Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Straight, Inc. and Derivatives => Topic started by: Nonconformistlaw on March 10, 2007, 09:23:59 PM
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Who was on executive staff in the branch of hell you were in? What branch & years?
Thanks.
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Oh, does anyone know how old Helen Petermann would be by now? Does 85 sound right?
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Dr. Jim Burns, doctorate in education. Interesting interview. See if you can still find his number. He changed it at least twice after getting a few calls.
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Springfield '82-'84 was Mel Riddle and Mrs. Byrd.
I heard later that Leslie Murden went from 1st phase up to Exec.
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Oh, does anyone know how old Helen Petermann would be by now? Does 85 sound right?
No,Petermann would be in her mid 70's.
She is an avid tennis player to this day,and her grandchildren anr also heavily involved in tennis.
She's out spending all that money she made off of your parents.
Last known to live in Clearwater,possibly now living in Ocala.
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Oh, does anyone know how old Helen Petermann would be by now? Does 85 sound right?
Petermann's last known email address [email protected]
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Sorry, I meant Hugh Burns, not Jim. Dunno why I always make that mistake.
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1978-1981
I also recall a Jim.....Memory says yeah Jim Burns....He would ocasionally during the open meeting do a dog & pony show for the adults with Hellen Peterman playing "20 Questions". "Jim would of course excuse himself shortly after and the show began.
George Ross...alleged Doctor......Pft.... His claim to fame was "Rational" something. I also recall some cartoons including "Rational Ralph".... I will never forget him atop of a girl, dry humping her...explaining that she had been raped....he was way way out of bounds...fucking sick...wether the rape happened or it was some sick fantasy (of his). In the old green room of the Morgan Yacht Building. George Ross, 14-15 year old female and 8-10, eleven-seventeen year old males. It's one of those images seered into my conciousness.
There were lots of people behind the scene. There was a guy named Bi*ll G*ates whose son and daughter either went thru Straight or the Seed...that was never clear. Laura Morgan. Yeah, quiet, poised and gracious. Her ex was Charlie Morgan. The founder/owner and CEO of Morgan Yacht. Hence....the Morgan Yacht Building. If you ever have seen the movie Coccoon...it's odd to note it was filmed in the Morgan home on Park Street....just.....errie.
There is one notable person, he certainly wasnt executive material ( a volunteer) ...Mr Ed., the old old old guy who answered the phones in the Morgan Yacht Building....Every one who ever had "responsibilities" and was a "runner" knows damn well who Mr. Ed was...And if he wasnt uncle pervy...I would truly be amazed...even if I ever believed he wasn't.
The following is a link to an image...an abstract image, from my site. Been a member for a long time and just noticed that was an option. Seems better than clogging band width and forcing an image...
http://www.woof-a-doof.com/images/abstracts/handz.jpg (http://www.woof-a-doof.com/images/abstracts/handz.jpg)
I digress....
In previous posts I have said that Miller Newton found himself being presented with a completely out of control situation. Hate, distrust, fear, physical abuse, verbal abuse, and of course psychological abuse brought us as a whole into a seething entity. Miller Newton made no effort to reduce the tensions. Miller Newton ratched up the abuse daily. I have three other cousins that followed after me
Miller Newton had assumed control for the last few months it seems of my time incarcerated in Straight Inc. It was a whole new era for us. He brought about an insainity that makes coffee nervious.
With Miller Newton began the 5th phase start over....(just typing the words has me feeling befuddel'd) one could really sense that he was stretchng his wings...looking for the boundaries....finding none. He was an evil bastard with the talent of a two night evangelist at a southern baptist revival. Yet for us, especially myself, graduation (and also with Miller Newton came the prase "7 stepper"...gawd) couldn't come soon enough. I had three cousins go thru Straight Inc following me...one refuses to discuss it...one is all fucked up with jesus and one fortunately that is as close to the heart.
Apologies for the after work babbling....
Namaste
woof
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please excuse the off topicness, but, does anyone reading this consider the MI's as abusive? The remark about Ross rang a bell, sorry... In the trenches of front-line activism activities, I have maintained that MI's are a form of psychological abuse that may not get the attention it deserves. It was and still is one of those pain in the ass kind of chores that is required even today by clients of spinoff programs. I've heard some folks say that they don't consider it abuse, it's just a PIA chore based on AA philosophies, and others who agree with me about it being a brainwashing tool. Thank you for an opinion.
