I don't where I was at in the sewing department but I was the 5th floor building 3 when I was on the lines
new boy
JoinedPosts by new boy
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Chapter 22 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave
by new boy inchapter 22. the machines conquer all.
after doweling’s committee meeting many of us got job changes out of the laundry.
i guess they wanted to bust the trouble makers up.
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Chapter 22 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave
by new boy inchapter 22. the machines conquer all.
after doweling’s committee meeting many of us got job changes out of the laundry.
i guess they wanted to bust the trouble makers up.
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new boy
Chapter 22
The Machines conquer all
After Doweling’s committee meeting many of us got job changes out of the laundry. I guess they wanted to bust the trouble makers up. They asked for volunteers for a night shift in the factory and even though they don’t usually sent “home boys” to the factory they sent us. I had no idea what was wanting for us over there.
If the laundry was the penal institution of the home than the bindery was the penal institution of the factory.
Welcome to hell. Abandoned all hope who enter here.
I was sent to work nights in the sewing department. The smyth sewing machine was a machine that was designed by the devil himself. You would sit on this chair and throw thousands and thousands of these sheets over a saddle where they were sewn together. The good thing about the machine is you could always stop it. On the bindery lines there was no stopping the machines. You were like Charleston Hesston the galley slave in Ben Hur everyone rowed together. They had everything but the drum there and it was always ramming speed.
It was the bottom for me that winter 71-72.
After that I was sent to the bindery 5th floor, Building 3, bindery line 5. It made the laundry look like heaven.
Welcome to hell. Abandoned all hope who enter here.
Standing in the same spot, 8 hours and 40 mins a day. Your job was to take a book out of one machine, the “rounder” and shoved it into another machine called the “back liner.” Your job was to take a book out of one machine and shoved it into another machine. Your job was to take a book out of one machine and shoved it into another machine. You get the Idea. Yes, you would do this same motion 15,000 to 17,000 times in one day.
If you begged your line overseer, he might give you a 5 minute break to go to the bathroom every four hours. That means he would take over your position. Since he didn’t want to be standing between two machines either, you needed to get back to your spot as soon as possible. Of course, they could have bought a machine that did same job for $5,000 but it only cost them $22 a month for a warm body to do the same thing. Do the math.
One time an army general come through on a tour of the factory. He was shaking his head. The tour guide said "I'm sure you could get your troops to do the same thing" He said "Are you kidding? No way."
Of course there is no racial prejudice in the Lords house. Yet about 20% of the Bethelites were black but about 60% of the guys in the bindery were black. It seemed odd to me. So I asked Calvin Cylik why that was the case? He was assistant factory overseer at the time.
He told me. “The black brothers had a natural rhythm that fits well with the machines.”
I guess this is one time you didn’t want natural rhythm.
Ronnie Klineman from Ruston Louisiana. Told me my favorite story about Brother Swingle who was on the governing body. Ronnie set on Lyman’s table. This new black kid was sitting there feeling pretty good about himself as most new boys do.
Lyman said to him. "Boy would you pass me the potatoes?"
The black brother looked at Lyman in the eye and said. "I'm not your boy!”
To which Lyman said, not batting an eye. "Nigger pass the potatoes."
Hard to believe isn’t? Yes, Bethel was not the place to try and be uppity.
This was the early seventies and the “black power” thing was happening. A lot of black brothers went there had a little bit of an attitude. If they didn’t, some pick it up after they got there. I can’t say I blame them.
Anyway back on the bindery line. Many guys there would get the "1000 yard stare." The same one you would see in the war movies, the same stare that guys would get after they have seen too much.
To fight off the boredom you would play mental games with yourself. The first week there, I thought about everyone I had ever meet. The next week you would think about every movie you ever saw. The next week, about every place you would like to travel to. The next week you would think about every mistake you ever made. And then there was the girls, lots of thinking about girls. Then it all stopped after that. Someone would walk up to you and ask you. "What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing." You would say and you weren’t thinking about anything, you were brain dead.
There was just the groaning sound of the machines. Days drifted into weeks, weeks into years.
There is eternality! Some hours in that factory feel like it an eternity. There were days you looked at the clock and it would say 2:13. You would look again and it would say 2:26! So yes there is a hell, the fifth floor bindery.
