Marnie, Jennie & Kenny Sykes

[Tampa survivor]

The family in Gwinnet had a couple of way older guys...redheaded, one brother drove a big old Cordova.  They were fine country folks who treated me decently.  They lived in an old wood house with a porch, real woodshop out back, etc.  The Crows(Dunwoody area) had been with us in St Pete b4 ATL opened, when I was sent there, I stayed with them.  Travis and his brother played guitars alot and Ann(mom) made the best biscuits in the world. They were real into it all. Lots of people had me stay cause I burned them out I guess.  
Any info on Rick Humphries...jr staffer in ATL?  He raised hell with my parents when they flew me home, told them all the usual garbage about pull offs....What about a real hot staffer named Pam?

[kosmonaut]

On 2002-07-24 16:29:00, Tampa survivor wrote:
The family in Gwinnet had a couple of way older guys...redheaded, one brother drove a big old Cordova.  They were fine country folks who treated me decently.  They lived in an old wood house with a porch, real woodshop out back, etc.  The Crows(Dunwoody area) had been with us in St Pete b4 ATL opened, when I was sent there, I stayed with them.  Travis and his brother played guitars alot and Ann(mom) made the best biscuits in the world. They were real into it all. Lots of people had me stay cause I burned them out I guess.  

Any info on Rick Humphries...jr staffer in ATL?  He raised hell with my parents when they flew me home, told them all the usual garbage about pull offs....What about a real hot staffer named Pam?  

I don't remember a Pam.  I have a hard time with names, always have.  Now, these 2 brothers that played guitars, did they have a dad who was an airline pilot?  I stayed in a house with 2 brothers like that.  Really super nice people and both brothers were really cool.  The mom made us chocolate chip pancakes on Sundays!  It was unbelievable.  I think I even got a bed to sleep on.  

About the red-headed brother family- I think that may have been the first family I stayed with in Straight.  Did they have an elaborate alarm system set up so that everyone could get up on time at 5am and make it to group?

[Tampa survivor]

The choclate chip pancakes on sundays...wow, we were at the same house. Jay and Travis Crow. They had big bucks, lived in Dunwoody, and were very nice.  The mom was way up in the thick of shit at the program, but i think she was a true believer, always nice. They knew my parents from St Pete(b4 ATL opened). I don't know where the hatred and love got all mixed up, but this program sure twisted up some good people.  One thing for sure, the more $$$ Daddy had in the bank, the longer you were stuck!!!
Bill

[wayeast]

Bill,

So if you cut out on Mrs. Byrd in Atlanta, were you there before they sent her off to Virginia? Singing her favorite song: "Tell Me Why" in group as a tribute to her holy awesomeness.

Just curious, what did you and Bobby Rugles do to tick off Newton so bad in Sarasota?  I only saw the guy once, when he went red-faced ballistic in the back of the room when we weren't being hard enough on someone. We never even knew he was there until he was yelling at the top of his lungs.

Would you mind saying what you looked like back then?

[Anonymous]

I remember Pam, if she was a pretty, dark-haired Junior Staffer who was sweet and cute.  Groups with her were always more human.  She even stood up one guy who was mildly retarded and told him she believed in him. Contrast that with the usually roving finger of scorn that most staffers practiced, and you can see why she stood out.

To agree with what someone else said, though, confidentiality at Straight was a joke. Pam worked with one of my friends from school, and she talked with him about me.  It didn't bother me, because it wasn't apparently anything too bad, but it said something about Straight.

[Tampa survivor]

I was from St. Pete, Bobby from Sarasota.  His drama involved a bunch of splits and physical torture at Sarasota. Details were sketchy as we were not allowed to talk on ride to ATL or afterwards.
I had split 3rd and 2nd phase, misbehaved for a few months in between, made it to 4th in St Pete, got knocked back down and decided that they could all get screwed.  Every little strategy Newton came up with, like isolation from group, banning my parents from open meetings, eating p'nut butter for 2 months,just made me tune them out more.  I did some fighting with HRS people around.  I tried to act out on Nancy Reagans 1981 visit. Miller Newton couln't bend me mentally and it pissed him off. Oh, wasn't Newton great when his whole head would damn near turn purple with rage?  I loved doing that.  His sick perversion of force+confrontation+breaking down=love from your peers screwed up a bunch of kids.  I am proud that that peacock bastard, charlatan of redemption,con artist with a mail order PhD never broke me.  Screw playing along and making staff.  What, become what I hated most?      
Mrs. Byrd....I had bailed on my 2nd day of school(3rd phase).  I was taken to ATL 'cause I liked to split.  Not knowing ATL very well, I walked right down a main road, hitchhiking, when a little crappy car pulled over to give me a ride.  IT WAS HER!!  She told me to get in the car.  Ha, yeah right.  A little quick math and I figured there was no way she herself could catch me, so down the embankment I went.  Kudzu is thorny, but it sure slows down executive directors better than it does a 15 yo on a mission for freedom.
I was (am)tall, turned 15 in ATL,had dark blonde hair, and was thin from my incarceration and food deprivation. I relished sleeping in the woods that night.Bill

