new boy

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  12

  My Bethel Experience Part 6 with new info.

  by new boy in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i 'm sorry all of this is not in order.

  i'm writing as all this comes back to me.. .

  my first room assignment was room 33 in the 129 building.

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  new boy

  • I 'm sorry all of this is not in order. I'm writing as all this comes back to me.

  My first room assignment was room 33 in the 129 building. It was and old building, built around the turn of the century, The society owned it but it had worldly people living in to. I'm not sure why but maybe there was a law that prevented them from being kicked out or something. It was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment (about 1000 sq. ft.) There were 7 of us in there, all new boys (less than one year there). There was 2 guys in each of the bedrooms and 3 guys in the living room. I got the back bedroom with some righteous Spanish kid from Texas (forgot his name). The bedroom was about 10x10, there were 2 beds, 2 desks and 2 dressers in there. It was so small, you had to go outside to change your mind, LOL.

  Some of the fun things we would do there is have roach races. Lots of cockroaches there. We would catch these roaches, put them in glass jar, draw a circle on the kitchen floor, put the glass jar in the middle and let them go, the first roach that got to the circle.....WON!.........the prize was getting squashed.

  There was a 5 inch hole in our bathroom floor, (some repair job that never got fixed) next to the toilet. You could look down and see some guy sitting there on the toilet. So one day when this guy was sitting on his toilet, we got a glass of water and then flashed our toilet, (which he could hear) and through the water down the hole on this "brothers" head. You should have seen the look on his face.

  Work is over at 5:40, so on Thursdays (my meeting night) we had to run home, change and jump on a subway train, about an hour ride (no time to eat) to make it on time to the ministry school. My congregation was Inwood, the last congregation on the island of Manhattan. It was about 80% black and Spanish..........God I love the Black KHs.......they are the nicest people you would ever meet. The best hall I have ever been in! You had to be down to earth and be able to "shuck and jive" with them..........They (like most people) hated "uppity" people. I was lucky, there were only six betheliets in my K hall. Two tight ass company men, Daryl Christianson and Larry Fisher both elders and 4 new boys, me, Dennis Miller, Dave Poroit, and Mike Adams who I later heard had a mental break down at the WT farm. I heard he tried to kill himself.........I wonder why?

  Anyway if we were lucky, the sisters (at the hall) would give you some food in a brown paper bag at the end of the meeting, to take home with you. We would eat it on the train. You would have to wait until someone else was ready to leave before you could go. The reason was at the time, we were supposed to travel in "pairs"........to prevent getting "mugged" and just about everyone who was at bethel (in 4 years) got mugged at least once. They told us to have at least couple of bucks on us at all times. The reason was if you did get mugged and you didn't have any money on you, they (the muggers) would beat the shit out of you, thinking you had it hidden on you somewhere and you just didn't want to give it up. You, just don't want to piss off those crack heads! It was hard at times to have even 2 bucks on you. One friend of mine ended up in the hospital after they took a lead pipe to his head. The reason he was a "white boy" in Harlem with no money.

  You would see the strangest stuff on the subway train.

  You would be there eating your brown bag dinner and all of a sudden, some tramp at the other end of the car would be there and start, "jacking off" right in front of you. Or the door open and some 400 lb. black guy would get on the train wearing a pink "tutu" and you know he wasn't doing to a costume party.THE LAST THING you would ever do, is stare at someone. Don Broux (and xbethel & XCO)......happened to catch a guy's eyes for 2 SECONDS as the train was stopping. The guy jumped up, went over to Don and slugged him in the nose.....and said "WHAT THE F....K ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" It was Don's last week at bethel he got married 4 days later with a broken nose. Another friend of mine was just sitting on the train and this black guy walks up to him, with his 3 year old kid and points to my friend and says "DO YOU SEE THIS BOY?...........pointing to my friend, "THIS IS WHITETY!.......YOU HATE WHITETY!........YOU KILL WHITETY!..........then just walked off.

  Those New Yorkers love to have fun with you.

