Fornits

Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

"Or, to draw another analogy, let's say you're raving about the wonderful sandwich your eating and I tell you it was made from a nice slice of my leg, which was taken against my will. The decent thing to do, in response to this new info, is probably not to call me names and insist that the sandwich is so damned good as to be worth my sacrifice."


now THATS funny, and right about on target.  
BTW, in case anyone here doesn't know, somejoker is me, I use it to do my moderating duties.

Greg.

http://www.straightincorporated.com/pictures.html


Apparantly, The Straight occupied the same building for some time after the Seed closed down.
Surprising?  Not hardly.

Quick, this is a quiz, Name the three signs?


Couldn't do it, could you?

However, we spent every weekday in rules rap,the seven step rap and the three signs rap and sexual confession rap (boys and girls rap).

Okay, lets start with what the three signs were;

1) Think, think, think
2) First things first
3) easy does it.

They were posted on the wall, silly.

Next quiz question, what were the purpose of the three signs and the endless "raps" about these special powerfull tools that we used to get straight?

This is my take.  They were meaningless except as a demonstration of cultic submission. The actual content was so meaningless,You didn't even remember what they were, did you?(hahaha).

my explanation. The three signs were held up as one of the special methods Art  gifted us as tools to the straight seedling life.  In actuality, the "sign raps" were used, just like the rules rap, to demonstrate our submission to the group and our readiness to adopt  cultic group behavior.

We would enter into these raps in a weakened emotional and physical state. We would be tired, hungry restless. We were made to look straight ahead at the rap leader, to "motivate" our excitement at our participation, and weren't even allowed to sit back in our chair without knuckles poked and prodded into us from behind. Any failure to completely submit and comply, not matter how small, would result in immediate and severe punishment.

It would be then that the sign rap would begin. John Underwood or some other tyrant would come sit in the stool and bellow "Okay someone tell me what the first sign is and what it means to you".

This is when anyone actually thinking (ie: cult slang-getting into your head) would have to stop doing so and motivate his/her desire to answer this question.

answer:

"the first sign is Think, think think. This means to me that........"

Now, it was TOTALLY UNIMPORTANT what it meant to you. What was important was that you answered in the manner and method expected by the cult.

You had to answer the question in your own words but expousing the group philosophy. If it sounded insincere, you were "come down on" for giving "pat answers". If it was some alternative explanation derived from your actual thought process, you were in even bigger trouble.  What was important was that you could convincingly regurgitate the cultic line in your own words in a sincere and convincing fashion.

If you cleared these hurdles, the leader would say "okay, who can tell me the next sign?"

"first things first means to me to always put my sobriety ahea.........."

regurgitate cultic group identity/behavior.

What the three signs actually were mattered not one iota. what mattered was the regurgitation of the group meaning and the adoption of the group identity as your own.

The three signs could have easily been this;

1) jack be nimble jack be quick
2) run don't walk
3) slippery when wet.

The point being that the content was irrelevant, it was the action that mattered.

Discussion?

There were over 500 kids in June of 73 and it flutuated down to about 350 up to 750. Most of the time, 500 was pretty accurate, and they were graduating kids like crazy. It was a true revolving door.
There was no incentive to keep you like there was in the later straight type programs where they billed your insurance company. So, they got you in, and thankfully, they got us out relatively quick in comparison to the kids that came after us in the spinoff programs like straight, kids, SAFE.

Some of those kids spent years on first and second phase.

Ginger's brother Thom, whom posts here occasionally but reads everything we post (Hi Thom!) was in the seedling band.

Art Ran for Congress right around 76-77. I remember being horrified when hearing that, but I was out and was avoiding the topic at all costs.

One of my favorite memories. There was this kid about 16 or 17 but on the small size that came in just a little after me. He escaped about a week later. Several days passed , he was brought back and was stood up and come down on hard. That night he escaped again. They caught him and court ordered him in. Back then that meant you got a six month program. After court, he came back and they stood him up and absolutely creamed him for like an hour. That night he escaped again. He was caught the next day and brought back and stood up and just hammered for what seemed like forever, but he was smiling. They sent him home with these two huge guys and mocked him about how the windows were locked, alarmed, guard dog, etc and there was NO WAY he would escape again. That was the last time we ever saw him because that night he escaped for the last time.
He was my secret hero!

You may recall that as part of the indoctrination we were repeatedly told, and had to repeat, that if we ever "left" the seed we wouldn't be able to get the songs out of our heads.
Tis true...I remember them to this day.

Could our new friend from Lauderdale please try to answer the following questions:

1) Art Barker claimed "13 years in adolescent drug treatment" during 1972. The seed had only been opened for two years. He used to say he had been at a place up North.
the question is:
Where did Art Barker get his experience. Was he a member of Synanon? Daytop?
2) Was it John Underwood or your brother that used to tell the story about having to bite a mouse in order to join a motorcycle gang?
3) What happened to Suzy Connor? Was she at the reunion?
4) What happened to Arthur? Was he at the reunion?
Thanks so much for your participation. How about posting a story about one of your experiences at the seed?