any good days that you can recall?

[ladyjerrico]

Just a question for all survivors of Straight Inc.

I have been posting nearly on every topic on this Message Board recalling all types of things, that are mainly negative.

I do recall one day that the road manager from the rock band "Journey" came to Straight in Plymouth.

He was telling us about what he says to Steve Perry (lead singer) of the band when he gets down about being home and stuff and being on the road so much he never was home.

He also allowed us to say one thing to our parents in the microphone, then allowed us to stand right beside him afterwards.

Only a few of us were chosen and I felt very privelaged to be one of the first "phasers" he picked to talk to my parents, unfortnatly they didn't show up that night because my dad was ill, but another parent decided to come forward and act in their place which I thought was really cool.

The road manager then took a wad of 1 dollar bills and shredded them into little pieces giving each one of us a piece of that dollar he shredded.. he then told us that our lives are worth much more than money and because we are more important, his money isn't worth anything.
Unfortunatly, since we couldn't keep money on us at 1st phase, my oldcomer told me to give it to her and she threw it away, but,I still think about that to this day, that was the best day at Straight that I had.



Please respond and tell us your best day that you can recall (besides getting out of course).

[ This Message was edited by: ladyjerrico on 2002-03-12 11:45 ]

[Anonymous]

Sorry my lady,
no good days, none at all.
Me

[ladyjerrico]

sorry to hear that :sad: did you at least have one host home you went to with good food? or at least maybe a day where you were privelaged to do something?

Many days in my mind were spent wondering what host home I was going to and what food they have there.. that was all I really looked forward to.. the repercussions of that were I gained a lot of wieght and most of my clothes wouldn't fit anymore.. sigh

[jrstraight]

Hello. As I'm trying to be somewhat objective (a hard task considering my built-in bias), I too am interested in any "good" stories that come out of the "program" experience. I am posting my recent form letter/ call to action here:


Dear Friends and neighbors,
   Let me begin by saying that I am a filmmaker living in Chicago. I have worked in many capacities on small films, large films and TV shows. That being said, let me backtrack.
   My girlfriend and myself both have sisters who are veterans of such ?programs?. My sister was in Kids Helping Kids in Northern Kentucky. My Girlfriend?s sister was in ?Straight? in Washington DC (or Virginia).
   I feel I don?t have to go into all of the ramifications the experience has had on our families. Suffice it to say that while I have been reading the posts on this website (http://fornits.com/anonanon/sidetalk/)
I have come across things that shocked me and things that also sounded very familiar. I can say that panic attacks, mistrust and paranoia are things that our sisters deal with on a daily basis. I feel like I lost the person who was my sister a long time ago.
   Recently, a lot of the problems facing my sister have come to a head. Things are getting pretty bad. That is what led me to the website. So I?m sitting there, late at night, wading through endless posts - unable to stop reading. That was the genesis of this open letter.
   I feel like humans are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. The only thing we can do is try to look at things that happened in the past - things done in certain political climates - things done in the heat of passion - and try to learn from them. We must always try to get at the truth, however elusive it might be.
   I have decided to send this letter to many of you whom I encountered on the website. I?ve decided that I might put together another forum: a long form documentary film about these issues. I realize that there are so many of you who would rather retain your anonymity. For this I cannot blame you one bit. I will say, however, if not you, who? If not now, when? This is your chance to let your voice be heard over the most powerful medium in the world: moving pictures with sound. I will not be seeking corporate sponsors for this project, nor will I be seeking network affiliation. This will be a true labor of love, funded out of my own pocket - a tithe, if you will, to humanity.

   If you are a ?graduate? of the program or a family member of anyone involved I would be very interested in working with you on this project.

Sincerely,
JR

[ladyjerrico]

uh, why did you post 3 times on 3 different parts of this site, the same thing??

