[Coco] The CoCo AND the Church...

[Peter Cetinski]

Joe, if this helped you to relieve a burden that you’ve carried, even though no fault of your own, then I’m happy you did even if it was not an enjoyable topic to read.  Take care.

Pete

> On Feb 12, 2018, at 3:51 AM, Joe Schutts via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
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> Hi Everyone,
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> I want to tell everyone a truestory. Something that happened many years ago here in Pennsylvaniaand touched all of us involved in more ways than one. One that IS andISN’T related to the CoCo, but I think everyone will understandonce I tell it to you. Sorry it’s SO LONG...
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> Before I tell it to youthough, I want to describe the area I lived in and then I want todescribe (to the best of my ability) the individual players in thisdrama. The towns (and their names) are real, but I’m using fakenames to protect the innocent.
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> In the mid 60’s and early70’s I used to live in a little town called Forty Fort (in LuzerneCounty) which is outside of Wilkes Barre. You have Wilkes Barre onthe east side of the river and then when you cross the river (to thewest side) and you have Kingston and then as travel northwards alongRoute 11 you run into the towns of Forty Fort then Wyoming, thenExeter, and then West Pittston, and then you again cross the riveragain (to the east side) and you run into the town of Pittston. Fromthere as you travel south you then run into Plains and theneventually Wilkes Barre again. Sort of like a big loop.
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> First there was the Reverend(I’ll call him Reverend Judas) and then there was his cohort whomI’ll call Tim (supposedly an Altar Boy in the Reverend's church).
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> And now for the main playersin this drama. First there is myself, Joe an ex-Altair user whoswitched over to the CoCo when they 1stcame out and has never looked back. Besides me, there were 3 mainCoCo users, all of them close friends who I still cherish dearly. Onewho worked full time as a Pennsylvania State Trooper (whom I’llcall Officer Dudley – like in Dudley Do Wright), another CoCo userwas Bill K and his lovely wife Linda (from Plains - whom I’ll callBill and Linda) and finally there was John (from Wilkes Barre who wasin the National Guard as an artilleryman), All of these fine peopleformed the basis of our CoCo club.
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> Now on to the story itself.Sorry if this story is so long, but I want to get everything known toeveryone (at least as I remember it happening).
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> Anyway, back then I was biginto the CoCo and I was always doing something with it and withanyone else I could find either on the local BBS’s or elsewhere. Ihad the opportunity to meet a number of good people who lived nearme, or in other towns nearby.
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> Often times I would visitdifferent users in their homes or apartments and show them thingsthat would make using the CoCo easier and cheaper, or explain (orshow them) different ways to do things.
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> Things like how and where toget a “Nibbler” that would turn a single-sided disks into a“flipper” disk (where you could use both sides of a single-sideddisk) or I would make and give them a template that showed where topunch the timing hole to turn a single-sided disk into one that wecould use both sides.
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> All this was way beforedouble-sided disk drives were available. And often times I would makecopies of disks (and/or cassettes) of different programs I had orthat they wanted for themselves and/or their kids. Often times we(the parents and the kids) would just sit around the table and talkabout the CoCo and the possibilities that were available to us (theadults) and their kids.
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> But the one thing that we alldesperately needed was someplace where we all could meet once a month(or a week or whatever) to discuss all the new things that werecoming out or were available that we might be interested in having orlearning about. THIS was our main goal, and I tried my best tofulfill this goal. The one major problem was money for this meetingplace. We had nothing to pay rent for a meeting hall.
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> Eventually, someone (I’m notsure who) suggested I get in touch with a 
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> Protestant Minister fromPlymouth named Reverend Judas who might be interested in helping usout with a place to hold our meetings.
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> I called Reverend Judas andexplained our needs to him (I later found out that he too was a CoCouser – just a beginner though). I also went over to his church inWilkes Barre and saw that it was more than big enough to house allthe people that we could want to join out future CoCo Club. Thingswere starting to look up for our NEW Club. It was about time...
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> I had various CoCo users Iknew printing up and making fliers and posters announcing the startof a NEW CoCo Club. Many of these users used graphics programs likeCoCoMax and others that were available to them at the time.
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> Then came the big date, thedate of our 1stmeeting of the CoCo Club. On our 1stmeeting we had roughly 40-60 people show up just to see and hearabout what was NEW or available for the CoCo.
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> We had one person who talkedabout hooking up a Ham Radio to a CoCo and translating “Morse Code”into English. Another talked about different graphics programs andhow to better use them. And then there were the demos.
