Ex Hawaii/Riverside Staff

[pineapple]

So, did they try to serve you with a freeloader's debt because you didn't route out?

Yeah, eventually got a freeloader bill, after I left Hawaii. (See my previous post.) For a while I thought about paying it, even if I wasn't going to continue with Scn, which is the way it was looking by then. Finally gave up on the idea. I figure all the 70-hour weeks I worked for virtually no money is payment enough.

During my second stay in Riverside, they fed their staff 3 all-you-can-eat hot meals a day, and I got paid $55/wk. While that worked out to well under $1/hr, it was affluence compared to Honolulu. Most weeks there I got zip, nada. If I ever got $20 it would have been a huge big deal.

[Natalie]

Aloha Pineapple! I was around when you were in Hawaii, but I was a kid then, having been born in 1970. My name then was Natalie Webster. My mom was married to Brian Takano at that time. Her name was Donna Takano then, and she may have been on staff at that time.

I've been living in Minnesota for the last 19 years and left the cult 2.5 years ago, as did my whole family.

[pineapple]

Aloha Pineapple! I was around when you were in Hawaii, but I was a kid then, having been born in 1970. My name then was Natalie Webster. My mom was married to Brian Takano at that time. Her name was Donna Takano then, and she may have been on staff at that time.

I've been living in Minnesota for the last 19 years and left the cult 2.5 years ago, as did my whole family.

The names Brian Takano and Donna Takano do sound familiar. I'm sure I don't remember them from the Hono Mission, but the Hawaii Org maybe. The org staff I knew less well, since I was mostly just there as a student. I did my Dn internship and my Levels 0-IV and IV internship at the org. Very nice place when it was out in Aina Haina, in what I was told was Norma Maier's old house. There were a couple buildings around a central courtyard, and a stream ran behind the property. In the evenings frogs used to come up from the stream into the courtyard and you had to be careful not to step on them. The org staff were very pleasant too, in my experience. I never had a problem with them.

Do you remember the org when it was in that location? I know you were just a kid, but it's possible you might. They moved later -- in the late 70's, I guess -- to Waikiki. It was thought that the Aina Haina location was too out-of-the-way to attract lots of new public. I never liked the Waikiki spot as much, and I know some other people felt the same. It didn't have the "theta" feel of the old place, as we used to say.

When I was in Hawaii in the early 90's the org had moved again, to a very unobtrusive location downtown on King St. I was long out of Scn by then, so I didn't go in to check out the inside. I see they're now at 1347 Kapiolani, not far from where the old mission used to be, at 1282 Kapiolani. I think the current location is just a suite in an office building. Sounds like they've dwindled down a lot, but I hear this has happened to Scn everywhere, contrary to what the C of S would like you to believe.

Congrats on you and your family getting out. It must be very different having family in Scn, and if your mom was on staff in the 70's, I guess you grew up with it and had a very long period of involvement with it. I think that would make it harder to break away.

Aloha

[Natalie]

I spent a lot of time catching frogs in that stream behind the Aina Haina org.

It was whe the org was in Waikiki that we met Mark David Chapman, the guy who killed John Lennon. He worked as security at a building right by the org. Being the typical unsupervised kids of staff that we were, we would chat him up and try to sell him pictures we drew. I think it was a year or so later he becamed infamous. By then we moved on to a neighboring tranny protstitute as a friend. Lovely enviornments for a 10 and 12 year old. Not many kids were running around that area at night.

The Hawaii org has shrunk a ton since the Aina Haina days. There has been the same old same old staff for years. Good people, but wasting their lives.

Growing up in Scn did make it harder to break away. I think mostly because the mind control is in place longer and you have more time to become numb to the most glaring outpoints. Every day I'm free from the cult, the more I see moments in my past for what they were, rather than how I once viewed them through my cult tinted glasses.

The names Brian Takano and Donna Takano do sound familiar. I'm sure I don't remember them from the Hono Mission, but the Hawaii Org maybe. The org staff I knew less well, since I was mostly just there as a student. I did my Dn internship and my Levels 0-IV and IV internship at the org. Very nice place when it was out in Aina Haina, in what I was told was Norma Maier's old house. There were a couple buildings around a central courtyard, and a stream ran behind the property. In the evenings frogs used to come up from the stream into the courtyard and you had to be careful not to step on them. The org staff were very pleasant too, in my experience. I never had a problem with them.

Do you remember the org when it was in that location? I know you were just a kid, but it's possible you might. They moved later -- in the late 70's, I guess -- to Waikiki. It was thought that the Aina Haina location was too out-of-the-way to attract lots of new public. I never liked the Waikiki spot as much, and I know some other people felt the same. It didn't have the "theta" feel of the old place, as we used to say.

When I was in Hawaii in the early 90's the org had moved again, to a very unobtrusive location downtown on King St. I was long out of Scn by then, so I didn't go in to check out the inside. I see they're now at 1347 Kapiolani, not far from where the old mission used to be, at 1282 Kapiolani. I think the current location is just a suite in an office building. Sounds like they've dwindled down a lot, but I hear this has happened to Scn everywhere, contrary to what the C of S would like you to believe.

