Posts by new boy

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?

20

Chapter 21 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave

by new boy in

jw
friends

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.

Chapter 21 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave

by new boy in

jw
friends

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.

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.

3

Chapter 20 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower slave

by new boy in

jw
friends

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.

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.

17

Chapter 19 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave

by new boy in

jw
friends

chapter 19.

“look ma no hands”.

by the time the summer rolled around they decided to put me on the dryers.

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.

17

Chapter 19 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave

by new boy in

jw
friends

chapter 19.

“look ma no hands”.

by the time the summer rolled around they decided to put me on the dryers.

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.

17

Chapter 19 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave

by new boy in

jw
friends

chapter 19.

“look ma no hands”.

by the time the summer rolled around they decided to put me on the dryers.

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.

9

Chapter 18 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave

by new boy in

jw
friends

chapter 18. my privilege of service.

it was moved there in the spring of 1969 from the basement of the 124. why is it that people like to put laundries in basements?

the 119 was the newest of all the society’s properties.

new boy

Chapter 18

My privilege of service

The laundry was in the basement of the 119 building. It was moved there in the spring of 1969 from the basement of the 124. Why is it that people like to put laundries in basements? The 119 was the newest of all the society’s properties. This was a state of the art laundry facility for its time. It had washing machines that could handle over four hundred pounds of cloths in one washing. Steam presses, cloths driers, a press that could iron sheets, the hanky press that did handkerchiefs and napkins etc.

Everyone is given a laundry bag that went with their room you were assigned. They would fill out a laundry ticket with the number of items that were put in the bag. You would lay out your clothes with shirts and pants first underwear and T shirts next and then socks last. It was all tied together and put in your bag and dropped down the laundry shoot in your building, once a week.

When the bags were brought into the laundry, they had to go through a process that was called “check in.” All the clothes were counted. Then any garments that didn’t have a tag were given one for identification. They were a yellow tags that was melted onto your clothes. So for example my tag on the front of my underwear would read 499-129-33. This was my key number, building number and room number. From there the clothes were sorted into different washes, whites, colored, dress shirts, work cloths etc. The clothes were washed, dried, pressed and folded and then went back to “check out” where hopefully everything went back into the bags they came down in. Your dress and shirts and bag of clean clothes ended up back on the top of your bed the next day.

The laundry room overseer was named Ken Doweling. He had three assistants under him. Ron Teleson, Greg Javens and Bob Rains. These three brothers had what were called “key men” under them, under the key men were the grunts and under the grunts were the new boys. There is a definite peeking order there and it was important that everyone knew their place.

I knew nothing about the laundry or taking care of clothes before I went to Bethel. All of my experience was working at restaurants and working in and around kitchens. It stated that on my application. The same week I went to Bethel, another brother got there and was assigned to the kitchen. He knew nothing about kitchens or food. He had worked at a commercial laundry and dry cleaners before Bethel.

They don’t want you going there with any ideas about how things should be done. They are going to train you the Bethel way, their way. Years later, I used to joke around with young brothers who wanted to go to Bethel. I told them if you want to work at the farm just tell them you had no farm experience what so ever. It worked more often than not.

However, if you were one of the very few that went to college and got trained in a skill they really needed there, you ended up with a really good job, right off the bat. So by doing what they told you to do about not pursuing a higher education you were punished with a shitty job, right off the bat. If you disobeyed them and got and a better education you were rewarded with a better job. “Catch 22”

The first few days there I was folding underwear. There were these big tables there with mountains of clean underwear about four feet high on top of them. There were brothers standing around the tables. They had rules on how fast you had to fold this underwear too. We had to fold a pound a minute. One day they put this short, fat kid from Alabama on the table, his name was Danny Stewart. So there we were in what they called “burn out” mode, which means we were working as fast as we can folding this underwear. Danny had two speeds, slow and stop. We were folding about four times the underwear than he was. So this one brother looked over at him and said.

“Hey, Danny can you pick up the pace here. We need to get this load out!”

Danny, just kept folding the same way he had the last hour and said.

“Anything I fold, you don’t have to fold.”

“You’re just a ‘Jack’ Danny.” He didn’t seem to mind being called the worse name you can call a bethelite.

They trained me on quit a few jobs there. I went to the hanky press for a while and even did some delivery. Delivery was probably the best job in the laundry for many reasons. You were able to leave the hot laundry, with its overseers breathing down your neck. You were able to go all over the Bethel home delivering clean clothes. Speed was always the most important thing there too. One day I was waiting with my rack of clothes, in front of an elevator and happen to be talking to a young housekeeper. We talked for no more than a minute or two as I was waiting there. One of my fellow delivery boys came around a corner and saw me taking to her and that was the last day I delivered cloths.

Nothing was ever said to me back at the laundry but the next day I got a job change.

That day, I learned something they didn’t tell you in the “Dwelling together in unity” booklet. I learned that not only are there lots of brothers at Bethel but “big brother” was definitly there too. Yes, it was a snitches paradise.

Most everyone there was on a vigil looking for any minor or major infractions of the written or unwritten rules.

Why? For “Brownie points” of course. By going to your overseer with information about another, you are in essence saying. “See look at me brother overseer, I’m looking out for you and our department.” There were eyes and ears everywhere looking for just one wrong action or statement.

Ever wonder why they call it “Brownie points?” Because the color brown is the same color you would find on many people’s noses at lord’s house.

22

Is the End right around the corner or what???

by Lynnie in

interesting observations i've noticed when visiting my uber elder cousin and his wife.

he just inherited a lovely home on the water on puget sound from his non jw dad who passed away earlier this year.

so they have spent many $$$ and months remodeling this house to their standards which are quite expensive tastes.

new boy

The only ones that want Armageddon to come quick are the poor witnesses. The rich ones hope Armageddon might drag it's feet a bit.