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I worked at a WOW Burger tent with Stevie Kay and a recent conversation had me look her up and we had a really nice conversation. But she doesn't seem to want to talk about it and I don't blame her. As for "is it different now?". Probably not enough to make it right. They cling to VPW in an L. Ron Hubbard retro history way. The entire thing is the house the foolish man built upon the sand. It was rotten for so long that being 'different now' is moot. The reason people don't leave is mostly fear based and that's not a good thing. They should make sure there's a bucket of condoms at the Young Adult Rock.

Worth repeating.

Hmmmm...yes. That's an interesting correlation you made there. I bet you're right. That brings up a lot of thoughts. Thanks!

My favorite R of A dinner was a WOW burger with ketchup and mustard. And a Snickers candy bar, with coffee. Two sugars. Good eats.

socks! We have a sighting So funny about the parallel elderly groups. We do have an R&R splinter group going on - I do think it must stand for Rest Home and Rehab my take is the brain trust probably all saw the matinee show for The Jesus Revolution and had an epiphany. But the people would rather see the Jesus Revolution than PLAF-T Why? Because Christianity is for the masses not the brasses. And Jesus in peoples hearts is better than a fat lie about “The Teacher” chewed up in 4 different cow stomachs and regurgitated for the world once more. Peace.

yeah, funny how Craig was the one who shut down the roa killed for his own reasons.....thinking back on it I think he was offended and jealous of everyone being there and having a great time. This is part of how he took down twi, part of his plan cause I think he saw how really deceitful and evil some of twi is.

Great insight there Socks. Of course, you are NOT them. A very salient question for them might be whether they are even capable of taking the temperature of the membership or are they just desperate for ideas (throwing spaghetti against the wall and hoping it will stick)?

Those do look like old photos! brining may be a typo but it kinda fits. I assume they want to invoke memories of events long past, get the old time vibe going. "Better than ever, even better than best!" The age qualification reeks of a generational cleansing. The oldest would be born in 1989. The mid to late 80's saw the first influx of evacuees, post Geer taking a dump on the whole thing in 86. Martindale "resigned" in 2000. Will there be a "Rest for the Aged" event for the elders? A "Senior Acres of Shakers" drum circle? Maybe a virtual "Don't Stop Breathing Or Believing!" cheese and whine pairing event? The original RoA was a night during the Winter Advance of 1971 that was called Rock of Ages. That summer of 1971 was the first R of A gathering. Over the next few years the event went from local fairgrounds to the Way's property in New Knoxville, "the farm". It took on a life of it's own and to a great degree became a social meet up of the Way Corps each year. Early on it became a homecoming event for WOW Ambassadors. People from other countries came as the outreach reached out. I remember the year after Emporia'd been up and running and the RoA meeting when Martindale spoke to the Corps there and crowed on and on about how he had a great realization that hey! we don't just have to get together to have FUN, not that there's anything WRONG with that but hey! he could MEET with Corps, those coming into Emporia, going out, interested in the program, DO SOME WORK, get work done MOVING THE WORD. My wife and I looked at each other and thought the same thing - uh oh, there goes that. He and his leadership clones at Emporia, then staff then all the field leadership all suddenly came to the same "realization" and it became an all day schedule of them trying to figure out reasons to meet because they didn't want everyone having FUN all day. The social side of it was something that was natural and followed the social trends of the youth culture of that era. Both coasts were developing the new formats for concerts and events, Woodstock had occurred, etc. etc. The R of A's generated out of that social atmosphere, with their own twist. VPW had his own ideas of course and he spoke of it being a time for WC to meet each other, kind of an in house Tinder hook up for singles. I am well aware of all the discussions that have exposed the sexual activities over the years but to be honest, whoever was hooping up, from VPW on down, they kept their sexual partnering pretty secret and the edges I saw or heard about weren't common knowledge. In most legal settings what they did would meet the criteria for "lies" and lying, as there was intent to deceive and knowingly defend a false set of statements or facts....but I digress. It was garden variety lying and corrupt behavior imo, redefined by whoever wanted to into whatever they wanted to justify. But as far as it being a social gathering and people of like mind meeting each other - sure. It was plenty of that. If I were them, and I'm not but if I were - and I'm not - I'd take a stepback and get the temperature of the membership, see what's going on and make room for something new and current to develop. Freshen it up. Allow for some spontaneous combustion. Set the stage, make the space, see what can be done. Inclusive, not exclusive. Everyone, at least all their tag bearing members current in their abs dues. And try doing something different than getting together in Ohio in August for God's Sake! which is part of the hottest muckiest periods in Ohio. In todays' world they will not want to play fast and loose or take the position that it's "their place" and they can do what they want. They can't. If they f it up, they'll be toast before you can say "liability". But hey - peace and love! Thanks for the memories Junior!

I did a bit of a deep dive into these young people and many of them are the sons and daughters of old Way people. 3rd generation lifers, not new people. Word Wolf makes sense with his comment. I just want a Wow Burger.

twi is still run by old fogeys who seized power so they could have the money and the power, and won't let go. They're trying to figure out how to interest young people, since without young people, twi's fading into obscurity. It's an old people ministry that hasn't appealed to young folks since the 1980s, and that means, as their population ages out and some drop dead of old age and others leave, they don't have any replacements to pay 10% or more of their income because they are suckers to keep the luxuries coming in for the people at the top. So, twi now has a handful of old farts in power trying to convince young people that twi is actually relevant and meaningful. How are they doing that? They're reviving what worked in the 1970s with the baby boomers, in their own foolish youth. It would be funny if it wasn't sad.

I think it involves rants.

Oh one more thing. I was taught in RCIA school that almost everyone goes to purgatory and in fact, it's very rare for someone to go directly to heaven.