Jim Pipkorn, ended up in the factory too. He got shafted to the bindery also, to the "End Sheet Gluier." In the bindery he got so depressed that for months, he would come back to his room at night and make himself some dinner and then go to bed, at about 7:00 p.m.
I asked him why he was doing that, he said "It makes the days go by quicker."
We were counting our time. It was just like Viet Nam. You would ask a guy how long he had left. He would say "3 years 2 months to go" We would say "You Poor bastard......that is after 1975, so you will never have any sex." You should have seen the look on his face.
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Chapter 21 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave
by new boy inchapter 21.
“black thursday” the day the music died.
knorr gathered all the bethel overseers and governing body to the kingdom hall in the 119 building.
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new boy
Did he ever get married? He was every single sisters heart throb in the 1970's
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Chapter 21 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave
by new boy inchapter 21.
“black thursday” the day the music died.
knorr gathered all the bethel overseers and governing body to the kingdom hall in the 119 building.
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new boy
Dean Songer did seem like a real person.
However I feel concerning all Bethel overseers unless you stood up like the three Freds and called bull shit. "You are as much responsible for the evil you commit as the evil you permit."
Other wise like the Nazis war trails its the old "We were just obeying orders.
P.S. I don't care if he was straight, NPG or active gay. There is no judgement here.
P.S.S What ever happened to him anyway?
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Chapter 21 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave
by new boy inchapter 21.
“black thursday” the day the music died.
knorr gathered all the bethel overseers and governing body to the kingdom hall in the 119 building.
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new boy
Dean Songer was NPG and they knew it.
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Chapter 21 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave
by new boy inchapter 21.
“black thursday” the day the music died.
knorr gathered all the bethel overseers and governing body to the kingdom hall in the 119 building.
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new boy
Chapter 21
“Black Thursday” the day the music died
Knorr gathered all the Bethel overseers and Governing Body to the Kingdom Hall in the 119 building. The Three Freds (ex-circuit overseers) and about fifty brothers showed up. That’s right only fifty showed up. The other guys chickened out, they knew it was going to be a blood bath. I was there with 5 others from the Laundry. No turning back now. I was sure god’s organization and his holy spirit would deal with these matters.
They brought the brothers into the auditorium in small groups or one at a time. So we were not present for the testimony of the different brothers but we did heard about some of it later.
It started out with Dan Smoley who wasn’t even 30 years old and partaking. Meaning he thought he was part of the little flock or the anointed ones. As mentioned before these are chosen directly by god. He told all the overseers there about how Max Larson had told him in no uncertain terms, that there was no way was one of the anointed!
Max was the head of the whole factory complex. Max was very close Knorr. They would dress their wives up and go dancing together at the “rainbow room” in Manhattan. Max at the time was just a member of the “great crowd.” Which really pissed him off. I mean how could god pick this kid, over Max? Especially since Max had been at god’s house for over 40 years?
Sometimes I wonder how God picks those anointed guys anyway, God can be strange sometimes.
Guess what? Years later Max started partaking. What a surprise god changes his mind once again.
Back at the meeting, the stories of Bethel's Elders misconduct and abuse of power kept flowing. They were shaking the pillars of the organization! Knorr knew this and got madder and madder. With fire coming out of his eyes, he would have loved to have killed us all on the spot! Everyone knew these men were above the law. How dare we? Where the hell is Jehu, when you need him?
Then it was our turn to share our information about our dear brother Ken. Some of the brothers from the laundry started telling about some of Ken’s escapades. Knorr when off on all of us. Than something crazy happened as he was in the middle of his rant. All of a sudden Fred Franz stood up and said "These men are appointed to their positions of responsibility/power not because of their spiritual qualifications but because of their secular abilities!" The room was silent. What did this mean? No one really knew for sure. This statement did stop Knorr dead in his tracks however.
So Knorr said. "We will look into these matters later." End of meeting.
As Jim Pipkorn and Jack Sutton were walking back from the meeting, Jim looked over at Jack and asked him how he thought the meeting went?
“Well, I think this is the end of our Bethel careers.” Of course he was right.
What happened after Black Thursday? Basically nothing. There was only one committee meeting. Brother Lang presided. It was about my Laundry overseer, Ken Doweling, brother Couch wasn’t exactly a disinterested third party because he was the one who appointed Ken to his position of oversight in the first place. So if he was removed it would be a reflection on him.
