Happyasaclam

Just watched it again on "previously aired" Fox Sports. Even knowing the outcome, we were still yelling and screaming "get 'em, get 'em!" We have our razzle dazzle poster where they diagrammed the trick plays - so we were shouting them out ... the "Circus" at 4th and 18, the "throwback," the "Parretta" play, and the "Statue" at the 2-point conversion. 22 total points scored in 86 seconds of regulation, and then 15 more in overtime! It was like schoolyard football and we LOVED it! Boise is still all a buzz. The rest of college football world has moved on to the national championship game, but nothing will match this for us. Still Happy!

Boise fans here all the way! We have season tickets for the home games but did not make it to the desert. Watched it from the living room, but screamed just as though we were at the blue turf. 'bout time we got some respect! Loved Coach Pete's 2-point call at the end ... actually, I guess it was the team's call and he said "ok." Happy!

Would love to know too. They were good friends of ours in Family Corps 22. Karen was found to have MS and they were sent off after the first year. They went somewhere south - Georgia or such. Cruel things were said about them from TWI leadership at the time to explain their departure. I wish I could have confided to them what I heard - they might have changed their mind about their stand with TWI. There was no way to leave Indiana in those days that was right. To leave in any circumstance was (in leadership opinion) contrived, planned and evil. God will judge, but my opinion of the Georges was that they were wonderful folk, wonderful kids, given a tough blow probably brought on by the stress of the campus insanity!

Bramble's right. Any mom (and many dads) would tell you that, unless you are feeding the infant steak and potatoes, "first" poop looks nothing like that. If bronzed, it would look like bronzed water. IMO that's a hoax. Clam

We were family Corps during late 1990's - family of five and I remember it cost us right at $30,000! We just had finished our last payment and were dismissed a week or so later. Ummm ... I guess they got what they came after us for! Just a "hint" of resentment??? Clammy

How funny. I was just thinking about this too. "Meetings" make my skin crawl. Call it a "get together," "coffee," ANYTHING but a meeting and I will be better off. Our HF "meetings" got so ritualistic and religious they made any RC mass seem like a free-for-all! I actually still have dreams - nightmares - about meetings and I am usually late to them.

Hello ImSunny2, I am sure we know each other too since I worked in that office for a few blocks. I don't remember any of the corps grads in there being heartless or cruel. They actually helped me survive for as long as we did. The whole environment was pretty cruel - designed to set us up to fail, now that I can look at it from a distance. LCM had just demanded that all Corps be full-time and I am sure he was seeing the beginnings of the financial fiasco that decision caused. No doubt the corps coordinators were expected to drop as many as possible to avoid having to "hire" any of us. Hardly any of our corps made it to graduation and we started with a relatively large crowd. It was heart breaking seeing them leave family by family. I can't think about it too long. Kind of like your puppy situation. So sorry you went through that, but glad you are doing well. We are too. Clam

((((((Noni))))))) - Know this, Noni, tho we may never meet, you have friends here! It may take some time, but you will grow to LOVE your life outside of the cage you were raised in. Cherish your best friend and your time with her. Look for support in unsuspecting areas of life, the unusual kind gesture in a normal day. A truely loving God would not lock you up and throw away the key. You are free ... at last! You will not likely ever gain the love of your family that shuns you ... but God does not shun you. He rejoices at a new life that was saved and that did not grow bitter from the pain caused by His adversary. That's a lot better than any party or picnic that did not include you! Clam

Noni- welcome. I dated a standing JW for over a year while I was in TWI - if you can imagine how THAT went! It was earlier in TWI history and during a time that was not quite so draconian for me. But for him ... he had to totally hide our relationship. His folks knew nothing of me .... he lived at home, but I could not call him there. We were spotted once at a restaurant and he about had me dive under the table. The stories he would tell about how he had to report in on this and that ...made me wonder why in the world he could consider this organization of God (excuse me, of Jehova). Then, The Way gradually made the Witnesses seem like pre-school from what I knew. I thought at the time that I would NEVER be involved in a group that made me chart my witnessing activities, answer to elders on every little detail of my life, hide relationships from parents, etc. One day, it dawned on me that this was exactly where I found myself and worse. It will be fun comparing control stories. Clam