  On one of those hot summer nights in the summer of 1970. One of nights that it was still 90% humidity at 11:00 pm. One of those nights there was no brown paper bag with dinner in it, from the sisters, after the meeting. Sister Ierizery had forgot it was her turn to make us dinner that night. I got off the subway train with book bag in hand, suit and loosen tie around my neck clothes drenched with sweat. Most of the trains in the early seventies still didn’t have AC in them. Me and some other Bethelites who congregations were over an hour away climbed up the stairs from the subway. At the top of the stairs we got a blast of cooler air. God did that feel good. Another day was over. Only three years left.

  A block away was the “Pioneer market” (yes that was the real name). The brothers with money could go there and get a hero sandwich for $2 bucks. It was the end of the month so there was no money for food. There was just enough money for subway tokens to get to and from the meetings. I walked back to the 129 building, got to my room and just started crying for no reason. I went to the kitchen open the refrigerator door to see a bottle of "cold duck" I had bought a week earlier. I have no idea why I bought something as stupid as that. I guess it sounded interesting ...... I grabbed it and drank the whole thing in 3 mins.......The room started to spin, I laid down on my bed and after a few mins. Through up all over the bed and myself. I just laid there crying. I was the first time I had ever got drunk in my life.

  "Are you O.K."...my roommate asked.........."I'm sick" I said.......and I was....sick of heart.

  I thought, It really was true............"They really didn't give a shit about us."
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  9

  My Bethel Experience Part 5

  by new boy in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  the machines conquer all!.

  after our meeting with knorr and the heavies, some of the boys and me got a job changes.

  i was sent to bindery 5th floor, building 3, bindery line 5..

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  new boy

  The Machines conquer all!

  After our meeting with Knorr and the “Heavies,” some of the boys and me got a job changes.

  I was sent to Bindery 5th floor, Building 3, bindery line 5.

  Welcome to hell. Abandoned hope all who enter here.

  Standing in the same spot, 8 hours and 40 mins a day. You would take a book out of one machine, the “rounder” and shoved it into another machine the “back liner.” You would do this same motion 16,000 to 17,000 times in one day.

  You would get the "1000 yard stare." The same one you would see in the war movies, the same stare that guys would get after they have seen too much.

  To fight off the boredom you would play mental games with yourself. The first week there I thought about everyone I ever meet. The next week you would think about every movie you ever saw. The next week, about every place you would like to travel to. The next week you would, think about every mistake you ever made. And then there was the girls, lots of thinking about girls. Then it all stopped and next week, someone would walk up and ask you "What are you thinking about?"

  "NOTHING" you would say, you were brain dead. There was just the groaning sound of the machines. Days drifted into weeks, weeks into years.

  There is eternality! Some hours in that factory feel like it. There were days you looked at the clock and it would say 2:13. You would look again and it would say 2:26! There is a hell.

  A good friend of mine, Jim Pipkorn, who also stood up at the Black September meeting. He worked with me in the laundry. He got shafted to the bindery too, to the "end sheet gluer." In the bindery he got so depressed that for months, he would come back to his room at night and make himself some dinner. Then he would go to bed, at about 7:00 p.m.

  I asked him why he was doing that, he said "It makes the days go by quicker"

  We were counting our time. It was just like Viet Nam. You would ask a guy how long he had left. He would say "3 years 2 months to go" We would say "You Poor bastard......that is after 1975, so you will never have any sex." You should have seen the look on his face.

  Of course there is no racial prejudice in the Lords house.

  Yet about 20% of the Bethelites were black but about 60% of the guys in the bindery were black. It seemed odd to me so, I asked Calvin Chiych (assistant factory overseer at the time) why that was, he said it was "Because the black 'brothers' have a NATURAL rhythm which works well with the machines.”

  So they got some of the shitist jobs in the factory because of their “natural rhythm.”

  I was dying every day. I prayed "Please God get me out of here."

  I found this picture of this old guy with grey hair, he was praying with a bible and a loaf of bread on a table, hands folded, maybe you have seen it? I hung it up in my locker. One day my floor overseer Phill Gouckinbil saw it and said "What is this brother Casarona? This guy is not a witness! Because that is not a new world translation bible on the table" I said "I thought he was! That he was one of the anointed ones, behind the iron curtain and that was the only bible he could get!".........."Mmmmm" he said as he walked away. I had nothing to lose I was alright at one of the worst jobs in the factory.