Rusty
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I don't know but it's creepy as hell when you think about it that way...
..I'm powerless over straight..someone please get me out of here..
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please excuse the off topicness, but, does anyone reading this consider the MI's as abusive? The remark about Ross rang a bell, sorry... In the trenches of front-line activism activities, I have maintained that MI's are a form of psychological abuse that may not get the attention it deserves. It was and still is one of those pain in the ass kind of chores that is required even today by clients of spinoff programs. I've heard some folks say that they don't consider it abuse, it's just a PIA chore based on AA philosophies, and others who agree with me about it being a brainwashing tool. Thank you for an opinion.
Rusty
Yes, I view the Moral inventory as abusive, b/c for one, "the program" took basica AA principals and twisted them into some kind of entangled neuroses crisis on a daily basis. So therefore, having to then write out " private confessions" over and over again against ones will is inherintly abusive. It wasn't so much the above that made me feel it was completely abusive. It was more that the above combined with having to "go over" those M.I.'s with complete strangers, who then were free to criticize them and basically hold a "mini rap" at the foster home, like they were a staff member. Then if the oldcomer didnt act that way towards you, they then ran the risk of being stood up in group and being "confronted" with being "soft" with newcomers....funny how we never saw anyone get stood up for being "hard" with newcomers isn't now?
That says a great deal right there.
anyway, it is all relative, the whole place, idealogy, the rules, the dogma, the M.I.'s the rational therapy shit, the raps, no privacy, ....etc.... it is and was all a part of "the game".
-warm regards,
-DP
:smokin:
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Mel Riddle.
btw: lastnight n my usual dream. I got n 2 fights n confronted Dean
ty Kat !
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Oh, does anyone know how old Helen Petermann would be by now? Does 85 sound right?
No,Petermann would be in her mid 70's.
She is an avid tennis player to this day,and her grandchildren anr also heavily involved in tennis.
She's out spending all that money she made off of your parents.
Last known to live in Clearwater,possibly now living in Ocala.
How about this address.........from the Marion County Prop App office....LOL
PETERMAN HELEN R
2412 SE 20TH CIR
Ocala, Florida
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zip code is...........34471
Let's remind her that she hasn't been forgotten
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Yes the M.I.s were abusive. I don't think it's "all relative" at all. Straight had an agenda to brainwash us. Forced confessions of moral failings are definitely a tactic of brainwashing. Brainwashing is torture. It's all part of the basket of pain Straight gave us. It all works together.
It wasn't exactly "moral failings" like stealing something, it was about continually examining our inner state to make sure we had the proper cult attitude, thoughts, and feelings. M.I.s were a training ground for oldcomers to examine and work on correcting newcomers with respect to these things and to teach them cultspeak and cultthink.
We could not write anything that we could keep private, at all. This has a huge impact on the psyche. In addition, we were led to believe that if we even allowed our thoughts to be private and unexamined, we were in danger. The real danger was the emotional abuse of possible confrontation we might face to make us "get honest" and the certain loss of freedom if we were found to be "f.o.s." But of course we were trained to think that the danger was ourselves, we wanted to be fully honest and share all our thoughts, especially "bad thoughts", because we wanted to be "closer to the Group" and we didn't trust our own minds and thought that our thoughts would make us do something bad like cop out and do drugs. Violation of the right to privacy of the mind might seem like a hidden or lesser abuse to some. It doesn't seem "violent", but it is. It's a rape of privacy, a rape of self-conception, and a rape of self-expression. It is MIND RAPE.
The ritual practice of writing M.I.s also serves to train the mind to focus on "shortcomings", "things to fix", and so on as part of the cult tactic of domination of the mind and thinking time. If we are busy worried about these things that are totally inappropriate for teenagers to be worried about -- like whether we were "really open and honest with the group," or whether we were "sitting in our shit" --we stop thinking, literally, our minds are focused on a ritual practice of self-denigration and self-disrespect.
Over the years I have certainly heard from more than one person how much the forced writing and reading of M.I.s damaged their mental and artistic abilities. It abused yet another aspect of self-expression. Staff would get people's diaries from before Straight and read them out loud in Group. How dare they.
It all sucked, and there's a reason it sucked. Straight was an institution dedicated to DOMINATING every aspect of our days, thoughts, body, self-concepts: every aspect of our existence.
There's actually a lot of information on the web if you do some internet searching on "confession", "brainwashing", and "cult".