They gave Ken a slap on the wrist. By the time I left Bethel two years later, he was promoted to where else? The Bethel office! Back to the most power office in the Bethel Home. Yep, he now had the chance to train new Bethel overseers and be an example to them.
He was "a company man" and "company men" always take care of their own. Just look at the elders in any local kingdom hall today.
Oh something else did happen to about a hundred and fifty brothers and sisters there. They lost heart.
Of course nothing happened to the other Bethel overseers. Funny how this was reminiscent of what happened to my parents back in 1961. Could there be a pattern here? If there was I couldn’t see it at the time. I just didn’t want to see it for sure. After years in the organizations, I have to say this was no coincidence. Just the voice of “Christmas future.”
They didn't kick the three Freds out for their transgressions. Looking back it would have been kinder if they had kicked then out.
Instead they would try to break them, and humiliate them in front of the whole Bethel family. They made their lives living hell.
They even put Fred Barnes, who was well into his fifties at the time on a machine called “The Gather." This was a machine that even 19 year olds had a hard time keeping up with.
Fred had a heart attack. What a surprise. They were kind enough to take him off that wicked machine after that. “By their love you will know them.”
They were really hoping all three brothers and their wives would just quit and leave. Really where could these guys go in their fifties. They had invested their whole life into the program. Leaving Bethel in disgrace wasn't an option so they stayed.
Of course the rest of us "Laundry boys" we were screwed also, as were the others that showed up at that meaning. We were all marked. We had done the unforgivable, by binging up the wrong doings of the bethel overseers. Our Bethel careers were over. Our files were noted.
There was only one thing left to do, serve our time and get out.
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Chapter 20 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave
by new boy inchapter 20.
“gary will die of course”.
so after he was sent to the laundry, ken doweling had a talk to all his key men there and told them basically to watch for anything gary said or did that was against company policy.
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new boy
Chapter 20
“Gary will die of course”
So after he was sent to the Laundry, Ken Doweling had a talk to all his key men there and told them basically to watch for anything Gary said or did that was against company policy. In other words it was snitch time and we all needed to do our part.
As, I said I liked Gary and started hanging around him, at work and after work too. I guess Ken Doweling noticed this and pulled me aside one day. It was one of the few conversations we ever had together. This conversation would change my direction at Bethel. It also showed me some months later how the Watchtower Bible and Tact Society is really run. In September of 1971, I was allowed to look behind the curtain and see the great and powerful OZ and who he really was. The conversation went like this.
“Brother Casarona you seem to be a hard worker. This laundry needs hard workers too. However I’m a little concerned about who you been hanging around with lately. You know there can be bad associations even here at bethel too.”
“Yes sir, I know.”
He pointed over to Gary who was working in check in. “Gary has a hard time respecting authority and following the rules here at Bethel. If he doesn’t change and obey me in every way, he will die at Armageddon. You do believe that don’t you brother Casarona?”
I know some Bethel overseers thought that way, but to say it out loud. I set there and all I could thing about was what the “Dwelling together unity” booklet said about Bethel overseers being the supreme authority in all matters.
I sold my soul to the company store that day and lied.
“Yes sir, of course.”
“So you must report to me anything he says or does that is against society policy.”
“Yes sir!”
I hated Ken Doweling after that. I hated myself after that too. I had to question myself and the things they asked us to do there. How far was willing to go. Was I willing to turn in my own friend just so I could look better in their eyes?
I was taught growing up in the congregation, not to have “fear of man” yet it was at the Lord’s house, I would truly learn what it meant to be in fear of men.
It’s sad that to this day the organization and their leaders believes that they are the direct representation of god’s will on Earth. That if you are not in alinement with their rules and regulations, you will be cast out and everyone knows what happens to those who are cast out of god’s organization. Death at god’s own hand at Armageddon.
I told Gary what our overseer had told me. He was of course crushed. It seemed to make a difference though and he started to make a better effort to comply and fit in. Who knows maybe he really thought Ken Doweling words were true somehow.
Months drifted by and I was assigned the steam press. I worked there by myself ironing brothers and sisters clothes all day long. Plenty of time to think.
Ken Doweling was a short stocky bald headed guy with glasses. He was definitely no ladies’ man. However, I had never met anyone before that had more self-confidence than him. He totality was in love with himself. He loved to flirt with the Bethel sisters and Gilead students who were assigned to work in the laundry. He of course wanted to make sure they knew that he was the overseer and in charge there.