I'll bite, Waysider. Mall Witnessing! Ick! What a crock of s&*(! We would land at the mall and pair off. Then we would prowl around until we could find someone who wasn't shopping at that moment. We would cozy up to them and strike up some fake conversation about the day, kids, music ...you name it. The point was to "bring it around to the Word", somehow, and get phone numbers. We were asked to leave the malls more than once, but our "leaders" would quote some scripture about obeying God rather than men, as if what we were doing in the mall like that was mandated and required in the scriptures. During the last few years I was in we had a yearly theme about all of this ... confronting the world with the Word or something to that effect. We were sat down at the time the theme was announced and point-blanked asked, "Do you have any problem with that?" At the time, I did not know what the question meant. Later on I would learn about the monitored witnessing activities. One I remember vividly - Saturday afternoon. The branch had been instructed to meet at such a home, unless we had a work or other acceptable conflict. We listened to about 60 minutes of "sharing," prayers, instructions, reviewing of instructions, card/map assignments, pairing, etc. Then we went out on foot. We were told to knock on certain doors and NO MORE! We were done with ours in less than 30 minutes. NO ONE was home! Returned to said house for another 90 minutes of sharing, more prayers, card turn-ins, congratulations, etc. It was enough to gag a maggot! I left thinking what a waste of God's time! But the kicker - the LC's wife had "witnessed" to a co-worker, but had not had the "time" to follow up. Actually, she was moving from the area and asked the BC to follow up, right away. She was too busy to do it .. with all the work of the ministry, you know. So she asked me to follow up "right away." In the assignment of this task, she told me that the LC's wife had mentioned the necessity of doing it right away, although from my calculations, this "interested" person had not been contacted for at least a month. I did not call her that night and was confronted the next day. Why had I not jumped right on it? I did make contact with her the next day and she was as rude a person as I had ever tried to witness to. She had NO INTEREST whatsoever and I was to NEVER contact her again! Of course, I reported back to BC, who reported to LC's wife ... well, it ended up being my weakness in that I had not responded quickly enough. Urrrrr!!! SOOOOO glad to be done with this insanity! Clam

Ploem, Have you seen this link? It does seem that if they are successful in making this a national shrine (or whatever) that there would be some sort of justice served. http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?SE...=&aId=11942

Sturgis! This event occurs every year about the time we used to drive, crawl, hitchhike to ROA. One year, hubby and I drove to ROA with our LC. He had bribed us into buying something he owned that we did not need and could not afford, because HE was so poor and was in deep doo doo over debt. Hubby paid part down on this item (which we did not need and could not use) and owed him the rest. The bribe? A trip with him to ROA ... free. Hubby bit. We drove with him and family to Ohio, but had no money to get home. LC did not offer to drive us home. We were stuck in Ohio. Hubby went to visit family elsewhere and I hitchhiked home - about 2000 miles! Long and short of it, I hitched a ride as far as Sturgis with some believers and got dropped off. WOW! My first ride was in the back of a trailor with six or seven Harley riders and their busted bikes. They had all been in accidents. Some were openly bleeding! Others had bandages. It was kinda like being in a 3rd World Country in a war zone. Needless to say, I was somewhat outta place and thankful to get outta there! That's my Sturgis experience and I'm glad I lived through it! Clam

Haven't posted on here but have been entertained at times ... when I can't sleep, etc. Saw an OLD post about this guy Upchurch... "If Lilly Watts married Grant Upchurch she'd be called Lilly Watts Up Church ..." Well - she did'nt. I did ... but the name doesn't have the same ring. He's still a charmer tho'. We were in for soooo long and I never felt like a part of the 9th - even tho' I was "spouse" for 13 years. Literally, my first "Corps meeting" after getting married was sitting in on a tape teaching by VPW and LCM - yelling about how Corps were marrying non-corps and corrupting the household. That made me feel real welcome. Got over it. He's great, never slows down, wears me out just watching him.

