In the mid 1970's the LRY executive committee (made up of 4 youth) appealed to the UUA Board of Trustees for assistance in improving youth programs.
A Special Committee on Youth Programing (SCOYP) was formed. This committee recommended LRY change it's name, that funding for LRY (as a "youth-run" organization) be cut, and that one full time person be hired to administer UUA youth programs.
LRY teenagers fought the proposal for five years, using every possible delay.
Some churches, meanwhile, set up "Non-LRY" youth groups. One such group was "UUY" which operated briefly in Florida.No youth on the continental Youth-Adult Committee voted to recommend the SCOYP proposal to the UUA Board of Trustees. The proposal failed by a 5-3 vote, four youth and one adult voting against the recommendation. The three remaining adults, however, filed a "minority report" and the Trustees adopted the recommendations on a split vote.
LRY teenagers successfully appealed at General Assembly, arguing against elimination of youth staff positions at UUA headquarters. UUA Trustees temporarily restored the LRY executive committee positions along with a new position of youth programs specialist. There were widespread accusations about LRY and LRYers--that too many weren't from UU families, and were prone to discipline problems. It sounds absurd but teenagers would show up at General Assembly freightened of other teens, just because some were from LRY groups and others weren't. Some, not all, of the adult concerns were legitimate. There always has been a need for adult supervision, and a shortage of adult volunteers to work with youth in our denomination. Many adults never abandoned LRY. Others did, which fueled the division. After the GA vote the new youth programs director, Wayne Arnason, set up two continental youth programming conferences named Common Ground, called to usher in a new, unified group. By now, of course, most of the youth who had strong feelings about SCOYP had moved to college. Youth were warned that unless they voted for a name change, there would be continued disharmony. YRUU was born. It was viewed as a compromise betwen LRY and the fleeting UUY.
Dear Friends,
LRY has got to be one of the most important experiences I've had in my life.
Mostly, this was because it provided a huge sense of inclusiveness while
fostering an atmosphere of adventure and growth.
I was in LRY from 1975 to 1979. During that time I experienced the "fall from Grace" of LRY firsthand. My early experiences of LRY were filled with a sense of awe. I remember beautiful young women rushing up to hug me for no apparent reason. (This can be seen as a sexual experience or a spiritual experience - or both). I remember mystical worship services that made my spine tingle and my heart warm. I remember youth leading worships, business meetings and elections. They planned the conferences, arranged transportation, and "chaperoned" the conferences with only nominal supervision from adults (and often the adult was 21). They carried the responsibility of the events easily and thoughtfully. I remember crises (pl.) that were mishandled and parents who were upset. Early on, there was a real sense of mystery and excitement surrounding a conference. Unfortunately, the concerns of parents about where their kids were and what they were or were not doing were generally ignored, however. (Big Mistake).
Later on, in the late 70s, the 60s cult that had been preserved in LRY started to unravel. The sense of magic that was in the air began to fade. More and more, conferences became places to hang out and not super special events. The whole country was changing as the last vestiges of the anti-war movement faded. The Vietnam War ended when Saigon fell in 1975. It didn't take long for the new youth entering LRY to start feeling alienated by the attitudes of the LRYers towards the "status quo" world. They told their parents that the LRYers were hippies and that they weren't, so they didn't want to join LRY. Their parents started to ask the church what was going on.
About this time, 1977 or so, LRY realized that it was losing membership on a national scale. LRY asked the UUA for help on this problem. The meetings were officially called SCOYP. I have no idea what that stands for. Basically, the adults at SCOYP and the LRYers at SCOYP did a lot of yelling at each other. (Big Mistake)
The adults wanted to disband LRY. They cited drugs and illicit sex as the reasons. Drugs and sex were not the focus of LRY, though, merely the focus of the rumors about LRY. To us, LRY, it seemed like disbanding LRY for these reasons would be like disbanding the UUA because there were adulterers in the UUA. It seemed crazy. Ludicrous. Unthinkable. But we had lost our perspective. We were autonomous. LRYers said the word Autonomous the way the american revolutionaries like Benjamin Franklin and his buddies said the word Liberty. But, we forgot that we could be hanged for it.
In 1978, we received word at the district level that LRY was to be disbanded. This came from the UUA via SCOYP. By this time, LRY said the words SCOYP and UUA the way their parents said the word Nixon. The disbandment was appealed through channels and the UUA agreed to let LRY exist for 9 more months. Period.
