Open Meeting Night
I think most memorable Open Meeting night involved a mother, a single mother (who had an annoying habit of singing to her son and daughter). After the open meeting, or maybe the next day, he was stood up. Apparently he was masturbating during the open meeting and this mother was the object of his affection. I remember the guy being called the ?Open Meeting Whacker? looking back?sorry?just think that?s funny?Pretty sure 85DJ will remember (he wasn?t the guy) he was there at or about the same time.
Back in the day, before the marathon OMR, the actual ?after the open meeting time? was relatively short?not much longer than any other night. Rap would end at 9pm and it would take 20-60 min for staff to figure who was going home with who, and of course drop-off?s.
As more and more people became involved with Straight, the necessity of cash collections and sales pitches had to be given to those desperate parents.
So, we began to endure sometimes-endless hours of abuse (all in the name of therapy). The practice of this stuck, even after cash collections were streamlined and the parent interview/intake, I don?t know that ever really changed.
I thank God, Buddha, Mohammed, Jah, Lao Tsu and all the deities I graduated or 7th Stepped (what a hokey thing?to 7 Step) when I did. That was at a time when you were done, you were done. A 7 Step society was formed, but I don?t recalling it to be mandatory at that time?85DJ may also be able to clarify that.
Saturday mornings slowly began to pick up momentum. Staff running out, interrupting group and hollering??Who Knows So-n-So? and half a dozen ppl would raise their hands. It was so freaky seeing people that I had known prior to Straight, walking in and being sat down on first row. I had three cousins go thru Straight and I was out of Straight, but still at home when first one went in. I spent almost 25 years doing everything in my power to avoid them. I felt ashamed and that they might have some major resentments towards me?first one in the program and all.
Probably what I hate or despise about open meetings (Straight in general) is that they destroy, forever, a kind response when I hear the words ?Love Ya??that?s really fucked up!