Wait! Chatty! Either you have had some good pear juice, or I have had too much in trying to read and understand your last post.

I remember this time and the required "tax payment" being one of the concerns. LCM said something very close to, "It's not that we are not living within our means. Oh no! Absolutely not. It's the government. The employment taxes are coming due..." Excuse me, but I am a small business owner and there is no surprise about employment taxes. They are a required expense if you have employees ... duhh. Mine are due each month, but he seemed to indicate they were coming up at the end of that year. They must have had some special circumstance. But I know to the cent what mine are going to be after each payroll period. Either his finance staff did not mention this to him when he had the revelation about all corps being full time, or they simply were not living within their means. By cutting payroll 10%, they were able to hit it both ways ... less money going out and less payroll taxes due as well. Simply ... The Way as a corporation was not living within its means while its officers were requiring all others to do so.

Just a thought, but there are ways to attend a meeting without actually "being" there. I just did a phone, computer conference last week and the technology out there is pretty cool. You would probably just do it on the phone. Of course, these people want to meet you, but perhaps they would allow this type of interview in these circumstances. Perhaps you have already explained the importance of your trip, but I would think a company worth advancing in would appreciate the circumstances of your itinerary.

Hey Johniam ... who knew??? So you were kicked out for this unthinkable atribute! As to the word "phalous" - WOW! Where does that word come from??? If it was about getting peeps into the class - well the leadership that I knew should have all been kicked out for this kind of evil! But I too could have been classified as such, although I wasn't kicked out for it. Not too many people were following behind me into the class!!! Clam I Am - aka Phalouisious

Remember this? I got to thinking about how this category of “evil” was used to eliminate whoever was the target of “leadership” for the day. If someone wasn’t “productive” according to some obscure standard, they were evil. I saw some of the most tenderhearted people sent outside the “clean” household because of this. It makes me nauseated now to think about it. What was the goal? Wasn't there a particular Greek word used to justify this definition and practice? I forget all the details. Guess I was "unproductive." Clam

It wasn't HQ staff, but another location and I was in housekeeping. I was assigned to clean one of the top WC coordinators' home - four hours in a small house, every day. I was polishing the polish and such. But the kicker was that EVERY DAY I was required to submit a note to my work coordinator several different things I had learned that day while doing this. That was CRAZY! Still "Happy" tho

Well, it's been 9 years since we were "dismissed," and I was wondering if anyone else is out there. It was the Indiana Campus, PM and BM were our CC's and things were "lovely." I don't miss the incarceration, the fear-motiviation, the insanity ... but I do miss some people. That made it all something sort of "worthwhile." I mean, after nearly 2 years and $30,000, there had to be something to take away from that experience.

But if the word for "mock" is the same as "to know - as in knowing one's wife," didn't VPW and LCM always teach that "to know" a woman meant to get her pregnant? That was how they got around the idea that Joseph had sexual relations with Mary before Jesus was born, just didn't get her pregnant (because she already was of course). I remember VPW ranting that there was no such thing as a virgin birth, just a virgin conception and this is how he explained "he knew her not" of Matthew 1:25. Obviously, if Jesus was "mocked" in this way he didn't get pregnant ... duhhh. Can't have it both ways.

How did you meet my mom? What was your time in WWII service like? I grew up with him, but these simple questions never were asked. My mom is deceased and Dad is slipping away. Just the sound of his name makes me warm inside.

Like in my last math class, I don't even understand enough to ask a respectable question. I don't know about all this stuff with "external source," etc., but I have enjoyed the recordings. I am forgiving if they are not perfect, and can usually understand them well enough. I think we all appreciate your work and effort and what do you mean about the "new site"? ? Clam

Wait! Jack gets kidnapped???

Classic winter. A little boring, but when I look at my closet - all my clothes are in primary colors and mostly black and white. So, I guess it fits.