This effect of this on LRY was different in different areas. But, no more money came into the coffers of LRY after 1979 and LRY died at the national level at that time. In strongholds in California, Colorado and in the east, LRY continued for a few more years. But, I didn't know about that at the time. I only knew what it was like in the Central Midwest District. In 1978, we all knew that it was The End. The atmosphere of conferences became stale. The leaders disappeared and the people who liked to hang out and smoke cigarettes were left in charge of conferences.
My local group was systematically expelled from the local church. First, they asked us to move to a new room in order to change the atmosphere of the group. We declined. Then, they said we had been smoking cigarettes in the RE building basement where we met. We called it the Dungeon. Graffiti in chalk was still there from earlier LRY periods. The cigarette butts were, too. Nobody in the group smoked at that time. The President of the Board got mad when we told him that but we were not let back in the Dungeon. We met at a members house for a while but we lost the legitimacy that meeting at the church provided and only one new member joined the group. There were a few more conferences and then that was it.
The void. The big empty period when there should have been a youth group but there was no youth group. Imagine a church that throws out its own youth group. (Imagine a youth group that declares autonomy from the church.)
There was no LRY in the Central Midwest District at the District level in the 1980-1981 period. No youth group. Nothing for two years. Nada.
- An important historical correction needs to be made about this otherwise commendable link: Despite Jim's statement to the contrary, LRY did exist on the Contintental level, and in the Central Midwest Fed (CMF), after 1979. Though I'm sure some locals were no longer active (or allowed in the church), others were. Some locals continued to meet and attend conferences together even after the church threw them out (!). In these cases it was often younger LRYers paying the price for activities that had happened way before they even joined LRY. I personally attended conferences in Illinois and Wisconsin during these latter years, and served on the '80 CMF YAC and the '81 LRY Continental Executive Committee. And LRY Con Cons took place up until '83. So, though activity during this period may have been reduced and less visible in some areas, we were most definitely still around. --former Taco and People Soup editor Kathryn Price (added 1999)
Then came Common Ground. The youth of the nation were invited to form a new group. They were told horror stories about LRY. Most of these stories were true. But the essence of LRY, the spiritual nature of an LRY conference, the hard working leadership of the youth, the open recognition of one another as sexually maturing people, the sense of self- directedness, and the pure joy of being in LRY were not being emphasized at common ground. So, with the help of some wonderful, hard working adults like Rev. Wayne Arneson, an ex-LRYer, the youth "chose" to embrace a more adult-directed style of youth group at Common Ground.
The ex-LRYers say Wayne Arneson the way that Ben Franklin and his friends said Benedict Arnold. They say Common Ground the way we say Politician or Lawyer or Mother-in-Law.
(Wayne is a wonderful minister.)
But it doesn't matter, because, most of the ex-LRYers from my day say UUA the way that you might say Creep and don't come around much anymore.
But, Wayne (remember Wayne?) and Common Ground did something remarkable. They cut out the tumor that was growing within the youth movement of LRY. (LRY had something foul growing in it. That can not be denied.) With it, they cut out a little bit of the heart, and some of the brain of LRY. They handed responsibility over to the adults the way that... children might. And, we all know that that IS FOR THE BEST. %)
They then, very carefully, put back in some love, a little freedom, some open acceptance and lots of peer support just like (kinda like) LRY had. Good Idea. And, spirituality began to flow in the new youth group.
They called it YRUU. One of the big questions I would put to YRUU is Why are you you? To what extent is YRUU a creation of Common Ground and to what extent is it a natural spillover of LRY love and rituals thru' the last remaining holdovers of LRY that existed at the time of Common Ground?
Later, (much), I became a YRUU advisor. I was amazed at the huge numbers of people at cons, 200 where LRY might have had 60. For each 5 YRUUers there was 1 adult. But, all but 1 or 2 of the adults were all together in one room for most of the con. So a lot of adult input was restricted during the con. But, the IMAGE of adult supervision is there. And, adults do actually plan out the con schedules and age ranges and give some workshops. But, not much more than during LRY! It's an image thing. And, it helps.
For example, I can compare two astoundingly similar events that happened in my experience. Flash to 1975, an LRY con. A parent calls on the phone at 2 in the morning to ask where his kid is. After a search, a youth says, "Oh, he and some others went out for coffee and donuts." and hangs up. No big deal. The youth returns in a half hour and calls home. Parent goes ballistic. No conferences are allowed at that church for 3 years.
