothers or sisters would speak out with “Yes!” or “That’s right!” without been called on. Just like in the old tent revival meetings in the south. Can I get a amen!
I’m sure the strangest people there was us Bethelites.
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Chapter 14 part B New Boy 50 Years A Watchtower Slave
by new boy inin those three days there, i saw some really nice rooms.
i couldn’t help but ask.. “so how does one go about getting one of these nicer rooms?”.
“if rooms come up vacant, they go up for bid.
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new boy
In those three days there, I saw some really nice rooms. I couldn’t help but ask.
“So how does one go about getting one of these nicer rooms?”
“It’s all done by seniority.” She said. “If rooms come up vacant, they go up for bid. You would bid on the room you want. Whoever has the most years of full time service would get the room.” That made sense, “brothers” being rewarded for years of faithful service.
Come to find out seniority just didn’t get you a nicer room at Bethel it solved most of the other problems there too.
The “Dwelling together in unity” booklet stated “Every member of the Bethel family, no matter where he is located in Jehovah's organization, should feel perfectly free to register a complaint if he is mistreated by another individual. These complaints may be registered with the branch overseer or directly to the president.” This sounds like the overseers and the president himself Brother Knorr were approachable with problems right? Well, I guess they forgot to put an asterisk in there. After the asterisk it should have said “If a “brother” has been at Bethel for four or more years.” I knew a half of dozen “brothers” with real problems who went to Bethel overseers with their grievances. The meeting usually went something like this.
“So brother, you are here because you have a problem with Brother Arrogant?”
“Yes sir.”
“So tell me Brother New Boy, how long have you been here at Bethel?”
“Three years sir.”
“Really three years. Well, Brother New Boy, Brother Arrogant has been here for over twenty two years. Thanks for coming by.”
They really didn’t want to hear what you had to say. Not only that, you were now “marked.” Good luck on making Bethel your career now.
It wasn’t just new boys, this happened to three Bethel elders who were also ex circuit overseers who all had well over twenty years full time service to their credit. This was called “Black Thursday.” There will be a whole chapter about this sad event at god’s headquarters.
Come to find out, you were not really considered to be a part of the real Bethel family until after your four year contract was up. At that time in the early nineteen seventies, 95% of all Bethelites left Bethel at or before their four year commitment was over. So they really thought of you as just passing through until then. When you were no longer under contract you were now considered in the real Bethel family.
So the biggest percentage left back then. A few who liked the military life style with a “1984” caveat, stayed. Some stayed because they were weird. They couldn’t or didn’t fit into the outside world where they would have to relate to real people. Some stayed because they were afraid. Armageddon was coming soon. They thought they would be safe at the lord’s house. There they would be saved from the “coming great tribulation,” that the Bible had prophesized about. Some wanted to leave but couldn’t because they had truly become like “Red” in “Shawshank redemption,” they were an “institutionalize man.” Brooklyn Bethel was the mother of all institutions. So you had worked there for many years. Every day they fed you, washed your cloths, made your beds, and even gave you a small allowance like a child every month. You are in your forties or fifties now with little or no job skills. Where are you going? The outside world looked scary as hell and it got scarier every year you were there. I saw many like that there. Couples who were plugging away who had gave up their possibilities of having families or children. They gave up a normal life, to stay at Bethel. You could see it in their faces they were tried and should have left years ago but it was too late now.
The last group that wanted to stay there, were the scariest of them all. These were the people that saw all the bull shit there and still wanted to stay. They were going claw their way up to the top of the organization. They got something there they couldn’t get on the outside, and that was power. They had a name for these people, they were called “Company men.”
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Chapter 14 New Boy 50 Years a Watchtower Slave
by new boy inchapter 14 .
the new boy.
the vast majority of the “sisters’ at bethel are married.
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new boy
Chapter 14
The New Boy
The vast majority of the “sisters’ at Bethel are married. They called very few single “sisters” to Bethel. The reason being twofold. One, a “brother” could do more jobs physicly than a “sister” could do. The second reason why few “sisters” were invited there was because of sex. The new single “brothers” took a vow of celibacy for four years. Thus having a munch of good looking “sisters” around only created problems. A couple would met at Bethel, fall in love and leave before their contract was up. So the joke at Bethel was, sure they call in a few single “sisters” to Bethel but only the ugly ones.
It is a male dominated organization and a trip to the world headquarters will make this apparent. “Sisters” there would never have a job of any major oversight over “brothers.” Of course they are quick to tell you. “We are all equal in god’s eyes.” This of course is true. It just isn’t true in their organization. One more “Catch 22” between things said and things done.
