Re: The old days - Aboard the Apollo - 1973
Reading this I wished I could rewind. And be there. What does it mean when the past, in Scn, sounds so nice. Not that I would EVER be in it now. I mean only THEN.
Celebrity Center in L.A. was a pretty special place in it's beginning years. Also, ASHO in thr 70's had some magic going on. There was a little magic at AOLA and the L.A. Org but nothing like CCLA. In the '70's, I was also fortunate enough to visit the Denver Org, going there in the summer of 1975 to visit my brother. As it turned out, he was living in the home of the C.O Mike Goldstein's parents, and they also put me up with a room there for the week I was there. Denver was really a "happening" place at that time. Mike and has then wife, Rebecca, had just left the Apollo and came to Denver and took over the Denver Org and really boomed it. Many interesting people were hanging out there. I even met my future wife (now my ex wife) there in Denver. She was a 22 year old who was holding down Division II. I got introduced to all the staff by Mike and I remember shaking hands with her and saying hello. Nothing came of it for 5 years at which time I ran into her again at ASHO. I didn't recognize her but she recognized me.
Among other Orgs or missions which I visited in the 70's was the Sacramento mission in 1974. I went up to Sacramento to visit on old friend of my brother's, Jim. He was into horses and was working with horses at the Sacramento County Fair. After my visit, as I started the long drive home, I passed the Sacramento Mission, and decided to check it out. Who should be there but Alan Walters. I new him a bit from CCLA where we both attended opinion leaders meetings. At the time, I was out of the S.O. for 6 months and could not get training or processing because I had a freeloaders debt. Alan told me that I looked like I was dying as a spiritual being and that I had to get that debt paid off and get back on lines. I took his advice to heart and in 6 months, I was back on course at CCLA.
Then we have the Las Vegas Org, I visited 3 or 4 times in the 1975, 1976 period. I was a Blackjack player, learning the Thorpe system of counting the cards which Ed Thorpe, PHD, revealed in his 1962 book, "Beat the Dealer". Betty Murakami and her husband John had both been staff members at CCLA when I was there. Betty was Div 2 Sec and I was in Div 3 so we interacted a lot and became friends. I will state flat out that Betty Murakami was (and still is) one of the finest people I have ever met. Anyway, I used to go up to Las Vegas to play blackjack and I decided one day to stop in and see Betty, who left CCLA and became CO of the LV Org. We had a nice chat and then Betty said that maybe we could grab lunch at a casino and then play a little blackjack. Betty, John and I went together. It was really fun and I quickly won $100 with a good run of cards in about 30 minutes and I decided to pocket the money and quit.
The Las Vegas Org, under Betty and John was doing pretty well, there was a high espirit de corp. Their specialty seemed to be attracting musicians, not the biggest stars but those who played in the lounge shows. John Murakami was one such musician, a trumpet player. Usually, the musicians in the Vegas lounge shows also played in the bands for some major name singers starring in casino shows, such as Kenny Rogers or Lou Rawls. These type of musicians were good FSM's, often able to disseminate Scn to other musicians even celebrity musicians. The Las Vegas Org used to select these entertainers to go do courses at CCLA but Yvonne and Betty came up with the idea of starting a Celebrity Centre in Los Vegas as well. In that manner, CC Las Vegas was born and flourished.
The last Org I saw in the 1970's was the Flag Land Base, where I went in 1977. It was pretty spectacular, maybe even more exciting than CCLA. The thing I like the most was the international flavor of the public people. There were so many German speaking people from the big orgs in Germany and Switzerland. I had plenty of opportunities to practice speaking German. Then, of course, Eastern Europe, North Africa and Larin America were heavily represented. No need to state that Australians and New Zealanders were there in large numbers. Besides all the foreigners, often one would bump into an old friend from the L.A. area. We public who went there were treated like kings and queens and we had freedom to do what we wanted. When we were having sessions, we could swim in the pool between sessions, play some tennis at some courts only 2 blocks away or watch television in our rooms. I remember being invited to watch a championship basketball game and also a major boxing match, while at the Fort Harrison. The PC waiting room featured a ping pong table and a couple of early Atari video games. We public were catered to and allowed to lounge around and take it easy in between sessions. TV and newspapers were allowed to be watched and read.
Lakey