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Yes the M.I.s were abusive. I don't think it's "all relative" at all. Straight had an agenda to brainwash us. Forced confessions of moral failings are definitely a tactic of brainwashing. Brainwashing is torture. It's all part of the basket of pain Straight gave us. It all works together.
It wasn't exactly "moral failings" like stealing something, it was about continually examining our inner state to make sure we had the proper cult attitude, thoughts, and feelings. M.I.s were a training ground for oldcomers to examine and work on correcting newcomers with respect to these things and to teach them cultspeak and cultthink.
We could not write anything that we could keep private, at all. This has a huge impact on the psyche. In addition, we were led to believe that if we even allowed our thoughts to be private and unexamined, we were in danger. The real danger was the emotional abuse of possible confrontation we might face to make us "get honest" and the certain loss of freedom if we were found to be "f.o.s." But of course we were trained to think that the danger was ourselves, we wanted to be fully honest and share all our thoughts, especially "bad thoughts", because we wanted to be "closer to the Group" and we didn't trust our own minds and thought that our thoughts would make us do something bad like cop out and do drugs. Violation of the right to privacy of the mind might seem like a hidden or lesser abuse to some. It doesn't seem "violent", but it is. It's a rape of privacy, a rape of self-conception, and a rape of self-expression. It is MIND RAPE.
The ritual practice of writing M.I.s also serves to train the mind to focus on "shortcomings", "things to fix", and so on as part of the cult tactic of domination of the mind and thinking time. If we are busy worried about these things that are totally inappropriate for teenagers to be worried about -- like whether we were "really open and honest with the group," or whether we were "sitting in our shit" --we stop thinking, literally, our minds are focused on a ritual practice of self-denigration and self-disrespect.
Over the years I have certainly heard from more than one person how much the forced writing and reading of M.I.s damaged their mental and artistic abilities. It abused yet another aspect of self-expression. Staff would get people's diaries from before Straight and read them out loud in Group. How dare they.
It all sucked, and there's a reason it sucked. Straight was an institution dedicated to DOMINATING every aspect of our days, thoughts, body, self-concepts: every aspect of our existence.
There's actually a lot of information on the web if you do some internet searching on "confession", "brainwashing", and "cult".
This is a damned good examination of the abusive nature of MIs---which, to the casual observer, are a seemingly innocuous facet of the program, or perhaps lesser form of abuse than the rest of the package. In reality, they were the constant "front line of defense" against thinking which ran contrary to cult doctrine and ideology. Thank you for your insight and examination of this topic, I hope the original poster gets your point.
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please excuse the off topicness, but, does anyone reading this consider the MI's as abusive? The remark about Ross rang a bell, sorry... In the trenches of front-line activism activities, I have maintained that MI's are a form of psychological abuse that may not get the attention it deserves. It was and still is one of those pain in the ass kind of chores that is required even today by clients of spinoff programs. I've heard some folks say that they don't consider it abuse, it's just a PIA chore based on AA philosophies, and others who agree with me about it being a brainwashing tool. Thank you for an opinion.
Rusty
OTHER PEOPLE READING YOUR MI is abuse.
Writing MI Moral Inventory is probably one of the good habits taught in the programs.
Writing MI is good.
Being REQUIRED to write MI is wrong.
Other people reading your MI before your death is not only wrong,its also unAmerican.
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Yes the M.I.s were abusive. I don't think it's "all relative" at all. Straight had an agenda to brainwash us. Forced confessions of moral failings are definitely a tactic of brainwashing. Brainwashing is torture. It's all part of the basket of pain Straight gave us. It all works together.
It wasn't exactly "moral failings" like stealing something, it was about continually examining our inner state to make sure we had the proper cult attitude, thoughts, and feelings. M.I.s were a training ground for oldcomers to examine and work on correcting newcomers with respect to these things and to teach them cultspeak and cultthink.
We could not write anything that we could keep private, at all. This has a huge impact on the psyche. In addition, we were led to believe that if we even allowed our thoughts to be private and unexamined, we were in danger. The real danger was the emotional abuse of possible confrontation we might face to make us "get honest" and the certain loss of freedom if we were found to be "f.o.s." But of course we were trained to think that the danger was ourselves, we wanted to be fully honest and share all our thoughts, especially "bad thoughts", because we wanted to be "closer to the Group" and we didn't trust our own minds and thought that our thoughts would make us do something bad like cop out and do drugs. Violation of the right to privacy of the mind might seem like a hidden or lesser abuse to some. It doesn't seem "violent", but it is. It's a rape of privacy, a rape of self-conception, and a rape of self-expression. It is MIND RAPE.