Congrats on you and your family getting out. It must be very different having family in Scn, and if your mom was on staff in the 70's, I guess you grew up with it and had a very long period of involvement with it. I think that would make it harder to break away.

Aloha

[pineapple]

"It was when the org was in Waikiki that we met Mark David Chapman, the guy who killed John Lennon. He worked as security at a building right by the org."

When I was on staff at the Hono Mission, I worked nights as a security guard at an apt building on Ala Wai Blvd, by the canal. The building manager was a Scngst and ex-mission staff, which was how I got the job.

Early one morning I was making my rounds in the building. The morning papers had just been delivered and I saw the headlines saying that Lennon had been shot. As I found out more of the story, I learned that Chapman had been a security guard right across the street from where I worked until not long before.

After I left Hawaii and Scn, I used to tell my friends, "I used to work as a security guard in Hawaii across the street from where Mark David Chapman worked as a security guard." It sounds so bizarre that after years of telling it I was starting to wonder if maybe it didn't really happen, that maybe it was just something I'd made up.

It's good to have you confirm the accuracy of my recollection on this.

Aloha

[Scout]

I was there with Pineapple but I can't figure out who you are yet, but I am sure we know each other pretty well because the Honolulu staff was very small especially compared to Riverside. As a matter of fact my years in scn were the same as yours.

I remember thinking we were connecting to something powerful when Bent and Mary and Frank and Rene came over. I especially appreciated Frank Walker (remember how he'd wipe his head head from back to front when I presented him another conundrum) and his smooth ways as he handled staff and the public.

Hawaii was a wonderful place to learn Scn but it changed when Riverside came over. It was the first time I saw the mother church come in and dictate to our Mission. We thought Mission International had sent Bent and Mary over.

I knew by 1980 my time was up on Staff and Scn. I had to been to Riverside a few times to absorb their methods. Yes the reg stories about Jeff Kovach and Hambone and John Ruane and others were true. How do I know? I was the Honolulu Reg trained in Riverside. Fortunately Frank didn't force me to operated like that, but I had to work Wog Jobs to be able to support myself and my wife (also on staff) with a daughter on the way. All this while holding down staff responsibilities. The good part of the wog jobs was I found the outside world entertaining and enjoyable. No downward spiral and I repaired the family connections I had severed when I entered Scn. But to do that I had to return to where I came from.

I miss Hawaii quite a bit but I don't miss the long staff hours. More even than Hawaii I miss the staff I served with. They were interesting and lively as a group. Thank you for the chance to relive this just a little 32 years later.

[pineapple]

I was there with Pineapple but I can't figure out who you are yet, but I am sure we know each other pretty well because the Honolulu staff was very small especially compared to Riverside. As a matter of fact my years in scn were the same as yours.

I remember thinking we were connecting to something powerful when Bent and Mary and Frank and Rene came over. I especially appreciated Frank Walker (remember how he'd wipe his head head from back to front when I presented him another conundrum) and his smooth ways as he handled staff and the public.

Hawaii was a wonderful place to learn Scn but it changed when Riverside came over. It was the first time I saw the mother church come in and dictate to our Mission. We thought Mission International had sent Bent and Mary over.

I knew by 1980 my time was up on Staff and Scn. I had to been to Riverside a few times to absorb their methods. Yes the reg stories about Jeff Kovach and Hambone and John Ruane and others were true. How do I know? I was the Honolulu Reg trained in Riverside. Fortunately Frank didn't force me to operated like that, but I had to work Wog Jobs to be able to support myself and my wife (also on staff) with a daughter on the way. All this while holding down staff responsibilities. The good part of the wog jobs was I found the outside world entertaining and enjoyable. No downward spiral and I repaired the family connections I had severed when I entered Scn. But to do that I had to return to where I came from.

I miss Hawaii quite a bit but I don't miss the long staff hours. More even than Hawaii I miss the staff I served with. They were interesting and lively as a group. Thank you for the chance to relive this just a little 32 years later.

I'm pretty sure I know who you are, bro.
If you were a reg in Honolulu in the Riverside period that narrows it down a lot.

We both went to Riverside a couple times but I don't think we were ever there concurrently.

You got off staff before I did (smart).

I believe we both lived in that same staff house up in Papakolea for a while. In fact it was you who got me to move in there, while I was still public.

Did you use to play lacrosse?

[ClearedSP]

Pineapple. Did you know Jeff Yumens? He opened a mission in Hawaii ran it for a few years then closed it down. I'm not sure which years.

By the way, if anyone ever runs into Jordan Nagasako or Gail (Peterson) Nagasako in Wailuku, tell them the person who once bullbaited Jordan on "maki die dead" sends warm regards.

[Scout]

I'm pretty sure I know who you are, bro.
If you were a reg in Honolulu in the Riverside period that narrows it down a lot.

We both went to Riverside a couple times but I don't think we were ever there concurrently.

You got off staff before I did (smart).

I believe we both lived in that same staff house up in Papakolea for a while. In fact it was you who got me to move in there, while I was still public.

Did you use to play lacrosse?

I did Pineapple. Did you play guitar?

[GreyWolf]

Welcome. I like your avatar by the way.