  Well, It must have worked........I got a job change 2 weeks later to the east freight elevator building one. I thought I died and went to haven. I could walk around and even go to the bathroom anytime I wanted. I was my own boss......WOW I was in heaven.

  That is where I meet the press room animals, Great guys.

  Just below the press room is the 5th floor ink room. These guys were "The Mash unit" of the factory..........these guys got away with murder. ........they had coffee breaks. They even had a place they could hide and one of them could take a nap, as the others were on look out. Their overseer was Norm Brecky. I really cool guy I thought, until Jimmy Olsen killed himself. Anyway he would go to bat, for his boys “The Inkies” which he did so more than once.

  One day, down by glue room, I was standing there with Mike Stillman and 2 other guys. Mike had this big wooden paddle about six ft. long. He was beating the harden glue with it. It made a sound like a whip hitting flesh. He would yell out "FEED THE ROUNDER (a cruel bindery machine)........SLAP..........FEED THE ROUNDER ..........SLAP! ”Please don't beat me, brother overseer..............FEED THE ROUNDER............SLAP!"........We were all laughing. Just then walking up from behind us was none other than "Liver lips Linderman".....The head bindery overseer! He stood there for a minute quaking and finally said "Just WHAT do think, would have happened if it was a TOUR that came over that bridge instead of ME!"

  Mike Just stood there, with his paddle over his shoulder and said..........."Well, I guess they would think we normal, like everyone else!"

  Oh MY GOD, we are so screwed, I thought! One thing you would never do at bethel is defend yourself.

  Linderman stood there with smoke coming out of his ears and with a hateful smile. He didn’t know what to say. How dare us stand up to him. He finally said "YOU...........HAVE DONE A VERY BAD THING" and walked off. We are totally screwed.

  That was it, I thought, bindery here we come…. back to hell!

  But no, Norm came through again. He saved us.

  That is, what is so nice about Bethel, it’s the love! ..............and of course there is NO fear of man.

  Monday part 6
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  1

  My Bethel Experience Part 6

  by new boy in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  the machines conquer all!.

  after our meeting with knorr and the heavies, some of the boys and me got a job changes.

  i was sent to bindery 5th floor, building 3, bindery line 5..

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  new boy

  The Machines conquer all!

  After our meeting with Knorr and the “Heavies,” some of the boys and me got a job changes.

  I was sent to Bindery 5th floor, Building 3, bindery line 5.

  Welcome to hell. Abandoned hope all who enter here.

  Standing in the same spot, 8 hours and 40 mins a day. You would take a book out of one machine and the “rounder” and shoving it into another machine the “back liner.” You would do this same motion 16,000 to 17,000 times in one day.

  You would get the 1000 yard stare. The same one you would see in the war movies, the same stare that guys would get after they have seen too much.

  To fight off the boredom you would play mental games with yourself. The first week there I thought about everyone I ever meet. The next week you would think about every movie you ever saw. The next week, about every place you would like to travel to. The next week you would, think about every mistake you ever made. And then there was the girls, lots of thinking about girls. Then it all stopped and next week, someone would walk up and ask you "What are you thinking about?"

  "NOTHING" you would say, you were brain dead. There was just the groaning sound of the machines. Days drifted into weeks, weeks into years.

  There is eternality! Some hours in that factory feel like it. There were days you looked at the clock and it would say 2:13. You would look again and it would say 2:26! There is a hell.

  A good friend of mine, Jim Pipkorn, who also stood up at the Black September meeting. He worked with me in the laundry. He got shafted to the bindery too, to the "end sheet gluer." In the bindery he got so depressed that for months, he would come back to his room at night and make himself some dinner. Then he would go to bed, at about 7:00 p.m.

  I asked him why he was doing that, he said "It makes the days go by quicker"

  We were counting our time. It was just like Viet Nam. You would ask a guy how long he had left. He would say "3 years 2 months to go" We would say "You Poor bastard......that is after 1975, so you will never have any sex." You should have seen the look on his face.