One day he was standing by the 119 elevator with one of his “key” men. A sister who was blessed with ample cleavage walked by him. After she was gone, I heard him turn and say to his friend.
“That sister is like a cow in heat. She wants it bad!”
Again, maybe people think things like this but to say it out laud to someone else? These were just a few of the many things he had said and did to the brothers in the laundry.
It was time for this attitude to be brought to light.
So, Ron Teleson the assistant Laundry overseer, Jack Sutton, James Pipkorn, me and a couple of other brothers from the laundry knew the powers that be would want to know about this misuse of power by one of their overseers.
Our assistant overseer approached an ex-circuit overseer and told him what was happening in the laundry. The older brother said a lot of these things like this were happening all over Bethel with their overseers and the misuse of power. He said someone should set up meeting and say something. So he and two other ex-circuit overseers felt the same way. It was time to do something. They were the three Freds. Their names were Fred Barnes, Fred Fredeen and Fred HIilmo. Great men who had of vision of truth, righteous, and fairness. Alas, but those things had no chance in the gun fight with the "Good old boys club" that was the real power at Bethel.
The word went out. They asked anyone that had a problem with an overseer to come to the towers library. Over a hundred brothers showed up and started telling their stories. Oh, my god. You couldn’t believe some of the nasty things some of these overseers were getting away with. So after all was said and done. Fred Hilmo said, “We needed inform Knorr about all of this.” So he requested a meeting with brother Knorr to inform him of what was going on. Just like the “Dwelling together in unity” booklet said we should do.
Knorr said "We should have a meeting with all the overseers and the brothers (rebels and trouble makers) to have a discussion about these matters"
You know what he was planning to do. He was going to play Jehu and bring us altogether so fire could come out of heavens and consume all of us! He was going to “clean the house of god” not of the wrong doers, nope just the people that were trying to report it.
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Chapter 19 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave
by new boy inchapter 19.
“look ma no hands”.
by the time the summer rolled around they decided to put me on the dryers.
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new boy
Yes, I have a lot more to say about Gary, Jim and their famous father. A sad story that still continues down to this day.
This is going to be a book. You are getting it first here on this web site, Chapter by chapter.
That is why I'm asking for help with any extra information about the people or experiences from this time period.
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Chapter 19 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave
by new boy inchapter 19.
“look ma no hands”.
by the time the summer rolled around they decided to put me on the dryers.
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new boy
"After 6 months he came back, very disturbed and completely changed for the worse."
Is this possible?
Yes, and has happened to thousands of guys over the years.
It's a "good old boy country club" And spiritually, fairest, kindness and love has nothing to do with being a member.
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Chapter 19 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave
by new boy inchapter 19.
“look ma no hands”.
by the time the summer rolled around they decided to put me on the dryers.
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new boy
Chapter 19
“Look ma no hands”
By the time the summer rolled around they decided to put me on the dryers. It was hotter than hell in the laundry by then. Either the A/C didn’t work or they decide not use it to save money, it was anywhere from 110 to 115 degrees down there. Some of the brothers called it “The Hole.” Of course the dryers are the hottest job there. It was so bad down there many of the brothers were taking salt tablets. The person training me made the job even worse. I was instructed by this ugly Polish kid from Chicago, Jack Pachocko. He was probably the first person I met there that I didn’t like besides the snitch in the delivery department. He was a terrible instructor. He wasn’t kind and he was always hoping you would screw up, so he could bring it to your attention. He was perfect Bethel overseer material.
After being there six months there were things going there that just didn’t feel right. Things said and things done. Plus many of the guys who had been there many years just didn’t seem all that happy.
One day I came over to fold underwear on the table with a couple other guys. This short stocky guy, his nickname was “stub,” was there folding underwear too. He had been at Bethel for a couple years and worked on the home cleaning crew.
“Hey buddy, what are you doing here?” I asked.
“Well.” He said. “I turned my thirty day notice. So they told me I needed to go to the laundry for my last thirty days here. I guess they wanted to punish me for leaving early.”
Wow, I thought to myself. They told us that every job here was “A privilege of service.” Yet they obvious don’t really believe that. So, for me the laundry is “A privilege of service” but for him it is a punishment.