It didn’t matter if you were the wife of a Gilead Student, Special Pioneer, Circuit or Distract overseer. The job you got there was based on how liked your husband was and were he was at in the peeking order. Favoritism ran rampant there, as is true in most their congregations around the world.
All of the housekeepers at Bethel are “sisters” and most of the “sisters” there are housekeepers. A few “sisters” worked in the factory but most worked in the home.
When a housekeeper got a new boy assigned to them, it was one of the few times a sister could tell a brother what to do. Of course we got all the jobs they were not fond of doing, like cleaning the bathrooms and toilets. New boys are feeling high and mighty and needed a little humility training anyway. We were shown how to take what was left of same bars of hand soap and squish them together to make one bigger bar of soap. We were taught the importance of saving money and not wasting precious resources.
She showed me how to make a proper Bethel bed. Bethelites got one new bed sheet a week. The old top sheet became the bottom sheet and the new clean sheet became the new top sheet.
The majority of the people there were single “brothers” under the age of twenty five. Since it was a sin and totally unacceptable to masturbate and a few of the “brothers” weren’t big on taking showers or hygiene, the smells and sights of what we found in those sheets were….. Let me just put it this way, I wouldn’t want my future wife to be a Bethel housekeeper.
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Chapter 13 part B New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave
by new boy ini was given the rest the day off and told to report to housekeeping monday morning.
everything would start on monday the day i was supposed to have arrived at bethel.
every new boy was assigned to a house keeper for three days before they got their work assignment.
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new boy
My roommate Jack Sutton was in Greenlees congregation called Green Point. I'll be talking about him more later.
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Chapter 13 part B New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave
by new boy ini was given the rest the day off and told to report to housekeeping monday morning.
everything would start on monday the day i was supposed to have arrived at bethel.
every new boy was assigned to a house keeper for three days before they got their work assignment.
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new boy
I was given the rest the day off and told to report to housekeeping Monday morning. Everything would start on Monday the day I was supposed to have arrived at Bethel. Every new boy was assigned to a house keeper for three days before they got their work assignment. This way they could learn the proper care and maintenance of their assigned room.
In 1970 there was two congregations that met at Bethel, King’s County and Brooklyn Heights. I wanted to go to the memorial that night at which ever one Brother Knorr and the other Bethel heavies were going to.
I was told by Gilbert that this wasn’t a good idea. “It’s going to be packed there, with standing room only. There would be overseers and the friends of overseers from all over the city there. You should come with me to my Hall instead.”
So I took my first subway rides to Gilbert’s congregation that night. Over the years I would detested the thousands of hours wasted on these trains. Summertime was the worst since most of the trains back then had no AC. You were dressed up with suit and tie, heading to one of your five meetings a week. It was ninety degrees or more in the tunnels with ninety percent humidity. There could be a little breeze coming through the windows. Then the train would stop dead on the tracks for no apparent reason for what seemed like an eternity. When you got off the train you would literally soaked to the bone with sweat. For the book study it was a two hour train ride for an hour book study.
So that night we headed to his Kingdom Hall called Midtown in Manhattan. It was a strange congregation back then with over eighty Bethelities in it. There was about thirty publishers there and the rest were these young guys who all looked like me. Kids from all over the country. If I remember correctly, the Hall was above a liquor store, pretty convenient. I met James Pipkorn that night who would end up being one of my best friends for over forty years.
The memorial was pretty much like most of the memorials I’d had been to in my life with one or two people partaking of the bread and the wine and the rest standing by. Funny thing is the numbers of partakers in 1970 was just over ten thousand. Last year it was over fifteen thousand partaking. These numbers should be going down after forty years but they are still raising.
For around 70 years it was held that the 144,000 were fully assigned by 1935.
"Logically, the calling of the little flock would draw to a close when the number was nearing completion, and the evidence is that the general gathering of these specially blessed ones ended in 1935." Watchtower 1995 Feb 15 p.19
Just one more of the many “Catch 22s” That the society can’t seem to figure out but really this is one of the least of their problems.
Anyway, I couldn’t wait to find out what my “privilege of service” was going to be. No matter if’s cleaning toilets or working on the mighty printing presses all jobs at Bethel are “privileges of service” they will tell you. I would preferred the printing presses for sure, but would do the toilets. Anything to serve my god. I actually found out later that cleaning toilets was really a pretty good job there compared to the hell of the dreaded machines they could put you on.