  Of course there is no racial prejudice in the Lords house.

  Yet about 20% of the Bethelites were black but about 60% of the guys in the bindery were black. It seemed odd to me so, I asked Calvin Chiych (assistant factory overseer at the time) why that was, he said it was "Because the black 'brothers' have a NATURAL rhythm which works well with the machines.”

  So they got some of the shitist jobs in the factory because of their “natural rhythm.”

  I was dying every day. I prayed "Please God get me out of here."

  I found this picture of this old guy with grey hair, he was praying with a bible and a loaf of bread on a table, hands folded, maybe you have seen it? I hung it up in my locker. One day my floor overseer Phill Gouckinbil saw it and said "What is this brother Casarona? This guy is not a witness! Because that is not a new world translation bible on the table" I said "I thought he was! That he was one of the anointed ones, behind the iron curtain and that was the only bible he could get!".........."Mmmmm" he said as he walked away. I had nothing to lose I was alright at one of the worst jobs in the factory.

  Well, It must have worked........I got a job change 2 weeks later to the east freight elevator building one. I thought I died and went to haven. I could walk around and even go to the bathroom anytime I wanted. I was my own boss......WOW I was in heaven.

  That is where I meet the press room animals, Great guys.

  Just below the press room is the 5th floor ink room. These guys were "The Mash unit" of the factory..........these guys got away with murder. ........they had coffee breaks. They even had a place they could hide and one of them could take a nap, as the others were on look out. Their overseer was Norm Brecky. I really cool guy I thought, until Jimmy Olsen killed himself. Anyway he would go to bat, for his boys “The Inkies” which he did so more than once.

  One day, down by glue room, I was standing there with Mike Stillman and 2 other guys. Mike had this big wooden paddle about six ft. long. He was beating the harden glue with it. It made a sound like a whip hitting flesh. He would yell out "FEED THE ROUNDER (a cruel bindery machine)........SLAP..........FEED THE ROUNDER ..........SLAP! ”Please don't beat me, brother overseer..............FEED THE ROUNDER............SLAP!"........We were all laughing. Just then walking up from behind us was none other than "Liver lips Linderman".....The head bindery overseer! He stood there for a minute quaking and finally said "Just WHAT do think, would have happened if it was a TOUR that came over that bridge instead of ME!"

  Mike Just stood there, with his paddle over his shoulder and said..........."Well, I guess they would think we normal, like everyone else!"

  Oh MY GOD, we are so screwed, I thought! One thing you would never do at bethel is defend yourself.

  Linderman stood there with smoke coming out of his ears and with a hateful smile. He didn’t know what to say. How dare us stand up to him. He finally said "YOU...........HAVE DONE A VERY BAD THING" and walked off. We are totally screwed.

  That was it, I thought, bindery here we come…. back to hell!

  But no, Norm came through again. He saved us.

  That is, what is so nice about Bethel, it’s the love! ..............and of course there is NO fear of man.

  Monday part 6
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  33

  How do you tell your spouse you no longer believe in God?

  by Darkknight757 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so i was hoping to get some insight on this subject of telling your spouse that you no longer believe in god.

  for two people who have been jehovahs witnesses for 20 years together, talking about this seems to be real hard for me.

  i still pray with my wife before meals but that's about it.

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  new boy

  I would fake it. After all you are not really sure one way or another.....right?

  So why make an issue of something that your not sure of anyway.

  Besides who knows maybe there is a god. It just may not be the mean, hateful and jealous god Jehovah,
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  55

  Al Capone vs. Judge Rutherford

  by Farkel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith alone...for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" - james 2: 24, 26

  al capone vs. judge rutherford

  al capone gained his power by exploiting the weaknesses of people.. judge rutherford gained his power by exploiting the weaknesses of people.

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  new boy

  Whatever happened to Farkel? Is he still with us?
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  56

  "How Awful This Place Can Be!" Life at Bethel by Keith Casarona

  by Dogpatch in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  remember the video of all the nice dudes who were on the governing body in the 70s?