Flash to 1991, a YRUU con. A parent calls to ask where his kid is at 1 in the morning. After a search, a youth tells the district level advisor that he (you won't believe this) went out with some other kids and an advisor for coffee and donuts even though no one was supposed to go out after midnight. The district level advisor gets on the phone and says "We are having a little difficulty locating your child since there are over 200 youth here, we will have him call you as soon as we find him." The youth returns in a half hour and calls home. All is well. The coffee and donut advisor was given a stern talking to. She was 25.
The inclusion of adults in YRUU puts the burden of responsibility on the adults. So, when there is a snafu, the advisors... COVER for the youth. They provide a buffer between the kids and the adults of the church so that the YRUU image does not become as tarnished as it otherwise might.
The YRUU youth also feel that whatever is happening at a con is ok as long as they feel the adults are ok about it. If they are unsure, they become worried if an adult is not present. Example: Youth doing the time warp in a hot tub. So, the youth no longer internalize their sense of responsibility as much as LRYers did.
I am sure that individual LRYers were no more mature than YRUUers are now. But, as communities, the two are different in some ways. Both communities are mature communities because the feeling of trust between youth and the amount of respect that they give to one another in worships and business meetings is often very high. That's key. Even at YRUU cons, the ritual of the con blows away the minds of the advisors because it is so cool.
This ritual, the whole flow and feeling of a con, fits a predictable pattern. Now it's time for workshops, now it's time to for worship, time to eat, etc. tie dye, group hugs, wink, etc. It's all one big ritual from the time that you get hugged hello to the time you hug people goodbye. And, that ritual is about 40 years old. It survived.
But, YRUU has a problem. It, too, is maturing from the days of Common Ground. There is a good side to that but I am talking about the other side. Over the time that I was a YRUU advisor, the number of people smoking cigarettes at a con went up from about 1% to about 15%. That in itself is no big deal. But, it reminds me of what I saw happening in LRY. I saw the cigarette smoking go from about 50% to about 80% in LRY. (very rough estimates). You could feel the change.
More and more people came to LRY cons to hang out but not to grow spiritually. I think this same thing might be happening in YRUU but it is at the early stages. The people who like to hang out are not as worried about who knows that they smoke pot sometimes or who knows that they have sex sometimes, in my experience. They don't pay attention to what the image of YRUU is in the church at large and don't care.
If YRUU advisors can't keep up the image of YRUU as well, then YRUU might be subjected to the kind of electro-shock therapy that happened to LRY. Because, the UUA still does not know that the core of UU spirituality, the most mature community in UUism, outside of GA (General Assembly) perhaps, is the UU youth conference. And, if YRUU's image changes. they will have the natural reaction that parents have when they find out that the youth are acting in ways that they don't approve of. They will freak.
The UUA does not know, and is largely unprepared to grasp the sense of spirituality and love that exists at YRUU cons. They don't realize that the UU Principles actually are being LIVED (not just talked about) by whole communities of youth for weekends and weeks at a time all over the country.
So, as in the case of LRY, spirituality won't matter when the time comes to decide whether or not to have YRUU undergo an image change. Electro-shock therapy worked so well for LRY (%() that it might used on YRUU, too, someday. I don't think that the organization that blasted LRY out of its saddle in order to correct an image problem has grown any wiser about or more caring towards its own youth movement.
. . .
May the long time sun shine upon you,
Jim Sechrest
By the time LRY actually fell apart, I was no longer in youth group -- it was only a year or two after I stopped, but I wasn't personally affected by LRY's demise. It didn't affect my relationships with other LRYers, nor did it 'turn me off' to the church.
LRY had close ties to the counterculture because we were concerned about many of the same things, the Vietnam War, the draft, the environment and altered states of consciousness. We had a lot of hassle from the adults about the latter though...mainly over drugs. Luckily, there was only one conference where we had a bad drug freak-out, and it wasn't like a typical bad trip that you can talk someone down from either. It was more like some kind of psychotic reaction, and we had to finally call the men in their clean white coats to come and take him away. I still have no idea what caused that bad reaction, but I have never seen that happen before or since.