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Chapter 13 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave
by new boy inchapter 13. they get my heart, soul and my body.
saturday morning i was up at 6:30. it was fun trying to share small bathroom with seven other guys, all trying to get ready in 20 minutes.
i threw some cloths on and headed to first “morning worship.” gilbert said i could sit on his table since there was an extra space there.
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new boy
Chapter 13
They get my heart, soul and my body
Saturday morning I was up at 6:30. It was fun trying to share small bathroom with seven other guys, all trying to get ready in 20 minutes. I threw some cloths on and headed to first “morning worship.” Gilbert said I could sit on his table since there was an extra space there. Hundreds of “brothers” and “Sisters” swarmed into the 124 building, since that was where most the dining rooms were at. Some came in from underground tunnels from the 119 and 107 buildings. The society owned about a half a dozen buildings in the Heights at the time and would be buying lots more over the next few years.
We set down at a table in the upper dinner room. The dining room was full of tables that fit exactly ten people. Each table had a “table head” and the “table foot.” The table head was where usually a Bethel Elder would sit. I set down at a table with my new friend Gilbert. The table was set with all white china, cups, saucers and plates. I set there in amazement. I looked up to see many TV sets mounted on the walls.
A middle age “sister” smiled as she looked at me.
“So Gilbert who is your new friend?”
“His name is Keith Casarona. He just got here.”“Welcome brother Casarona. I’m Sister Jones.”
“Hi I just…” Before I could say another word. There was a voice coming over all the TVs in the upper dining room. I was none other than Brother Knorr himself, the president of the society. He was leading comments, about the daily text. Sooner or later everyone in the Bethel family would have to make their comments about the daily text in front of the whole Bethel family. You would get a chance to share your thoughts and your wisdom about every six months. Almost two thousand “brothers and sisters” plus the governing body and all Bethel Elders would be watching you as you set in front of the cameras. That would be months away for me. Over the years some of the things that came out of people’s mouths on that text table would blow your mind. After the text was over and Knorr was making the last of his announcements, the food started coming up the elevators. Breakfast and lunch were the two best meals at the Lord house, with dinner coming in at away distant third. At the time most of the food eaten there was grown on the society’s farms. Over all, the food was pretty good. When I got there I weighed 155 pounds. Six months later I was at 185. The use to say “It’s the best food in the world….. before they cooked it.”
Some of the food would be on the tables already before we got there. Other food would be dropped off next to the table head. The table head would pass the platers down one side first. When the platers were empty, they would pass them out to a waiters. The platers would come back a few minutes later. They usually had less food on them. The table head would then pass the platers down the opposite side of the table. What table you were assigned to was a big deal because you were usually sitting there for at least an hour or more a day. I found out later that If Knorr got into one of his rants we would be sitting there a whole lot longer, with very cold food waiting for us when it was over.
Once the text was over there was a prayer before eat breakfast. Everyone pulled out their white linen napkins that were folded and hidden under the table and put them on their laps. There wasn’t much talking at the table as chowing down had now began. I had a thousand questions but I felt this wasn’t the time or place to bring them up. I pulled out the napkin under my place setting and started to place it on my lap.
The table head who hadn’t said a word to me as of yet looked up from his scrambled eggs and said. “Brother, you need to put the napkin back where you found it.”
“Ok.” I folded the napkin and put it back under the table in its place.
Sister Jones piped in. “We all get one clean napkin a week for our personal use and no matter where we sit we don’t use other people’s napkins.”
This of course was just one of the hundreds of written and unwritten laws and codes of conduct that a person would need to know if they were “Dwell together in unity” at the lord’s house.
After about fifteen minutes of eating there was a dismissal prayer. Everyone got up from theirs seats and pushed their chairs in. Brother Knorr said a few words of prayer and breakfast was over. Some set back down and kept on eating. If you worked in the home you had some extra time before you had get to work at 8:00, since you didn’t have the twenty walk to the factory. Most of everyone else would go to their job assignments immediately.
Gilbert informed me since I had come early, I needed to go the Bethel office to check in.
Once there I was given my Bethel key, and packet of documents with the booklet, “Dwelling together in unity.” My key number was number 499. This key would allow you access to all the major buildings the society own. The key was to be guarded with your life. If the key was lost, two thousand brothers and sisters wellbeing could be at risk. I looked at the key and wondered how many other people before me was the proud owner of key 499. The key was also one of the ways they could identify you. More about that later.