  (here's a refresher).. well this is what their lives were really like - the same as when i was there.

  by the time it got to the end, all was left was chicken backs.

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  new boy

  Yes my new repostings are cleaned from the ones I did 8 years ago plus I have added some new information, that wasn't there before.
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  5

  My Bethel Experience Part 4

  by new boy in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  black thursday september 1972. .

  knorr gathered all the bethel "heavies" and gb to the kh in the 119 building.

  the three freds (circuit overseers) and about 50 brothers.....thats right only 50. the other guys chickened out, they knew it was going to be a blood bath.

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  new boy

  • Black Thursday September 1972

  Knorr gathered all the bethel "Heavies" and GB to the KH in the 119 building. The Three Freds (circuit overseers) and about 50 brothers.....that’s right only 50. The other guys chickened out, they knew it was going to be a blood bath. I was there with 7 others from the Laundry.

  It started out with Dan Smoally (not even 30 years old and partaking) telling about what Max Larson (head of the whole factory) told him "there was NO WAY he was one of the ANOINTED!" Max at the time was a member of the great crowd. I mean how could God pick him, some kid? When Max was there at Gods house for over 40 years? Sometimes I wonder how God picks those anointed guys anyway, God can be strange sometimes.

  Well the stories of Bethel's Elders misconduct and abuse of power kept flowing.They were shaking the pillars of the organization! Knorr got MADER and MADER...........he would have loved to have killed us all, if he could have! Everyone knew these men were above the law. How dare we! Where the hell is JEHU, when you need him?

  As Knorr when off on all of us. As he was ranting.................all of a sudden Fred Franz stood up and said "These men are appointed to their positions of (power) responsibility NOT because of their spiritual qualifications. BUT because of their secular abilities!" The room was silent.

  Knorr said "We will LOOK into these matters".......................END OF MEETING.

  So............................What happened? There was only ONE committee meeting. It was about my Laundry overseer, Ken Doweling .......They gave him a slap on the hand. He was moved out of the Laundry.......and by the time I left Bethel 2 years later, was promoted to where else, the Bethel office! Back in the most powerful office in the home.

  He was "a company man" and "company men" always take care of their own......Just look at the elders in any KH.

  They didn't kick the 3 Freds out (bad publicity and we know how the "brothers" hate publicity)..........instead they just make their lives living hell...........They even put Fred Barnes (in his 50's) on a "gather" a machine that even 19 year olds have a problem staying up with............He had a heart attack.......they were kind enough to take him off it.

  The rest of us "Laundry boys"..........we were screwed! We had done the unforgivable, by binging up wrong doings of bethel overseers...Our Bethel careers were over. There was only one thing left to do, serve our time and get out.

  I was sent to the bindery........It made the Laundry look like haven. They put me on a sewing machine. It was the night shift. A sewing machine, is a machine were you sit and sew signatures together in a flipping motion that you do 40,000-50,000 a day. After three months, I was put on a bindery line were you would stand, all day between 2 machines. You would take the book out of the "rounder" and put in the "back liner"----16,000 to 17,000 times a day. If you begged your line overseer .......he might give you a 10 min. break to go to the bathroom every four hours. They could have bought a machine to do the same thing but it only cost them $22 a month for a warm body to do the job.

  The saying was "There is no shaft at bethel, every job is a privilege of service" There is another saying too “I don't care if you pee on me, but don't just call in WATER!”

  One time an army general come through on a tour of the factory.........He was shaking his head. The tour guide said "I'm sure you could get your troops to do the same thing"..........He said " Are you kidding.. No way"
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  12

  My Bethel Experience Part 3

  by new boy in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  don't get me wrong...........there was no one more self righteous, than me at 19. i moved to kansas at 18 to pioneer and even printed up cards that said............ .

  "have sword, will travel"---------contact casarona salina kansas------ aaa which of course meant available after armageddon..

  oh, i was full of myself!

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  new boy

  • Don't get me wrong...........There was no one more self righteous, than me at 19. I Moved to Kansas at 18 to pioneer and even printed up cards that said...........

  "HAVE SWORD, WILL TRAVEL"---------contact casarona salina kansas------ AAA Which of course meant “Available After Armageddon.”

