by ithinkisee 92 Replies latest members private
Steve,
Don't treat yourself too badly. That is just a structure working as it was designed to, with people as interchangeable cogs in the machinery. What is really extraordinary is that once in a while such a cog stands up and walks out as a (wo)man.
My room mate had a powrful hi-fi which he was always getting yelled at to turn down.
One day he got a special effects tape and thought it would be fun to share it with everyone on the floor. He got extension cables for his loudspeakers and placed one at each end of our corridor. Then on Saturday afternoon he played this tape at full volume.
Even the floors above and below us thought a real steam engine was roaring along our corridor! Everyone thought it was a good laugh.
Emboldened, he next thought it would be fun to record the Bethel bells (your life was governed by the bells!). Again, he placed his speakers out into the corridor and at full volume played back the tape of the bells at 6am one morning. That stunt was viewed less benevolently than the first!
what about higher education while in Bethel? I know they have sent some people to training to learn things to continue their work at Bethel... so what happened to these people?
I find all of this so interesting too. It just shows ya that people are human. I don't feel like any of the stories show any faults with the people NOT being christians, I see their humanity, I can see what it would be like to locked up and the need to express themselves.
what about higher education while in Bethel? I know they have sent some people to training to learn things to continue their work at Bethel
i'm not sure what you consider 'higher education' but i knew some guys in the HVAC dept that were sent to outside certification programs by bethel. as far as i know, they're still there but the certification would still be valid if they left.
AAAAARRRGGGGHH! Those STINKIN bells!!!!! Bells at before breakfast, at breakfast, at 8:00 for work, at lunch , at dinner. Drove me INSANE. If I think hard enough, I can still hear them in my head. Sounded like a train bell.
Here are some more memories:
The physical examinations.
All new bethelites are required to have an examination by one of the bethel doctors. These are VERY THOROUGH exams. One of the phases of the exam is where the doctor puts on his rubber gloves and sticks his finger where the sun don't shine. This took place about a week after you arrived. The guys that you work with would hype it up and scare you causing you to be horrified at the arrival of that dreaded day. When you come back from the exam, the guys would dog you all day about it asking how it went, asking for details and all that.
Anyways...
There was one doctor who's name was Ferguson. Everyone referred to him as fat-fingered-ferguson. As you can tell, he wasn't a very popular doctor with the new boys. We'd all laugh when we found out someone was assigned to visit him for the exam.
There was another doctor that ppl called E.T. I think it was because of his technique for that part of the exam.
There was also a female doctor as well. Someone told me that there was this new guy that went to be examined by her but ended up visibly enjoying the exam too much and got scolded by the female doctor. hahahaha. How embarrassing. Imagine running into her at a gathering or being assigned to the same cong. or something?
The laundry nets.
We would send down our weekly laundry in a cloth bag that contained all of our laundry. Inside the bag there was a smaller special netted bag which would be used to put your dirty underwear in.
There was a time when they didn't use the netted bags but put the dirty underwear in the general bag with the rest of the clothes. My friend in laundry told me that the reason why they decided to use the netted bags was because in the past they used to have to sort out all the dirty underwear by hand. For some reason (i wonder what that would be?), ppl who worked in laundry were getting sick more often than the rest of bethel. That's when they decided to go with the netted bags. Pretty disgusting huh?
I thought you guys would find this enlightening.
All new bethelites are required to have an examination by one of the bethel doctors. These are VERY THOROUGH exams. One of the phases of the exam is where the doctor puts on his rubber gloves and sticks his finger where the sun don't shine.
oh my god!! talk about repressed memories...
i remember my physical when i got there. the doctor was an old, old dude that had been at the farms forever (i can't remember his name...a short stocky white haired guy...yeah, really narrows it down, right?). after my uncomfortably throrough exam, he was encouraging me to continue to eat heatlthy and stuff because alot of bethelites gain a lot of weight when they first get there. then he kind of stopped and said, you have a very nice smile, good teeth...a very handsome guy.
for future reference doctors, this is NOT an appropriate time to compliment your patient.
There was also a female doctor as well.yeah, there was one at the farms too. before his exam by this doctor, one of the guys i worked with asked if he could at least get her number first. he got sent home immediately.
ROFLMAO!!
There was a newboy who was pretty arrogant when he first came to our floor in the bindery. The day of his exam rolled around and everyone knew that he was getting "checked out". Someone on the floor found a rubber glove, inflated it with air, and dipped the index finger in the "animal hide glue". (Any bindery folks remember that stench?)
This glove with a brown, glue covered finger was taped on his locker for a laugh.
He sorta mellowed out a bit and turned out to be a pretty decent guy.
Another newboy and I were talking after our visit to the Bethel doctor. Thank Dog we got examined by Rolondo Rojas, and not F.F. Ferguson, or one of the sisters.
We were imagining a conversation with our future wives on the big wedding night...
"Honey, I've only been this intimate with one person.....his name was Rolondo."
Okay, all this exam stuff is just messed up. I mean, doing rectal prostate exams on 19 year old boys? I'm relatively certain that's not SOP for a health physical in the real world, especially at that age...
So what gives at bethel? Who set this up? Very bizarre. Does that mean any new single 19 year old virgin sisters have to have a full gynecological exam when they first arrive? I KNOW that's not SOP at that age unless one is sexually active. Sounds pretty hinky to me. I don't disbelieve you guys, add one more to the bizarre list of "things that happen on the inside that you don't want to know about."
O
What an eyeopening thread, thanks ithinkisee! Between this and COC I feel like we have really been given an insiders view. The rank and file have no idea if the people they are holding in such high esteem.
I heard that they stopped doing the rectal exam/prostate check or whatever.
Either way, we used to joke around with new guys (which I think they did to me too), we would say, "What you REALLY have to worry about is if the doctor has his finger up your butt, but then he taps you on the shoulder and says, "Look! No hands!""
Heheh.
We used to joke that Ferguson (a tall black guy) had ET fingers and when he put his finger up your butt you could actually FEEL each knuckle as it went in. Heh. Good scare tactics for the new guys.
Thank goodness my doctor was a white Irishman. I still remember the squishing in my underwear as I walked back to my job. Never had an exam like that before I went to the doctor, and never have had one since.
-ithinkisee