The thing that was such a freak-out for me over this was that the guy who went nuts was the President of the TOAK federation and I had written a fictional story almost a year before about him getting sick and somebody else having to be President, so I go to the conferance and when it actually happens, you can see how I'd be freaked out by it. Also, he ruined my turntable by throwing a handful dirt and gravel on it while a record was playing for a jazz workshop I was trying to help someone do. You can see how the adults would be upset by all this, but the truth of the matter was they were upset when there wasn't any hanky-panky going on at all.
At the local level, we had meetings at church every Sunday night and for a while, we had a coffee house, which was great, but the adults kept getting on our case about that. We also did stuff to raise money, like selling donuts after the church services. Each year, we had Youth Sunday where we put on the church service. The thing that was a hassle about it was blacking out the sky lights so we could project films and stuff. The sancuary was pretty big and it had about 90 skylights that we had to put black plastic over and hold it down with rocks. Once we got that unplesant task done, we had a great time doing the show.
I think we all got a lot more out of LRY than the adults ever gave us credit for, as far as personal growth goes. Maybe if they had realized this, they wouldn't have hassled us as bad. One of the main activities we did was to look into alternative ways of thinking and doing things. We'd get into concepts like Eastern religion and noted how it differed from Western religion. I wish we had gotten into alternative politics, but for some reason, they wanted us to stick with Robert's Rules. In particular, I think we should have used the system of consensus where appropriate, like when we had to make some decision on someone's fate.
The last year I was in LRY, they elected me editor. Actually, I was more or less the communications officer the whole time I was in LRY because I provided the sound system, but this was the first time I was an elected officer. The first thing we had to do was come up with a name for the newsletter I was supposed to edit. We had to rename it because the federation we were in had split into two, so that people living in Houston wouldn't have to drive all the way to Oklahomia for the conferances. Various names where thrown around, such as Federation Under Central Kansis, but we wimped out on that one because we knew the parents would get all upset if we called it F.U.C.K. Then someone thought up the name The Toak Times and that's what we went with, since I was going to edit it and everyone knew I was the most notorious head in the federation and had the longest hair and beard.
Most of the conferances were five days long. They started on Sunday and ended on Friday. I'm not sure why, but the Spring conferances were only a weekend long. This was probably because everyone didn't have spring break during the same week. The conferances were usually held in a youth camp in Oklahomia.
The conferances consisted of a morning and afternoon workshop, a theme talk, some kind of planned recreation and a worship service at the end of the day. Wednsday was stunt night, where we put on skits and Thursday was howl night, where we usually had a band. I think they called it howl night because at one conferance back in the 50's, they couldn't get a band, so they had Allen Ginsberg come and read Howl instead. I think that was the first time the parents threatened to disband LRY.
Throughout just about all of LRY, we seemed to have one crisis after another with the adults. I remember one time, they had a fake bust at one of our rallies to try to scare us about the dangers of getting busted and instead, it just ended up getting everyone all upset about being tricked. There were always alligations of LRYers sleeping with other LRYers at our conferances and rallies and we never heared the end of it. Then, there was the time they were all upset about our coffeehouse. I don't remember what the charges were, but what I do remember was that was the Sunday I went to the park and got dosed from the electric Kool-Aid that I had no idea was electric, and it was one of the strongest doses I ever got. We had a confused LRY meeting that night for sure.
Oh the problems we had the year I was elected. We had found this brand new youth camp in Beavers Bend, Oklahomia and I think LRY was the first group to use it in June, 1970. It had nice A-frame cabins that even had attic fans to keep them cool, and it also had a really trippy mess hall. But come June, 1971, we couldn't get that camp for some reason, so we had to use some older camp we had never been to before, which turned out to be the pitts. I think the first thing that went wrong was my bunk bed collapsed on top of the cat below me. The only thing we could do is drag the mattrasses onto the floor and sleep there. Well, one thing after another went wrong. We were gulping water from the outside bar, when yet another pleasant surprise happens. They told us they were going to have to shut off our water because a water main had burst somewhere.
Well, great! How do you run a conferance without any running water, especially during a heat wave. We had been having enough problems with people coming down with heat exhustion when we had plenty of water. That was the reason for the sunshine salt tablets mentioned in the review below. This situation was about as bad as Woodstock, because you can't cook the food without water, nor can you wash the dishes. Hank, the camp nurse, told us there was nothing we could do but abort the conferance, but then he went down to the ranger station and convinced them to let us move to the other camp, which wasn't being used after all, and it had plenty of water. We had a meeting and decided to move to the other camp. So I fired up the sound system first thing the next morning, found someone to operate the board and got on the stage and said, "Good morning." My mike was turned up way too high and it just about blasted everyone out, and I heard my voice bounce off some mountain a few seconds later. "Sorry about that! I didn't know this damn thing was loaded," I said after they got the volume set right.