  Oh, I was full of myself! Thought of myself as a spiritual gun fighter. To defend TRUTH, JUSTICE and all the WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY stood for. Little did I know I had no chance of winning my first big gun fight! We have meet the enemy.....and he is US.

  There is nothing more righteous then a new boy at bethel. So there you are at the center of the WORLD WIDE WORK...........HOME of the GB....You know you are going to see the "Shakina Light" at any moment........Then it happens ..The lies, the pride, the cruelty, the politics, the favoritism,......You say to yourself.........well it just a few people I'm SURE the "brothers" in real power have no Idea what these overseers are doing.So what do you do?

  There is a chain of command.........and one thing you would NEVER do is go over that overseer's head that is called "END YOUR BETHEL CAREER IMMEDIATELY"........most of us who went there, wanted to make it our life's work.

  We saw it many times.......Some overseer would pull some shit. Like what my overseer said about a sister that worked in the laundry. He told my roommate that "That sister L.......is like a cow in HEAT she what’s it bad."...............Not a disfellowshipping offense.........but nothing a loving "brother" would say about a sister who needed to have sex.

  So the new guy would go to Max Larson in the factory or George Couch in the bethel home and tell him what happen...........After they heard the story, they would get a smile on their face and ask you "So tell me Brother newboy?.................how LONG have you been here?"........the newboy would say something like "Two years sir!" "Well brother Newboy brother Pompous ass has been here 22 years! Thank you for coming by!"

  • You could then say goodbye to your bethel career.......2 months later he would be on a one of the machines probably a sewing machine in the bindery which is the penal institution of the factory or the laundry which was the penal intuition of the home.

  It is a "Good old boy country Club" and you are NOT a member. Not yet. You are not even considered a real member of the family until your 4 years are up. Then your obligation is up. If you still want to stay which most didn’t and 98% left at thazt time or before. Than, when you have eaten 4 years of shit and told them you "LIKE IT" you can become a "Company man."..........and become one of them. Sieg Heil.

  So anyway.............back to the gun fight...........Where the self righteous new boys would help clean up the Lord’s house. The stuff my overseer was doing......well the stink was rising to the havens, but what it do? Remember the “Gary’s going to die” thing plus there was all kinds of other strange shit.

  Our assistant overseer told an EX CO what was happening. He said ALOT of these things were going on in the house of god and someone should step up and say something. So he and 2 other EX COs felt the same way. They were the three Freds. Their names were FRED BARNES, FRED FERDEEN and FRED HILMO. Great men who had of vision of truth, righteous, fairness but those things had no chance in the gun fight with the "country club boys" the real power at bethel.

  They asked anyone that had a problem with and 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 these things that were said. So after all was said....Fred Hilmo said “We need to talk to Knorr about it.” So he told Knorr what was going on. Knorr said "We should have a meeting with all the brothers (REBELS) to have a discussion on these matters"

  You know what he was planning to do. He was going to play Jehu on our asses! He was going to “clean the house of god” not of the wrong doers…..just the people that reported it.

  I will tell you in Part 4, about the big shoot out known at bethel as "Black Thursday" until then.
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  7

  My Bethel Experience Part 2 Memory Lane

  by new boy in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  back to the food..........the saying there was "its the best food in the world before they cook it" the coffee was the really bad.

  they would take a 55 lb.

  bag of good coffee beans and boil the shit out of it.the joke was if anyone could find the guy that made the coffee, and kill him, our production would go up and armageddon could finally come.

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  new boy

  Back to the food..........The saying there was "Its the best food in the world before they cook it" The coffee was the really bad. They would take a 55 lb. bag of good coffee beans and boil the shit out of it.The joke was if anyone could find the guy that made the coffee, and kill him, our production would go up and armageddon could finally come. When they had liver for lunch only half the family showed up, which (saved them money)........an old timer named Wilbur Ruth about 85 years old would......would walk through the factory and tells what was for lunch each day, (we never knew ahead of time) he would say "liver to make you quiver and ice cream to make you shiver"...............

