In Reply to: Re: Great Spirit/ Part II posted by kinda gentler on March 17, 2004 at 13:27:51:
Wow! You have such vivid memories from so long ago. I cannot remember nearly so much detail, but then, I wasn't mated or pregnant or schlepping around Europe or singled out for special treatment. All those events would tend to stay fresher in the mind than months of drudgery on a farm in Virginia.
But I can also remember washing out baby diapers (for someone else's kids, of course) with bare hands outdoors in freezing weather. I'd get the pump going, which had a hose hook-up, and try to get it done as quickly as possible so as to minimize the amount of pain I had to endure.
When you mention Ruthie, are you talking about the Ruthie that Berg demonized in one of his letters? She had a son named Elijah and was pregnant with her second baby when I met her in New Haven, Conn. She seemed like a sweet woman to me. At least, I have good memories of her from the short time I knew her.
Maybe I didn't join in 1971. Now that I do the math, it must have been 1972. Not too long after I joined, the second 60 Minutes show came out. The shepherd at the colony where I was at the time got all freaked out about it. He would never have allowed us (babes) to watch it if he'd known what was about to be revealed.
I'd like to hear how the heck you managed to get out with a couple of small kids, health issues, no biological family to fall back on and living in a foreign country with a bunch of sadistic nutcases. What a predicament.