Tales from AOLA, Mike Silverman, RPF, etc

Lulu Belle

Moonbat
This thread has a few details about Harold's suicide,

Oh my god. Thanks for this.

I didn't know that Harold committed suicide because he was so despondent over Nicole.

That is so fucking tragic.

Those two had the marriage...that the rest of us aspired to have. They really loved each other, and they were so tight. You could just see how much they supported each other.

I remember hearing how Harold would reassure Nicole and help her keep it together when she was getting ripped apart at work. It's not easy being a reg. He was her rock.

It's just all so, so sad.
 

Lulu Belle

Moonbat
To bad about Harold. He was soooo laid back. He always had a paper back book in his back pocket that he would always be reading on breaks. He was my OT3 Sup. Personally I thought he was quite a slob in the way he dressed. Unkempt. But I imagine that being SO Staff at AO it was difficult to keep ones cloths looking good, or even clean and pressed. I was a bit shocked when I met him.

To be fair, Harold had a short, squat body type. Men built like that always have problems getting clothes that fit. When they are big enough to fit around their middles, the shoulders are too big and the arms go down to their knees.

The only way these guys look decent is to buy shirts that are made for their build, or have clothes majorly tailored or tailor made.

No one in a service org in the Sea Org is going to have the time and money to do that. The assigned uniforms are crap anyway, and they don't come with special fittings.
 

Lee #28

Well-known member
To be fair, Harold had a short, squat body type. Men built like that always have problems getting clothes that fit. When they are big enough to fit around their middles, the shoulders are too big and the arms go down to their knees.

The only way these guys look decent is to buy shirts that are made for their build, or have clothes majorly tailored or tailor made.

No one in a service org in the Sea Org is going to have the time and money to do that. The assigned uniforms are crap anyway, and they don't come with special fittings.
Yes, very sad.

IMO SO management does separate married couples on purpose....but don't know why.

Enid Burne, the reg at AO......and her husband was on staff at Flag....2500 miles apart.

My apologies for the post....I know what you mean about getting cloths to fit. They just don't.

And no personal time to speak of in the SO to take care of yourself....in that regard.

And....I've become pretty much a slob myself....if truth be told....for various reasons.
 
D

Deleted member 51

Guest
Oh my god. Thanks for this.

I didn't know that Harold committed suicide because he was so despondent over Nicole.

That is so fucking tragic.

Those two had the marriage...that the rest of us aspired to have. They really loved each other, and they were so tight. You could just see how much they supported each other.

I remember hearing how Harold would reassure Nicole and help her keep it together when she was getting ripped apart at work. It's not easy being a reg. He was her rock.

It's just all so, so sad.
Harold Sims was completely devoted to Nicole. He loved her as fully as Shakespeare could ever have imagined. She completed him. Without Nicole, Harold withered away, empty.

In 1983, when Irene Dirmann was C/O AOLA and I was Dir I&R, she ordered me to RPF Harold Simms as a WHO for OT-3 completions being down. I refused to RPF him, but Harold was falling apart and when Harold came to pieces, so did the OT 3 courseroom. :( So Irene went to Peeter Alvet, the Staff MAA. Poor Peeter, just freshly off the RPF himself was terrified, but still held his ground and refused without Harold getting a Comm Ev.

We know how Comm Evs go when a Missionaire C/O wants a certain outcome. :sad:

I spoke to Harold and promised him and Nicole I’d get him out of there. It took six weeks, but I did. Nicole was on me every day, but the Cont and Int Justice Chiefs could only be nudged so much.

Harold was not strong by himself. Nicole was worried in a more serious way. It never occurred to me until after his suicide that this was what had Nicole so concerned back then. Harold had a dark place inside and Nicole kept the darkness away for him.
 
D

Deleted member 51

Guest
Thanks, lots of info.

While Nicole was my Reg......her Reg persona was a "Land Shark." She had little shark toys all over her office. She had a pair of those tong type grabbers....but the end was a Shark's mouth. I thought it was pretty funny.... She even signed her name with a Shark design on her Letters and receipts....

Then one day....they all disappeared. Every one of the Shark motif toys was gone.

To replace all this was some sort of "Wizard?" that had glitter dust...and a wand. ( or something like that...)

I always thought that some sort of upper management decision had come down on her to get rid of her Shark Toys....

Regges are a special breed.......real sales goals oriented !! Those skills are transferable to any sort of business....

Edited: To bad about Harold. He was soooo laid back. He always had a paper back book in his back pocket that he would always be reading on breaks. He was my OT3 Sup. Personally I thought he was quite a slob in the way he dressed. Unkempt. But I imagine that being SO Staff at AO it was difficult to keep ones cloths looking good, or even clean and pressed. I was a bit shocked when I met him. (Or having the money to buy new ones, once in a while...) When I heard that he had gone to Flag for training of some sort....I figured that he would have trouble due to his laid back nature. I didn't think he would fare well at a strict Flag type operation ...( just my thoughts...) Sad to hear your news about him....and how he ended.

