Hello fellow ex-straightlings,
I was held captive on Evans road from July '86 to October '87, and I remember you Paul. I don't really care about being anonymous (I just couldn't be bothered to login, etc.), so I'll reveal my full name: Greg Partch. I was the deeply dislikable pseudo intellectual kid with brown hair who was always on setback for one absurd reason or another (11 in all--who here can beat that record?). I remember you as a quiet kid with a bowl cut and poor circulation in his hands. I don't think you were ever one of my newcomers (were you?), but I remember you nonetheless.
I still keep in touch with Ed Grossman (whom many of you later straightlings probably remember as senior Staff member Ed Grossman). He works for an internet company now, and regrets the total waste of time Straight turned out to be. We don't talk about Evans Road very much but the other night we had diner together and took a trip down memory lane and all the horror of that place--the doorless bathroom stalls, the cinder-block walls, the belt-loop hold (thumb through the actual belt loop, and then insert whole hand into waistband)--all that hideous nonsense came back to life. We were wracking our brains trying to recall the term "dishonesties." Dishonesties, if you remember, were the little pangs of conscience that shot through you every time you sat down in group for "review". God what a hellhole that place was!
Anyway, my biggest dishonesty was that I never really believed in the program. I tried and tried to use the group as my higher power, but some weird, persistent crumb of dignity (the only one I had left) never allowed me to buy into it. I used to have the worst nightmares about that place, and I eventually had to go to therapy, partially as a result of having endured all that bullshit.
Anyway, in case anyone is wondering, I now live in Brooklyn, with my wife and cat, and am a struggling and starving artist. And I say, go Knicks, despite the fact that the Celtics just creamed them for the third time this season.
Love ya, Group