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> I showed people how to use asingle-sided disk and turn it into a “flipper” by using a simpletemplate (which I gave to everyone). I also talked about where to buydisks in bulk (50-100 at a time) instead of buying 10 at a time andpaying through the nose. All in all, the 1stclub meeting was a great success and everyone looked forward to ournext meeting.
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> A few days after the meeting,I was at home when my doorbell rang. I went to see who it was and wassurprised to see that it was Tim (the Altar Boy). Now I don’texactally know how to describe Tim other than to say that he wasroughly 16-17 years old and scrawny looking and he had a certain auraabout him which was hard to describe.
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> Have you ever had someone cometo your house and he exuded a certain vibe that gave you the creeps.Well, this was Tim. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I couldn’twait to get him out of my house. It was just creepy. To this day, Istill don’t know why he came over to see me, but I was definitelyglad when he left.
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> Shortly after that happened,myself and the other users were preparing for our second meeting atRev. Judases church when I received a call from out of the blue fromOfficer Dudley. We talked about things in general and then as a wayto say goodbye, Officer Dudley told me something which shocked me. Hetold me (or warned me) to, “Stay away from Reverend Judas and hisAltar Boy Tim”.
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> At the time I didn’t ask anyquestions or ask why, as I honestly didn’t (and still don’t)think I would have received any answer to any questions I might haveasked. Nor would I expect any, at least from him. I just said, “Ok.”and, “Bye.” and that was it...
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> Sometime later, (I think lessthat a week later) I discovered that there was a newspaper article(in the local newspaper) and several TV News reports about a certainReverend Judas and his Altar Boy Tim who were involved in running achild pornography ring where Tim first solicited kids and theneventually turned them over to Reverend Judas for further sexualacts. Disgusting…
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> Needless to say our CoCo Clubnever got a chance to have our second meeting and in a way, I’mglad it didn’t. I can’t express the sorrow and grief I feel forthose poor parents (and the kids themselves) and what they wentthrough. It’s enough to make you sick…
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> Sometime later (a couple ofweeks later) I went over to Officer Dudley’s house to see him. Wetalked a bit about different subjects and he finally told me thatboth he (himself) and other officers had investigated me thoroughlyand found out that I was in no way involved in this whole incident.
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> The problem was that theycouldn’t get authorization to give me any type of warning to “Stayaway” so I wouldn’t get caught up in this whole mess. OfficerDudley took it upon himself and possibly jeopardized his job and hisposition (and I’m grateful for that) to give me a warning. 
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> This part (that he that he didwith his warning) I have NEVER told to anyone. This is the firsttime I have ever told anyone about it, but I felt that it was time Ishould.
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> That particular meeting withOfficer Dudley ended on a sour note though. Officer Dudley lamentedto me that the Church (officials) had gone to the family members ofthe kids who were victimized and offered the parents financial gainsin exchange for guarantees that they would not press charges againstthe church or Reverend Judas. In exchange, Reverend Judas would besent on sabbatical or to a retreat for further counseling. OfficerDudley told me that so far, all of the parents agreed not to presscharges. Now the state had no case.
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> Shortly after this happened, Igot a job in another state and never did find out what had finallyhappened to Reverend Judas and his slime ball cohort Tim…
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> Now nearly 20 years havepassed, and I still don’t know what eventually happened to all theplayers in this drama. But to those who played a valuable part in it,I want to take the time and thank them immensely and to ask them tokeep me in their thoughts and prayers. I know I think of them oftenand wish I could look all of them up and see how they are doing andwhat is new.
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> To Bill K and Linda, I wish Ihad your phone number as I lost them over the years and had no way tocontact them again. And John (the weekend warrior) I hope you retireda general as you’re one in my heart. I wish you and your family thebest of luck. And finally for Officer Dudley, I can’t begin tothank you for “doing the Right Thing”. What you did was “Aboveand Beyond” the call of duty. It’s just too bad you couldn’tget a medal for what you did that day. In my book (at least) youdeserve one…
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> Well that’s the end of my“CoCo” story. I’m sorry if I offended anyone with this torridtale, but I felt that I had to tell it before I die and it’s buriedwith me. If anyone has any comments or if anyone knows Bill K andLinda’s phone number I’d like to hear it. Either way I’m surelots of people will have some comments about this…
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> Goodbye Everyone…
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> Joe...
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