The booklet “Dwelling together in unity.” was not mine to keep. I had to read the booklet and return it to the Bethel office. It was a private and confidential publication for Bethelites eyes only. The booklet contained just some of the many rules and regulations that a person needed to know. You had two thousands roommates now and there lots to learn. You learned that you needed to obey your overseers (they didn’t have Elders yet) in every way. They were appointed by god’s Holy Spirit. It told you about everything from hygiene to marriage, from vacations to sickness. For example, If you were there less than five years and were sick too long they would take away your vacation time from you. Also if you got sick or injured there it might be best if you left there so you wouldn't be a burden on them. Some brave soul snuck copy of this booklet out and put it on the internet. Check it out. Written by none other than the President himself. Mr. Knorr.
There was a lot of documents I needed to sign before I could join the club. I hardly read any of them. I felt there wasn’t anything the society wanted me to do that wasn’t in my best interest. One document was a bit strange. It was a form that said that the society would have the legal right to keep my body, if I should die of natural or unnatural causes. Yes, even if I get murdered or decide to kill myself while at Bethel, Bethel still wanted to keep my body. While I was at Bethel, I did know of Bethelites that were either murdered or who killed themselves. They ended up being buried somewhere on the Watchtower farm. So what’s the reason behind all this? Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe the society likes to spend money on funerals….no, I don’t think so. What the society does like, is to stay away from expensive lawsuits. Maybe those controlling your corpse can prevent some kind of legal action. Who knows? It doesn’t matter, I signed everything they put in front of me.
I was never leaving Bethel before Armageddon anyway.
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Chapter 12 of New Boy Fifty Years a Watchtower Slave
by new boy ini'm writing by book again and will be posting it here for any feed back, corrections and impute.
i turned around and gave him another $10.
the brooklyn heights area is one of the most upscale neighborhoods in all of new york.
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new boy
I'm writing by book again and will be posting it here for any feed back, corrections and impute. If you have any interesting stories I can incorporate into the book please let me know.
I got to La Guardia Airport at about six o’clock. There was no welcome committee. There couldn’t be since nobody knew I was coming. I never had a taxi ride before and I was looking forward to it. I must have looked pretty confused on the curb in front of the airport. A nice older Italian guy pick up my bags and put them in his cab.
“What are you waiting for? Get in.” He said
I did and we were off.
“Where to.” He said.
I got out my letter. “124 Columbia Heights Brooklyn.”
“Ok have you ever been there before?” He asked.
“No.” I said.
“Have you ever been to Brooklyn before?”
“Nope”
“So where did you fly in from kid?”
“Kansas.”
“Kansas? Have you ever been to New York before?”
“Yes, but it’s been awhile.”
“Well, welcome. It’s going to be a little bit of a trip but I’ll get you there buddie.”
“Great.”
He did get me there too but it turned out to be the most expensive cab ride of my life. I saw most of Brooklyn and parts of Queens. I think I saw the Verrazano Bridge at least twice.
He talked about his family and his crazy wife. I talked about moving to the world headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He wasn’t impressed at all. He must have got tired of talking to me because two hours later he dropped me off in front of the 124 building. He got my bags out of the trunk and put them by the front door.
“How much do I owe you?” I asked.
$109.50” He said.
I gave him $110 and started walking towards my bags.
“Hey kid! What no tip? You’re in New York now, not Kansas anymore…you got to tip here!”
I turned around and gave him another $10. He never even said thank you. I had come to New York with only $300 and I was down to only $180. Thirty eight years later, I was a cab driver in Portland Oregon. I would have never dreamed of doing that to someone.
It didn’t matter. I was standing looking up at 124 building. This truly was one of the defining moments of my life. Everything before this was just preparation for what was on the other side of those to doors. I made it. The rest of my life would be gravy from here on out.
I grabbed by bags and went through the doors and up a couple of steps. I was standing in front of the 124 reception desk. There was a boy my age on the phone. I stood there as he looked up.
He put his hand over the receiver. “Can I help you?”
“Yes, I’m Keith… Keith Casarona.”
“Ok Keith, can I help you?”
“I’m here to report in for Bethel service.”
He got a disgruntle look on his face and went back to talking on the phone. “Hey, Tom I’ll call you back later. I got a new boy here I need to deal with.”
He hung up the phone and opened a desk draw. He got out a list and started looking at it.
“What’s your name again?”
“Keith Casarona”
“When were supposed to check in anyway?”
“Monday the 23nd.”
He gave me another disgruntled look. “This is Friday.”
“Yes, I know. I decided to come early.”
Shaking his head. “You decided to come early….great. Do me a favor and grab you bags and wait in the lounge.” He pointed straight ahead. “This could take a while.”
