My story

[Bea Kiddo]

Peace

[Voltaire's Child]

Hi, Whatever,

You sound like a strong independent person. Your story is heart rending but I am glad that you are speaking out now.

All the best...rooting for you!

[Oingo Boingo]

Yo, What... Thanks for sharing. I feel for your situation, but kids always seem to have a way of making the best of bad situations somehow. Not sayin your situation was "happy", don't get me wrong, but you made the best of it you could and found your own ways to employ a coping mechanism that helped you survive. Thing is, you don't have to praise Hubbard for your "survival instinct". If he thinks he discovered that, well, there are some near-upright monkeys with thigh-bone clubs who'd love to have a *grunt* with him :D


Look, I'm real sure there's a really hard and painful story to tell behind your experience. Gawd knows that I have mine and that's just a life without Scientology! You take all the time you need to get it sorted, line it up the way you like it and when you're ready for your next installment, we'll be here waiting for ya with a comfy chair and a cup of tea, m'kay?

[Alan]

Whatever:

I'm amazed at how much of your story parallels my life as a child.

I was one of millions of children who grew up somewhat abandoned, for I grew up in London during World War II.

At the age of four my father was conscripted to the Army and sent to India.....I did not see him for 7 years.

My mother immediately volunteered to work in a factory.....replacing the lost men.....who were needed to fight in the war. She was gone 14 hours a day.

Consequently I had to bring myself up.

I personally loved it.......I hardly ever went to school.....yet I was not illiterate?..I read constantly?..when I did go to school my marks were always near the top of the class in all subjects??.I used to go up to the West End (Piccadilly Circus, Soho, Leicester Square) and live my secret life.

I learned how to make money......pretty easy for a five year old.....all I had to do was pretend I had lost my train ticket.....people would give me a shilling or two, to buy a new ticket.....I would do this for about an hour.....earn about 20 shillings......a lot of money in those days......

I would then go to the theatre to see the latest play.

Then onto a famous restaurant like the Ritz and have a 12 course meal.......it only cost 7 shillings.

I constantly again and again visited every major Museum in London.... I loved them.

Of course during the blitz I had some scary moments, but so did we all.

I learned so much during those years.

Personally for all those guilt ridden parents who feel they have abandoned their children?..as an abandoned child I think it was much better than being programmed into the family cult.

I had great parents who loved me deeply.

Alan

[Romuva]

Alan it's interesting .When I read some of your posts and had some discussions with you I had that impression.Same with you whatever from
what I read.


Why is it good,decent people have to go through so much shit in life?



Anyway,thank you for telling your stories.It puts my life into perspective.

[Bea Kiddo]

Peace

[Romuva]

Whatever,you will.It's good that you are here.


Take care of yourself.

[Romuva]

Whatever,my family uses this proverb or something similar to it.

“A smiling face is half the meal.” - Latvian proverb

but basically it means you are happy and amongst good company.Well
at least as it was explained to me.

Good company is always important.It is when you can contribute and share
the most.

In some ways for myself it is true.

[programmer_guy]

For someone who skipped school so determinedly, you write very well. You've got talent. I'm glad you're using it.

That's what I was thinking after the 1st few posts.

[Bea Kiddo]

1985 - 1988

Ok screw it. I will skip to Part III. Part II is too complicated to tell right now. I can't so I will skip for now and go to next part. Maybe later.