The ritual practice of writing M.I.s also serves to train the mind to focus on "shortcomings", "things to fix", and so on as part of the cult tactic of domination of the mind and thinking time. If we are busy worried about these things that are totally inappropriate for teenagers to be worried about -- like whether we were "really open and honest with the group," or whether we were "sitting in our shit" --we stop thinking, literally, our minds are focused on a ritual practice of self-denigration and self-disrespect.
Over the years I have certainly heard from more than one person how much the forced writing and reading of M.I.s damaged their mental and artistic abilities. It abused yet another aspect of self-expression. Staff would get people's diaries from before Straight and read them out loud in Group. How dare they.
It all sucked, and there's a reason it sucked. Straight was an institution dedicated to DOMINATING every aspect of our days, thoughts, body, self-concepts: every aspect of our existence.
There's actually a lot of information on the web if you do some internet searching on "confession", "brainwashing", and "cult".
MI doesn't hurt people.
People hurt people.
It was HOW THE MI WAS USED that was abusive.
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psychological abuse BOO
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H A P P Y B U N N Y D A Y ! NCL
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Brainwashing is torture. It's all part of the basket of pain Straight gave us. It all works together.
Right-On !!!!
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Brainwashing is torture. It's all part of the basket of pain Straight gave us. It all works together.
Right-On !!!!
A basket of hard boiled pain & Easter Grass?
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Sandbaskets... and piss-clams.
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please excuse the off topicness, but, does anyone reading this consider the MI's as abusive? The remark about Ross rang a bell, sorry... In the trenches of front-line activism activities, I have maintained that MI's are a form of psychological abuse that may not get the attention it deserves. It was and still is one of those pain in the ass kind of chores that is required even today by clients of spinoff programs. I've heard some folks say that they don't consider it abuse, it's just a PIA chore based on AA philosophies, and others who agree with me about it being a brainwashing tool. Thank you for an opinion.
Rusty
OTHER PEOPLE READING YOUR MI is abuse.
Writing MI Moral Inventory is probably one of the good habits taught in the programs.
Writing MI is good.
Being REQUIRED to write MI is wrong.
Other people reading your MI before your death is not only wrong,its also unAmerican.
I disagree because I never could have even written an M.I. if the oldcomers didn't "teach" me how to do it "right". It was a practice scripted by the cult. It changed my thought processes from what I used to write and think about before, and it certainly didn't make me a better person.
That inventory of moral failings stuff is really popular in 12-step groups, maybe that is what you are thinking about when you say they are good? To go over your shortcomings at the end of every day seems self-obsessive, plus it's a prescripted formula. I had to shake off that kind of thing getting out of 12-step cults after Straight. People in 12-step groups were awfully concerned about all their actions shortcomings and emotional states, which I don't think is really helpful at all, I think it made people miserable and they didn't even realize. Sponsors and people in the cult took that "working your steps" stuff really seriously. I once wrote pages and pages to "do my fourth step," and it didn't make me happier or anything, it was a continuation of the neurotic self-obsession thing. It gives me the shivers to think about those 12-step meetings with people talking about how they worked their steps. I don't think half those people really wanted to ever use and the 12 steps and the slogans really kept them from doing drugs or drinking. I think really they wanted a good story to tell in a meeting about how they almost used and then the 12 steps saved them, when really they just decided not to use.
If you have some kind of personal practice, that's your thing. But I'm a little weirded out. Do some survivors still do M.I.s every night, or even ever? That would be weird, if people still did M.I.s and called other survivors for dime therapy. Really weird. Now I'm kind of curious.
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I KNEW someone would post something like this.. ::blah::
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And NO, I'm not the one who posted about writing MI's.
Must the dialogue here always be so predictable?
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Nevermind.. continue having your trite and pointless discussion; I'll try to stay out of it.
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I'm sorry for being a grouchy bastard, I've had a few drinks today. And to tell the truth, I guess I'm a little (just a little, mind you) curious as to why someone would want to write MI's.
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And NO, I'm not the one who posted about writing MI's.
Must the dialogue here always be so predictable?
I agree. People are always agreeing and disagreeing around here. It gets really annoying.
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I agree. People are always agreeing and disagreeing around here. It gets really annoying.