Edited: Now that I'm older...and put on some weight....its hard for me to keep my shirt tucked into my pants as well.....if they are cut short and the tails are not long enough to keep tucked in. So usually just leave them untucked.
Yes, Nicole was ordered to get rid of her “Landshark” insignia and toys. Not sure where the order came from, but the CMO were all over the reges offices back then, especially a tall blonde woman.
 

Hatshepsut

Well-known member
Harold Sims was completely devoted to Nicole. He loved her as fully as Shakespeare could ever have imagined. She completed him. Without Nicole, Harold withered away, empty.

In 1983, when Irene Dirmann was C/O AOLA and I was Dir I&R, she ordered me to RPF Harold Simms as a WHO for OT-3 completions being down. I refused to RPF him, but Harold was falling apart and when Harold came to pieces, so did the OT 3 courseroom. :( So Irene went to Peeter Alvet, the Staff MAA. Poor Peeter, just freshly off the RPF himself was terrified, but still held his ground and refused without Harold getting a Comm Ev.

We know how Comm Evs go when a Missionaire C/O wants a certain outcome. :sad:

I spoke to Harold and promised him and Nicole I’d get him out of there. It took six weeks, but I did. Nicole was on me every day, but the Cont and Int Justice Chiefs could only be nudged so much.

Harold was not strong by himself. Nicole was worried in a more serious way. It never occurred to me until after his suicide that this was what had Nicole so concerned back then. Harold had a dark place inside and Nicole kept the darkness away for him.
I remember Nicole telling me she got really weird when that relationship first started. This would've been AOLA in Jan of 82 or 83. Her husband at the time was black or dark skinned? I was telling her how unreal my life had become with dissonant feelings unraveling all at the same time. Nicole said when she first met her beau, her world got strange and reality around her felt weird. She said things eventually felt normal and she calmed down.... but she said mine would not... stably.... unless I got onto the Solo where her honey was supervisor. She referenced the no interference zone and OT III.

I think I remember the sharks at her desk just off the lobby. She took the few grand I'd arrived with, morphed it into a bunch of stuff being prepaid for me. I'd credits on account since 1974-77 that Miami Org didn't want to be obligated to service when the our mission closed up. Nicole had the sleight of hand it took to change advanced payments back into intensives and BC course levels into the OT levels etc. I refused to remain in Calif because I didn't want to leave my cat,. I regretted it. She really pushed me hard get up to OT 3. She was always smiling at the guy who found any excuse to be near her office.

I think she destabilized because her loved one wasn't accepted, nor her relationship at first. I can imagine her emotions from being split up for FSO training. Similar thing happened while I was at the FSO

Guy Eltringham, who had remarried and had an infant wasn't allowed to go home to his spouse. He had a newborn and could't go back to Calif. The FSO wanted a NOTS auditor as they were flooded. He was suddenly given some cram chit to redo his Class VIII course on one of those top floor course rooms. I think he originally arrived to finish a different internship. I was there at Flag for about six weeks and he was being used constantly. He was still there when I left.
I mean, retread the entire Class VIII course with new baby just born. Had he even seen his child yet. There was so much suffering. Don't even know if he was in agreement he'd flubbed a session. I used to get on the elevator to peek in his courseroom or see if he was lunching on the mezzanine.

FLAG was shang hai-ing staff for their service org. It happened to my personal auditor while I was there in the FSO. He was a veterinarian from OZ. He was expected to stay til he finished my program.

As public, I felt bad about staff being ripped away from their lives. I wrote a letter to my C/S Jeff Walker requesting him to please let my auditor go home to Australia. To my amazement he did. I cried.
 
Last edited:

Enthetan

Veteran of the Psychic Wars
Harold was not strong by himself. Nicole was worried in a more serious way. It never occurred to me until after his suicide that this was what had Nicole so concerned back then. Harold had a dark place inside and Nicole kept the darkness away for him.
I knew Harold and Nicole, a bit. Looking back, Nicole was Harold's sunshine. I feel the same about my wife -- when I'm without her too long, I get depressed.
 

Lulu Belle

Moonbat
Regges are a special breed.......real sales goals oriented !! Those skills are transferable to any sort of business....

Looking back on some of the comments I remember Nicole making, I think she felt that and really longed to get out and use her skills for personal success.

She would say things like "if I was out/a public I would..." wear silk suits/work in sales/start a business...

I think she felt like compared to her life as a reg, making money in the outside world would be super easy.

I had similar feelings. My life was in the graphic arts/ printing world on staff. I felt like I could get a job anywhere in the "wog" world and it would be a piece of cake compared to what I went through on staff.

There is a certain amount of truth to that. If you're willing to work 14 hour days, for instance, you probably will get ahead.

However, I did find that a lot of what we thought of as "superior Sea Org competence" was an illusion. In the real world, people actually get trained in things and stay in jobs long enough to actually become experienced and know what they are doing. I came to that realization early on when I started working in the real printing world.

Not just always "making it go right".

I kind of wonder how reality fared with Nicole vs what she expected.
 
Last edited:
Top