EDITED/ADDED: I forgot to add the battle of Portland in here - so I am going to insert it here. Sorry for any confusion. Ok so in 85 I was a kid still (teens) and there was a big briefing called to PAC base people. At that time, my mother and brother were also on the PAC Base, uncommon for us to all be there. Anyways, before the briefing I had this premonition that something was very wrong and i thought the church was getting closed down. I was kind of excited about it, cause I thought I would have more freedom. Oh well. So a big court case and anyone who could was to go down and protest. I thought we would be gone for a month. That was what I remember being told. Anyways, a little girl named Emma D'Abrey (I think her parents are now declared? Not sure. Last time I knew she was in the Sea Org at Flag somewhere) wanted to come with me. At the time she was 5 and I was a teen. Both of our parents allowed us to go by ourselves. Unbelievable but true. I was going to watch her. Our parents were staying in LA. As we were getting on the bus, we were interviewed by the media about why we were going. Poor Emma didnt know what to say. And I tried to say to defend freedom or something, I dont know. We got on the bus and I sat next to a girl who kept telling me that Prince wrote the song "Rasberry Beret" about her. Bus drive was 24 hours. So we all got to Portland and started protesting, etc. I ended up meeting Jeff Pomerantz (the speaker voice at all the events, and other honorable whatevers) because one time he came up behind Emma and I while we were marching and he took Emma and ran off up the street. He said nothing to me. I ran after him cause I didnt know what the heck he wsa doing stealing a little girl. She was crying and scared. It was media on the corner and he wanted her on his shoulders for the shot. And that is little Emma. I caught up to them and saw who he was and told her it was ok, and to hold a sign up for the cameras. Shortly after that I think she was sent home, or I lost track of her. I dont remember. Anyways, we were sleeping on the gm floor at Delphi the whole time that we were there. I think there were thousands of people. I dont know. I kept getting my head stepped on by people who couldnt see me. We stayed up there about 2 months protesting and then came home. I remember one other time we were protesting and a WOG yelled out "Go home!!!" and Jeff said "This is our home until we win!!!" and that came our saying for weeks. I was embarrased to be there and embarrased about being a Scientologist. I didnt even really know what it was!


Around the time that I was about 15 I guess, while many kids were running out of control, and the CEO and Cadet Org were not really on the ball getting us under control, the CO CMO PAC took to a meeting of all the squirts running around, which included myself and my best friend (who had continued my earlier actions, mainly consisting of theft and ditching school). THe CO CMO PAC of the time is an Aussie or Kiwi (forgive me, for I cannot remember!) named Sue Bolstad. She gave us this whole speech about our lives and how we were all out ethics and stuff. She asked me how old I was and I told her I was 13. She said at that age, she was already Class IV and auditing and sec checking. Ok, long story short, we all got shipped off to the Cadet Org. We all got forcibly voluntarily joined (yes, incorrect grammar, so what?).

And so I started low in the group. I think they made me the E/O (LOL, I was so out ethics, who knows how I won that title, even for kiddies!). Then I moved up and ended up doing collections from Missions that Cadets did around the orgs. We used to sell Freedom Magazines, pass out TWTH books, handle backlogged filing, etc and the orgs would pay us.

Anyways, somewhere in there I stole like 13 dollars, or 30? Cant remember and they sent me to the CHildrens RPF. Ok. THat was weird. I couldnt talk to anyone, no music, movies, nothing. I used to just sweep the front yard all the time. I got stuck there for about a year.

THen some recruiter for the SO came by trying to get his stats up for Thurs morning. He tried to get this one guy to join, but he didnt want to go. So I said I would go!! Anything to be able to listen to music again!

And that was why I joined the Sea Org. So I could listen to music again. You gotta understand, I was a kid when I joined. Likely to young. I didnt understand what the heck I was doing.

I remember on the EPF, doing all this heavy work. And then the courses were hard for me. I took like 6 months to read KSW #1 and then I was finally ready for a star-rate and I was terrified, trying to remember the defs of all those big words!). And the person asked me the def of "had" and I couldnt define it. She told me to look it up, re-read the bulletin and call her over when I was ready.

I remember thinking "Ok, see you in 6 months". LOL.

I was taking too long on the courses and I think they reviewed my situation and determined that since I had done BSM, I didnt need a study tech course and I had done some form of ethics course, So I just needed to do the Welcome to the Sea Org tapes (no star-rates there! Yay!) and the Cleaning Course or something (easy star-rates). But there was nothing about teeth brushing in any of that....

And then for the physical labor: I was working in the galley and I hated it. I hated cleaning things with water. It would dry my hands out so badly they would hurt. And then they wanted me to open the grease traps and clean them out too. Man, they smell nasty! Gross! So the Bosun was telling me that he would not sign for me to graduate until I got over all that (he had a crush on me and asked me out earlier and I declined and maybe that was his big deal anyways).

Oh well, while he was on study, somene else signed off for him and I graduated, a FULL Sea Org member!!! Yay. Age: 15.