  Poor Wilbur..........One day my friend Tom Plank operator of Press 6 and me pulled Wilbur aside and asked him why he never got married "Oh.......I WANTED to, but back in the 30's and 40's we couldn't get married and stay at bethel we had to made a vow of celibacy.........and armageddon was going to COME any day..........When Knorr showed up with a wife after an assembly in the early 50's that changed everything.......but for me it was too late............I was in my late 60's......Who would have someone like me?"

  Then there were the married couples..........who never had kids. Not allowed to at bethel. Some of those women were down right bitter.......armageddon was coming any day, why would you want to have kids?

  One of the bitterest old ladys there was Ester Lopaz .......One of "sister" Knorrs best friends. I meet her on Doc Dixon's table it was, what we called a "dead" table. Dead because no one talked to each other.You had the righteous "company men" and the factory workers on the same table. You would go, eat and get the hell out of there.

  At bethel when a plate of food came on a table, the table head would pass it down the right side, then when the next plate came, it would go down the left side, so everyone would get a fair chance at some food. Not on the good doctor's table his wife would always get it first.............so if you sat on the other side, close to the end you were screwed. I was two seats from the end. One day we were having fried chicken......by the time it got to the end, all was left was chicken backs...so I took three backs...they passed it out..........came to the end again.........all backs...........did it again........all backs.........So there I'm with a plate of all chicken back bones piled high.......Dixon looks over at me and says "You sure are making a PIG out of yourself, brother Casarona"!

  The love started my first day at the table. Ester said "Who are you?"......."I'm brother Casarona"...."Well, were are you from, brother Casarona?" I said "Kansas" (though I was raised in California, I pioneered in Kansas, you would never tell an old timer you were from California they hated bethelities from Califorina, way to liberal) She said "well, where were you from before Kansas?"...............I said.......Errrrrr California"..........she said "IT FIGURES" (all ready judged)..."Well" I said "You sure can feel the LOVE on this table!"........She said "WELL sometimes love is having to correct the brothers when they NEED it"..............I said "WELL SISTER Lopaz I think I'll let the BROTHERS do that".....................so the war began.

  After 4 years, I turned in my 30 day notice in february 1974........everyone thought armageddon was right around the corner...........and thus any one leaving Bethel, the house of God ( and his protection) the biggest possible fool.............At my last lunch at bethel, Ester looked over at me and with this big grin said "You better eat EVERYTHING on your plate...........because when you leave here, you are going to STARVE!".............I didn't say a word, but I thought to myself, I would rather starve out there, then eat one more meal in here with all you self rightious assholes. I guess God only had enough power to save those at bethel.

  In 1996, I made my only trip back to bethel with my wife and kids.......I made a point of tracking "sister" Lopaz down. YES!........... The old bat was still alive........well in her 90's. I had her paged.........She looked at me and said "YOU, YOU...........YOU".........I said "Yes its me, and you were WRONG!"......I grabbed her hand and put it on my belly and said.........."I DID'T STARVE to death, as you can see!"

  I was in the group that got the first new boy talks in the spring of 1970. There were 8 of them, Knorr gave the "sex at bethel talk" (or why there is no sex, at bethel talk)........I would give a $1,000 bucks for a copy of that talk.........there were 53 of us guys and 3 "sisters" in there.......the girls faces were red..One of the quotes was knorr saying "I don't want you to do anything with IT, except PEE..........for 4 years"

  I was also the first group of bethelites to be assigned out to other congerations. Before our group, you would have to go to Brooklyn Heights or King County for a year.......If you were good, they would give you an outside hall. My hall was Inwood.........at the very tip of Manhattan. It was a 45-60 mins. subway ride. So book studies was a 2 hour train ride, for a 1 hour meeting.

  On my first ride there..........I met a guy, a bethelite who was leaving after 4 years, My first day was his last. He was only 24 years old...........He looked like 40......So I asked him "Do you have any words of advice?"..................."YEA".......he said....."Keep your mouth SHUT and do you work......they don't give a shit about you here"...........WOW I thought this guy as a BAD attitude! That will NEVER happen to me! HA!

  Part 3 tomorrow

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  Confession