Less than a month later this fact was proven once again with Gary Kennedy.
Gary and his brother James (Jimmy) Kennedy were very interesting people. Gary and I were best of friends for over thirty years after Bethel, until I decided to leave the religion he was raised in.
His father had been in show business in Hollywood and had many celebrities as friends. He was also well connected at Bethel with the powers that be.
Gary and his brother were always doing crazy things before they got to the lord’s house. It didn’t stop when they got there either. They were always daring each other, egging each other on. Their last adventure got Jimmy killed. The words I would use to best describe the two of them, would be “Look Ma no hands.”
Gary told me how he and his brother would hop freight trains and see how far they could get in a weekend, back in Georgia. At the international convention in 1969 the brothers would read telegrams from all over the world basically patting each other on the back for a job well done. Gary told me how he and his brother sent a bogus telegram that was read in front of about thirty thousand people from some made up country.
Jimmy had brought a T bird up from Georgia to New York. All the Bethelites except Knorr of course had to park on the street at night. Parking places were very hard to find in the Heights. Some brothers had to drive around for an hour looking for a legal spot. The Kennedy brothers had different Idea. They stared to park illegally in front of fire hydrants or anyplace else they could find. So one morning they went to get there car and it was gone. They called the police and were told to go down to the city impound. It was there alright. All they needed to do was cough up $600 in back tickets and fines. They told them to keep the car.
When I first met Gary, I thought all the stories he told me were just that, stories. The longer I knew him the more I came to realize he had really had done all the things he said he did. Gary was the first person I ever saw who wore his baseball cap backwards, this was back in 1970. I really think he invented this. He was the Jerry Lewis of Bethel. He was a wonderful, wacky guy with a heart of gold. He was truly a free spirit. Looking back I would have to say he really taught me to be more of an extrovert. He was truly a free spirit. Oh, one other thing he was one of the hardest workers I saw while I was there, he literally could do the work of two people.
One big problem there, the last thing they wanted at Bethel were free spirits. Conformity is everything, the individual means nothing.
Gary had been at Bethel for about a year when he showed up in the Laundry. Gary had been on the waiter crew and destroyed a full cart of china serving plates and bowls, worth about $300 dollars. What he was doing at the time this happened was any ones guess. I guessed he had destroyed some other china on different occasions. The bottom line was the overseer of the waiters didn’t want him on the crew anymore.
I could never figure out why we ate on breakable china in the first place. Between the dish duties and the waiters thousands of dollars of fine china were broken every year. Even back then they did made a nice unbreakable dinnerware. So after I was there a couple of years, I was talking to the head waiter one day at Saturday lunch.
“So, are a lot of dishes broken here every week?”
“Lots.” He said.
“So why don’t we buy corning ware or something more sturdy?” I asked.”
He had a funny little look on his face. “Because Knorr likes china.”
“Oh, Brother Knorr likes china?”
“Yes.” He said with smirk on his face.
“I got an Idea.” I told him. “Let’s give Knorr his china and we’ll all eat on corning ware, we’ll save thousands of dollars each year.”
“Good idea but it will never fly.”
Gary was assigned to the Laundry which turned out to be the penal institution of the home. Gary had made a name for himself. Which is the one thing you never wanted to do at Bethel. Once you had name instead of a number, you were on their radar and Gary was on theirs. It seemed they wanted Gary gone. So after he was sent to the Laundry, Ken Doweling had a talk to all his key men there and told them basically to watch for anything Gary said or did that was against company policy. In other words it was snitch time and we all needed to report in.
Gary was on their radar from the beginning though.
It seems that if the brothers do find something in a laundry bag that is outlandishly worldly the brothers in the Bethel office are notified. A week after Gary had got to Bethel, the brothers in the Landry found these really wild pair of bell bottom pants, in his laundry bag. So he got his first “service talk” right off the bat, not good. They had laid these pants before him and asked him what he was thinking when he got them? He had told them that he was in a drama at the international convention (which turned out to be true) and had to play a “worldly kid” the district overseer there had told him to buy the most outrages set of clothes he could find to play the part. He told them he was going to wash the clothes and then give them away.
Remember what I said about defending yourself. By the very fact he was in the Bethel office he was guilty.
So that was his first strike. The dishes was his second. Gary was on thin ice.