[Tampa survivor]

I remember a young lady with decency and compassion as you described.  I had a terible crush on her before she left staff, abruptly and without explanation, as if there was ever any other way people left staff!!  

Atlanta was a netherworld for me..distant from home...strange accents....alone.  People like Pam made it easier.  Then they would disappear....

[ This Message was edited by: tampa survivor on 2002-07-25 08:48 ]

[ClayL]

That was Pam S. and when I got there in '82 she was a Sr. She later married Alan H. (whom I detested). For later phasers, remember the wedding pictures in the photoalbum in the front office? That was Pam and Alan's wedding. Pam was nice to look at, but I don't have fond memories of her.

Ricky P. when I forst got there was still a Jr. and was a hard case, but always fair to me at least. When I went in on the Mini-Program, Ricky was back on staff and a Sr. HE had changed a lot and was one of the nicest people there. He could still be a hard case, but most of the time was quite mellow. He left staff after about 2 weeks of my mini.

Kosmo- I can remember the alarm system you are talking about. I was hooked to like a police siren or something. I think I stayed there as a Nuke with my oldcomer. Wasn't one of the guys named Johnny L, an import from Alabama?

[ClayL]

The two guys that had a dad who flew for delta were Paul and (Begins with a "P" also)

CL

[kosmonaut]

Yes, that damn alarm system.  It was unbelievable!  It really was a police siren they had wired up to a car battery and a clock.  At 5am it was WAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAH at full volume.  Everyone would LEAP out of bed scared sh*tless!  Then we'd drive to group in this funky old Detroit gas guzzler.  I think I stayed there about a week.  Can't really remember.  They were pretty nice people.

So, the Crow family were the ones with all the money.  That was definitely a luxurious time.  That guy Paul was really nice to me as well.  I think he was on 5th phase when I was on 1st at their house.  He took out his Gibson SG and showed it to me.  I was salivating over that (being a musician) and we talked about guitars and music.  I knew it was wrong, and so did he, but we never got caught.  One of the few highlights of being in Straight.

Now I also remember the staffer Alan, but not his wife Pam.  Oddly enough, I still remember what his voice sounded like.  Didn't he have a slight lisp or something?

Wasn't there a staffer who got diagnosed with lung cancer too?  Derek?

[ClayL]

YES! He did have a lisp!



Derek got cancer?! Man that REALLY sucks! I think he was the only person that ever got some, with staff permission. Derek came back on a mini-program also and had gotten married in the mean time. He'd take off for the week-end and come back all smiles. While on staff Derek would come into group in the AM playing air guitar and singing "Black Beatty". Once when Someonereported me for listening to druggie music and putting on images in my car, Derek took me aside after group. He asked me what I was listening to and I told him BOC. Derek replied their pretty cool and that was that.



CL

[ This Message was edited by: ClayL on 2002-07-25 12:36 ][ This Message was edited by: ClayL on 2005-03-26 13:26 ]

[kosmonaut]

Honestly, that's just a rumor I heard.  Hopefully he's fine because that guy was cool.  I'm pretty sure he was responsible for getting me on 2nd phase.  He was always really nice to me, or at least as much as he could be.  

Who was that other staffer, the guy with blond hair and the mischevious look in his eye?

[kosmonaut]

On 2002-07-25 07:36:00, Anonymous wrote:
I remember Pam, if she was a pretty, dark-haired Junior Staffer who was sweet and cute.  Groups with her were always more human.  She even stood up one guy who was mildly retarded and told him she believed in him.

I believe the guy you are talking about was Mike MaCallum (as remembered by ClayL earlier).  Remember that one staffer, the black guy, who used to make fun of him and call him the "lemon squeezer"?

[ClayL]

The Staffer was an Exec.? Mike really hated it there. Always looked like he'd eaten something that tasted bad. Can't remember the exec's name, buy he really knew his stuff. Was working on a PhD at Georgia St. and also worked at Grady Memorial in their Psyc Ward. Didn't last long at Straight, Imagine that.

[ClayL]

I have no idea who your talking about.