Lost Friends to the SEED

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I graduated Lakewwod HS in 74...I was not in the seed..... BUT...was greatly effected by their brainwashing on my friends.
 I did smoke pot as did most of my friends...one by one I watched them wisked away to the SEED...only to come out zomby like and shunning only other seedlings.....these were LIFE-LONG friends!!!....I have gone on to live a "normal" life...with one exception...I have a large hole where my friends should be.
 I was fortunate to leave St. Pete 2 days after graduating and moved to Gainesville where I subsequently met "new" friends who I still share life and all it's happy memmories with 25 years later...but I STILL miss all my ol SEED friends... I feel as if I've been robbed!!!
             Rp

[Anonymous]

Hey, I went to Lakewood. I graduated in '75. I also was a "seedling" for 9 months. It must have been so weird looking in from the outside. Did your parents ever threaten to put you in? How did you find this message board? Sorry for all the questions.

[LeighBright]

Hi! I've been writing a book about the programs. I know you said you WEREN'T in the Seed - but I'm interested in the experiences you mention here and the types of things you witnessed and went through as a former "druggie" friend. Would you be interested in speaking with me? Because I'm very interested in speaking with you! E-mail me:

 [email protected]

[GregFL]

Well, 74 2was the year the Seed came to St Pete, and the year I entered Lakewood High. I probably know you or you probably know my sister Frieda.  What is your name? Give me a shout at [email protected], or post it here if you are comfortable. Also, be assured that most of your zombie, robot friends returned to normal when the seed left St Pete a few years later. Only the internal scars remain...

Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize an undercover dictatorship. To restrict the art of healing to one class of men, and deny equal privilege to others, will be to constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic, and have no place in a Republic. The Constitution of this Republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom.
--Abridged quote-Benjamin Rush, M.D., a signer of the Declaration of Independence

[Anonymous]

I too lost many friends to the "Seed"!  I went to Lakewood High 1974-1978.  My girlfriend was put in the seed thanks to her lying, wus of a brother, and I volunteered to my mom to "join" so I could just get inside, but it didn't happen. I'd still kick her little brothers sorry ass if I saw him.

She contacted me after my little brother ran into her a couple of years later. I was invited to play football with a group of them after my girlfriend chose to talk to me again.  Her brother set it up so they could show me a thing or two.  Well, I played college football by then, and it was the most fun I ever had with my clothes on!  At least the "team" I was on liked being on my side.  I don't think her little brother enjoyed it.  I bet he still doesn't pick up a football without looking over his shoulder.  I guess they were amazed a 300 pound "Druggy" could move that fast.  Well, I was motivated!  I vented most of my frustrations that day.  Too bad there weren't more of them there

We never really got back together.  She wasn't the same person she had been, though we stayed friends.  There is another girl who was a swimmer, a class officer, "A" student, and a really sweet person, until the Seed.  Even years later, when I saw her, she was withdrawn, and depressed.  It was a shame what they did to break her inner spirit.  The list goes on,,,,
Fuck the Seed!

T
LHS Class of '78

[Anonymous]

The Seed came to St Pete in 1973. Not 1974.

[GregFL]

Right you are. It was June 0f 73.  I am out of the country right now so have not had a chance to review the board much. I will return to the united states at the end of the month. Hello to all my friends....

You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.

--Charles Austin Beard

[Pink]

While I was not a Seedling, I find myself reading through this forum with great interest. Fortunate for me, my family was piss-poor back in the 1970's on the South side of St.Pete. The seed approached my parents about putting my brother and I in the Seed, but we were too poor for such a program. After reading through some of these stories, I look back at drinking powdered milk and having that hungry feeling as a true blessing.

My actual experience with the Seed was very real, however. I, too, lost friends to the program on a regular basis. My story for you readers is about how we would help seedlings on the run. It was common for my brother and I to offer safe haven to these unfortunate souls. My favorite story is when we were being chased by the police helicopter. Of course, we had a fresh run-away from the program in our car and my mother was in the car with us. After evading the chopper in a stand of trees, my mother started to get the idea we were actually being chased. (Bless her for her tolerance)It still seems unbelievable that the police were on the side of the Seed. This is one reason that so many felt that there was nowhere to turn. Sad that our run-aways had to leave the state and survive by their own means without the support of their parents.

Mr. Greg, Thanks for pursuing this forum with such vigilance. Sorry, I will not identify myself any further than to say Lakewood '78.

[GregFL]

You are quite welcome. I bet you a nickel I know you or your brother.   Curious? Email me and tell me who you are.

[email protected].

BTW, the police were definitely on the side of the Seed. The police chief, Ray Waymire, had his two sons in the program. Kids were illegally detained and returned to the seed all the time.
In addition, the Seed illegally would search kids, take any drugs they had on them, and illegally hold them and use them as a threat (IE: if you run, we will turn these drugs over and have you court ordered to stay here).Court order was a big scare because it in effect at least doubled your time there and that would scare the shit out of anyone.

Thank you for helping those kids find their way to freedom way back then.

Suppose you were an idiot.  And suppose you were a member of Congress.  But I repeat myself.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search?tag=circlofmiamithem&keyword=mark+twain&mode=books' target='_new'> Mark Twain

[Anonymous]

In l975 when the Seed closed the Chief of Police was Mack Vines and he had two kids in the program, a son and a daughter.

[GregFL]

right, but when I was in, it was Ray Waymire and he had two sons, J*** and P***, in the program. He was the one responsible for having the police in the pocket of the seed.

To seek out the best through the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with the purest motives, is sometimes incorrect.
http://laissezfairebooks.com/product.cfm?op=view&pid=FF7485&aid=10247' target='_new'> Thomas Jefferson Letter to Elias Shipman and others of New Haven, July 12, 1801.

[Anonymous]

Mack Vines was there too.  He even did late night infomercials for the Seed.

[GregFL]

no doubt he was there, along with his daughter, but late night infomercials?  Damn, I wonder if those are still somewhere in a local vault, I sure would like to see them.  By the Time Vines was involved, all things that involved the Seed I refused to look at or acknowledge. I have no memory of those infomercials.  I really, really resented and hated the place and what it did to me and my family.

In all history, there is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare. Only one who knows the disastrous effects of a long war can realize the supreme importance of rapidity in bringing it to a close. It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war who can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.
--Sun Tzu (author of The Art of War

[Anonymous]

Best memory serves the infomercials were on after midnight.  I remember the only time I saw the infomercial was on a Friday or Saturday night, during a show that had Wolfman Jack on it, (some concert style show - obviously way before the days of MTV).  I remember the Seed emblem in the background and remember him talking about the Seed, but since I'm not l5 and it's not l975 anymore, that's all I can remember.

[GregFL]

I think the show was called "in concert" but for the life of me don't remember the vines informercial.  Then again, if I would have seen it, I would of turned the channel or left the room.  I refused at the time to acknowledge anything that had anything to do with the seed.

An individual who should survive his physical death is beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls.

--Albert Einstein