As I grabbed my bags and walked into the lounge I thought to myself ‘new boy’ what a strange term. I dropped my bags into a chair and looked out the picture windows at the million views of the New York harbor and the Brooklyn Bridge. There were thousands twinkling lights all over lower Manhattan. The lounge looked like something out of the nineteen forties art deco with its overstuffed couches. There was a big black piano in the corner begging for someone to play some George Gershwin melodies. There was a small group of “brothers” and young “sisters” talking in the corner. I thought I’m at home at last.
The society has owned some of the most expensive pieces of real estate in all of Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Heights area is one of the most upscale neighborhoods in all of New York. Just below the 124 building is the world famous promenade where dozens of motion pictures have been made. In the early nineteen seventies you could watch them across the river as they built the World Trade Center. Years later the society would sell off some of these properties for hundreds of millions of dollars.
A few minutes later, the brother from the front desk came and got me.
This is Larry he’ll show you to your room. I grabbed my bags and we headed out the front door and across the street down about a hundred yards to an older kind of rundown apartment building. It was the 129 building. It was an older apartment building that still had some “worldly” people living in it.
All Larry said was. “Where you from?”
I said “California by way of Kansas.”
“Oh… don’t tell people you’re from California.”
“Why?” I said.
He smiled. “You’ll find out.”
We walked up two flights and walked to apartment 33. Larry knocked on the door.
Gilbert Turner opened the door.
Larry looked at Gilbert. “This is your new roommate.” He turned and walked away.
Gilbert always had a funny little smile on his face. “Welcome to the Ritz. Right this way.”
We were in a one bedroom one bath, eight hundred square feet apartment. There were three guys in the Livingroom, two guys in an alcove and two guys in the ten by ten bedroom. The bedroom had two beds, two desks and two dressers in it. It was so small you had to go outside to change your mind. They put me in the bedroom with a Mexican kid from Texas.
I threw my bags on the bed and looked at Gilbert “I’m starving any place to get some food around here?”
“Not really…breakfast tomorrow morning, I guess.”
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27
There are only 4 ways to leave the Jehovah's Witnesses
by new boy inthere are only four ways of leaving the jehovah’s witnesses.
so there are four ways that could lead to shunning.
i say “could” because options three and four has some loopholes.
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new boy
There are only four ways of leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses. So there are four ways that could lead to shunning. I say “could” because options three and four has some loopholes.
1. You are “disfellowshipped.” You commit some kind of sin in the eyes of church. For example you commit “Immorality” meaning you have sex before you are married or you are married and have sex with someone besides your spouse. There are other sins you could commit but these are by far the most popular. You meet with three elders in the local congregation. If they feel you are not repentant enough for your sins, the will expel you from the congregation. Sometimes even if you are repentant enough, they will still expel you anyway. They will do this to make an example of you to others. Or they just don’t like you. It’s a “good old boy country club” and sometimes favoritism comes into play. You could be disfellowedshipped in one Kingdom hall and just get a slap on the wrist in another for the same offence.
2. You “disassociate” yourself. You send a letter to the local congregation and resign your membership.
If you do the first or second option will be definitely be shunned. You can never again have ANY contact with any of your Jehovah’s Witnesses friends or family. You are dead to them.
3. So you don’t want to do option one or two. In recent years a new way to leave the Witnesses has become popular. It’s call “fading.” This is a tricky one. It’s done by people who don’t want to make a complete break from the occult. Usually because of family members, the thought of not ever talking with their parents, children, siblings and loved ones is more than they can bear. It works just like it sounds. You move away from them slowly. Many times this requires an actual move to a new town or state. You might even tell your family and friends that you are still an active witness but in reality you have moved on to a new life. Others have called this “a double life” This phrase has been coined to describe mostly younger ones, teenagers and young adults who have two different lives. These are kids who are trying to keep their parents happy and will pretend to be a good witness by going to the meetings and out in field service. However on the weekends they will “party down” and act like “worldly” people. Whether you are a “double lifer” or a “fader” the results can be disastrous if caught. You could end up in the “back room” with the three elders telling them your story. This rarely goes well.
4. The fourth and final option is death. For many who couldn’t make the choice from the first three options, have chosen this one. Yes, you can break free with suicide. There was a time when I even considered this option myself. I have known at least a half dozen people who felt this was their only option to leave. As I have said earlier, I personally have contributed to at least two people choosing this way out. Yes, even dead people can be shunned. Many witnesses have boycotted their family member’s funerals. So for them there can be do forgiveness even after your death. My mother wouldn’t let my father go to his father’s funeral because it was inside a Catholic church. As Bob Dylan once said “Some of us are prisoners and some of us are guards.”