after reading this thread I am struck with how many on here are from NJ/NY. Perhaps you knew me or my family? (This is a BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG step for me here......) I was born and raised in Woodbine, NJ congregation---one of the 'shore points' many of the GB and Bethelites frequented for week end trips. I was baptized at Buckingham Assembly Hall in New Hope, PA. And Ted gave my dedication talk. That was May 25, 1974 one week after my 12th birthday. I was friendly with most KH's in the area- Millville, Vineland, Bridgeton, Cape May area. My father was an elder the second year of the 'arrangement' and was a prolific and charismatic speaker. He also partook from 1974 on. He was PO for many years. I lived in the area from 1962-1979 and then in 1981-1982. My parents split up in 1986 and they moved back there and are still there. Maybe you know the name? (hesitating....) Pangburn?
When my parents split up I legally changed my name to what my mother had intended it to be all along. So I have had a different name for almost 20 years, and I am also married now--so even that name has changed.
I would love to find out if anyone I knew as a kid has been able to get free!
Because of my father's influential personality I grew up knowing many of the GB and spending alot of time at 124 Columbia Heights et al. I remember going up there with Dad once to pick up the congregation's literature order and sitting on a black shiny piano bench. Bro. Swingle came down and asked me if I could play. I told him I was taking lessons and he told me to be sure to practice. I slipped and told him that I was missing my lesson that day by being there with my dad. He MADE me do my lessons right then and there! I was embarrassed--I was about 8 yrs old. And then Bro Henschel came in and he said something about the piano needing tuning real bad and winked at me.
Bro Franz let me sit on his lap once at dinner at someone's house because there was no room for me at the grownups table and I wanted to listen to their talking. Bro. Sidlik was a wonderful man, but sadly my memories of him are tarnished and I would rather not go into it here right now. I remember Bro Gangas--he was so mysterious to me. So many I have met--but I forget their names now--most dead. These were happy memories of planning on being a foreign missionary when I grew up and living in paradise...
I never had a bad experience with any of them as a child. In fact, even tho my father was/is certifiably schizophrenic, I have to say that his brand of JW was preferable to what it took me 11 years out of his house on my own to discover. If I had stayed in NJ I probably would not have left JWs until all the old timers were gone. NJ as a place has a certain spirituality I have never found anywhere else(and believe me I have been ALOT of other places looking!) I even liked the Mormons in NJ. The old timers I knew as a child were alot more open-minded and were not afraid to disagree with the Borg. It was until I was a young adult and living in California and Georgia and Idaho and Vermont that I discovered how whacked JWs were as a group. I can't recall anyone ever succumbing to mental illnesses back in the 60's. I think most of the crazies came in around the 1975 fiasco. It makes me sad to think about it--nostalgic.
Maybe it was not reality, but it is my memories.
Ravyn