[kaydeejaded]

Milady you say the things I thought but would not. LOL :grin:

[Kathy]

Nope, sorry, no good days memories come to mind.  Except the day I decided I no longer wanted to associate with anyone from there anymore. (1985)

[ladyjerrico]

Responding to your first post, I guess I speak my mind more than I think I do :smile:

Response to your second. Actually I'm still trying to find people who I went with since I'm still in that stage of remembering, maybe I won't find all the answers I want, but I keep searching.
I'm sure when it's all said and done I think in time I will have the same response you did.

[Anonymous]

I learned how to say any word backwards by pretending to pay rapt, required attention while in my head figuring out what words people said would be reversed. I can still do it, whole sentences even, in just seconds. I also learned how to write words in cursive backwards, starting with the last stroke of the last letter, by doing this imperceptibly on the metal underside of my chair with my fingertip. Yup. Real constructive way to spend my sweet 16 year!

[ladyjerrico]

Crazy things that we did then, and somehow it still sticks with us.

The other thing that actually helps me to this day is honesty, my job requires a lot of it and trust.. I can detect if someone is "holding out" on me and there are a few people that I can totally tell if there is something that isn't being told to me, or if they aren't speaking totally true about it.

I can tell how someone feels or sometimes thinks by just looking them in the eyes, if I'm on the phone. I have to tell them my phone number at work a lot of times (since I deal with customers), and I can always tell when they don't write it down! Also, being here 4 years at the same job will give me this experience as well.

Also a footnote, I want to say that even though some of the oldcomers and staff would be saying "you arn't being honest" it doesn't mean that they knew exactly if someone wasn't or not.. it just made them sound good most of the time so they could move up in the program by confrontation.
I don't confront, I just think in the back of my head "this person is holding out", I don't say anything to them, I know that I shouldn't judge people to their face.
I think in terms of doing what I can, and if they don't want to hear what I say or totally isolate me all together, it's fine.. but somehow I know they arn't being honest.

[ This Message was edited by: ladyjerrico on 2002-04-18 06:59 ]

[Carmel]

We were taken out of group for one-on-one conferences...oh, every few months or so.  That was our "individual tailored therapy".  Anyway, the girl who was going to talk with me took me outside in the parking lot for our session.  It was just a parking lot, but it was a beautiful summer day.  I hadnt been allowed outside for more than walking to and from the car in 5 months.

Also, we had a long weekend at this one girls host home, it was a really nice place...and they let us sit by the patio door at night with it open so that we could feel close to being outside.....anyway, one night we were sitting and all of a sudden the whole bakyard was filled with fire flies....they were everywhere and so beautiful....I just broke down in tears when i saw them.

I think being able to be outside in fresh air was what I missed the most in Straight.

[ladyjerrico]

That past experience sounds good even when I'm not in Straight.. all I'm seeing now out here in Michigan are those damn annoying Asian ladybugs that serve no purpose.

I remember being in an Ypsilanti home a few times and when I came back from the building it would either be dusk or dark outside, this oldcomers home was amongst many trees and already looked dark at dusk.

She had a lot of fireflies all over her yard and she allowed us to look outside for just a few minutes sometimes at night to watch the fireflies, it was beautiful.



I must say, the only time I truely cried was when I yelled "coming home" when I made it to 2nd phase (that and when I met that road manager from Journery that post that I posted about earlier). I lost my shoe running down the isle and I couldn't stop feeling excited (I was on 1st phase for 4 months, and ran away from home before ending up in Straight.. so really it was a little over 4 months).



It's the little things that made me grateful and still do to this day

[ This Message was edited by: ladyjerrico on 2002-04-18 19:53 ]

[Anonymous]

No good times that I can remember.  It was nice to go home on second phase and masturbate in my OWN shower.

[ladyjerrico]

LOL.. haha.. well, it's a normal thing for teenagers to do those kinds of things.. I think I did once in the bathroom on 2nd phase laying on the floor with the door locked and no newcomers to look after.. but I won't go into too much detail

[Anonymous]

Oh, please do...