Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Seed Discussion Forum

some specific staff members

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marcwordsmith:
I am so curious what became of some of the staff members. I'm thinking of a few in particular:1. Suzie Connors. When I was in the Ft. Lauderdale Seed in 1972, I was 14 and Suzie was 19 and--like many of the boys, I think--I had a sort of masochistic crush on her. But really, she wasn't the meanest staff member then, though she was occasionally cruel.
Reading through this forum, I see that Suzie went on to be the head of the St. Pete Seed, and was pretty much a monster. I was talking about this with my wife (not an ex-Seedling, not from Florida), saying it didn't quite jibe with my memory of Suzie. My wife pointed out that Suzie probably became worse. It makes sense. 2. John Underwood. What a spooky, strange guy. Does anybody know what became of him and how long he stayed with the Seed? 3. Clay. Don't know Clay's last name. It sounded something like "Climb." He's the one I'm most interested in. He had graduated the Seed before my time, then had had to serve a jail sentence on an old rap (as in legal rap, not Seed rap), and he returned to the Seed--as a staff member--about a month before I graduated. Clay was unique. Of all the staff members, if you caught his eye during a rap, instead of glaring at you to insinuate that you should be PAYING ATTENTION TO THE RAP, he might wink or make a funny face. At least that's how he was with me.
Here comes the remarkable part. Clay pulled me aside one evening and said softly, "How would you like to go to the oldtimers' rap tonight?" meaning I had completed the program. I was thrilled of course. But asking around, I never heard of anybody else being informed that way that they had completed the program; everybody else I spoke to had gotten their name called in front of the group and there was all that celebratory applause. It is my belief to this day that Clay subverted normal channels on my behalf--that it was HIS decision that I should be finished. If any other senior Seed staff person were to have retracted that decision, this would have revealed division in the ranks, which was unthinkable. 4. Danny Ultamura, another interesting character who kinda disappeared before I was out of there. Mean to some, but very kind to me. What became of these souls I wonder, I wonder.

GregFL:
Hey Marc. Long time no hear. I hope everything is good.

News is sketchy on these folks. Last I saw Suzy Connors was in Ft Lauderdale about 1979. I was working in the record store, and the Seed girls lived about a block away in an apartment complex (see my story about the event by the pool).
Anyway, she came in and I tried to talk to her. She politely said hi and asked me to help her pick out an album for her friend. I picked out "Saturday night Fever" and she left. Last I heard she was at the "Seed Reunion" about 10 years ago and is living up north somewhere.
I am not sure calling a monster is accurate. I think Suzy was duped just like the rest of us and eventually left the Seed. Her position at the St Pete Seed left a very young, very indoctrinated child in charge of hundred's of children, and her job was to institute a behavior modification regiment upon these children. This is a tremendous responsibility for a young person like her to have to handle. She made mistakes, to be sure.

John Underwood....recently I heard that way back when in the late 70s, he started a company with someone else from St Pete selling tennis courts. Where this went and where he is....I sure would like to know. I have some questions and would love to sit down and have a beer (soda) with him.

I didn't know or don't recall clay.

Danny. Know THAT rings a bell. I remember a skinny kid about 17 (i was 14 ) in 1973 that was junior staff. I think he helped strip search me.

marcwordsmith:
Thanks, Greg. That was interesting information. I have a feeling Clay was only there briefly; he was so unusual. As for Danny, he must have been before your time, because he was gone before I was, and I was "off my program" in March 1973.

surfdal:
i vaugly remember him
kinda tall and quiet maybe?...as a newcomer i had to live w/ rick burtain..a real fuggin asshole..another one i really disliked intensly was david reiser. some of those people were so arrogant

girlwithoutbarcode:
Wow, it blows my mind to see all of your posts refer to the 70's and that the sickness of the program was going on even back then.  I was born in March of 1973, and in 1988, was in Kids of Bergen County (North JErsey) under director and dictatorship of "Dr." Miller Newton and his lovely wife Ruth Ann.  I thought it was and 80's fad to run a cult, who knew how long this had really been going on.  I'm glad it's over for you all.

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