Yeah, yeah..lol.. I apologized, what more do you want? ::dose::
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I know...maybe I should write an MI about this.. :rofl:
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Maybe you should get spanked.
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Maybe you should blow me. :P
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Maybe you should blow me. :P
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
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This is a great discussion, thanks for the input, everyone.
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please excuse the off topicness, but, does anyone reading this consider the MI's as abusive? The remark about Ross rang a bell, sorry... In the trenches of front-line activism activities, I have maintained that MI's are a form of psychological abuse that may not get the attention it deserves. It was and still is one of those pain in the ass kind of chores that is required even today by clients of spinoff programs. I've heard some folks say that they don't consider it abuse, it's just a PIA chore based on AA philosophies, and others who agree with me about it being a brainwashing tool. Thank you for an opinion.
Rusty
OTHER PEOPLE READING YOUR MI is abuse.
Writing MI Moral Inventory is probably one of the good habits taught in the programs.
Writing MI is good.
Being REQUIRED to write MI is wrong.
Other people reading your MI before your death is not only wrong,its also unAmerican.
I disagree because I never could have even written an M.I. if the oldcomers didn't "teach" me how to do it "right". It was a practice scripted by the cult. It changed my thought processes from what I used to write and think about before, and it certainly didn't make me a better person.
That inventory of moral failings stuff is really popular in 12-step groups, maybe that is what you are thinking about when you say they are good? To go over your shortcomings at the end of every day seems self-obsessive, plus it's a prescripted formula. I had to shake off that kind of thing getting out of 12-step cults after Straight. People in 12-step groups were awfully concerned about all their actions shortcomings and emotional states, which I don't think is really helpful at all, I think it made people miserable and they didn't even realize. Sponsors and people in the cult took that "working your steps" stuff really seriously. I once wrote pages and pages to "do my fourth step," and it didn't make me happier or anything, it was a continuation of the neurotic self-obsession thing. It gives me the shivers to think about those 12-step meetings with people talking about how they worked their steps. I don't think half those people really wanted to ever use and the 12 steps and the slogans really kept them from doing drugs or drinking. I think really they wanted a good story to tell in a meeting about how they almost used and then the 12 steps saved them, when really they just decided not to use.
If you have some kind of personal practice, that's your thing. But I'm a little weirded out. Do some survivors still do M.I.s every night, or even ever? That would be weird, if people still did M.I.s and called other survivors for dime therapy. Really weird. Now I'm kind of curious.
At the time I was in the program,writing my MI was kind of the only time I had for myself.I guess an asshole oldcommer could make it not so fun,but no tv,no weed,no talking to friends or reading everything,having a pen and paper for writing MI was sort of an entertainment time.
I stopped writing MI the day I walked out of the door of the program.
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To b made to read your M.i to any
is agaist the law.It has private info. n it.
OTHER PEOPLE READING YOUR MI is abuse.
Writing MI Moral Inventory is probably one of the good habits taught iscripted by the cult. It changed my thought processes from what I used to write and think about before, and it certainly didn't make me athey are good?
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You could also turn an MI into a tool for helping you resist, or at least scare oldcomers and parents. I would write a blessing to Satan, make my challenge on how to leave as quickly as possible, and set goals to "report my oldcomer for rule violations". This woulod make them paranoid all day long.
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To b made to read your M.i to any
is agaist the law.It has private info. n it.
That was just a drop in the bucket, they routinely committed felonies as a matter of day to day operation. MIs were tools to help them in the brainwashing of the phasers.
Yeah, call your lawyer, I'm sure you'll go far with that one.
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MY LAWYER WAZ JUST TRYING 2 HELP N THE ISSUE WAZ HUGE WITH OUT HIM.
That was just a drop in the bucket, they routinely committed felonies as a matter of day to day operation. MIs were tools to help them in the brainwashing of the phasers.
Yeah, call your lawyer, I'm sure you'll go far with that one.[/quote]
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Remember that one exec at Springfield; he rode a motorcycle and had a tat, like a bracelet around his wrist ?? He came on staff around the end of 86/early 87. I was already on 4th or 5th phase when he showed up. I only remember him ever leading like 2 raps, while I was there, but I remember the tat on the wrist. Was his name Williams ??
Remember Mr. Pellitier ??
Curious.
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Remember that one exec at Springfield; he rode a motorcycle and had a tat, like a bracel
I THOGHT U WERE THER B 4 ME. LOL
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85-87.