I told everybody we were moving to the other camp, but before we do, we have to clean up this camp. I then preceeded to break down the sound system and pack up the sound truck while everyone proceeds to clean the camp and pack up. I had to get to the other camp first because I needed to get the sound system up and running before others started ariving. I got everything set up at the new camp and as soon as thepeople started arriving, I put on the theme to 2001 and when it ended, I said, "Welcome to the rebirth of June Conferance." It was a rebirth for sure.
The following is a review [by Barbara Lawrence] from the Toak Times of our June, 1971 conferance, which was my last conferance as editor of the Toak Times. The next editor was Scott Brix.
Wasn't it just darling staying three wonderful dags in luxurious Youth
Camp #1?! Ah, memories: Wooden toilet seats showers that flooded, cabins
resembling steam baths, bunks that were collapsable (whether you wanted it to
or not!), cabins facing the steady stream of traffic, nearby campers that, for
some reason, didn't seem to like 200 Motels played over P.A. systems and all
the Mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers a person could ask for were juat a few of
the highlights of that lovely resort. We spent a lot of time chewing Colin's
sunshine salt tablets and gulping wawa at the outdoor bar, when yet another
delightful surprise springs out: The water was going to be shut off for a
while. I, upon arriving, had the priviledge of working kitchen duty and being
elected to CaC all on the first night:
But seriously, folks, we had a nice time, At this new meeting called Thingy, we
got to know more people faster and decided to move to youth Camp #2. (Thank
God!) Workshops were done by Bob Ross on family living, by Royda Brix on Tai
Chi, by Rachel Van'Citters on life drawing, by Gene Leggett on how to be
different (I think. I came in a little Late) and a lot more that I can't recite
at the moment. We had this nise little thing on women's consciousnese which was
funsies, followed closely by men's consciousness, then we put them together and
watched the fireworks. Not really, it was a pretty good discussion. We moved to
the other camp on Wednesday Colin played music from 2001: A Space Oddity when
we arrived. We had planned rec, which was swimming, volleyball, and
Frisbee-slingling the whole time; Worship service was given every night, of
course. Wedneaday night was Stunt Night, Some of that was Tammy and the Twatts'
featuring Big Hank and friends; the Dick sisters, Caressa, Eda, Fonda and
Anita; a typical Richardson LRY meeting featuring Colin and Richardson LRY;
Mistery Blanket featuring a bunch of people .(I fergit who) Consumer Retort
with me,and Mary Bath McKay and a foot-long Little-Thingy about masculine
hygiene deodoramt, (All you male LRY'ers, take a look at yourself! But keep
your hands On the paper!); and a few other stunts Ifergit. Thursday Howl Night.
Colin got a band called Roach which arrived two hours late. We were beginnig to
wonder if they'd gone to Broken Arrow. After Howl Night's wonderful band
played, something happened to Howl Night. Maybe it was the Old Dime-A- Dance
Romance Disease or something, but I thought that Howl Night could've been a
hell of a lot better. How was it for you? The food was good, but someone swiped
the potato chips. You want Taters?: Next morning we roused our bods, ate our
last plate of cream corn on French toast, cleaned up, had Friendship Circle,
cried, said goodbye, and left.
Barbara Lawrence
Speak, what you believe is right,
Think, act, who, when, what!
Define freedom for our generation,
Justice for ourselves with tolerance for everyone,
Liberal Religious Youth
We think, we challenge, we act.
Liberal Religous Youth!
Break down religous infrastructure!
Demand religous freedom!
Think liberally!
Paul goes to church,
with faith and spirit,
Paul lives his life,
do you hear it.
Another key part of the LRY experience was chants and songs. They ranged from the spiritual to the entertaining to the blatantly off-color. Here is a song which is an example of the second:
Oh it's beer beer beer that makes us all so queer
in the halls, in the halls....
Oh it's beer beer beer that makes us all so queer
in the halls of L R Y! LRY
My eyes are dim
I cannnot see ee ee!
I have (hey!) not (ho!)
brought my specs with me
Oh it's whiskey whiskey whiskey that makes us all so frisky
in the halls, in the halls....
Oh it's whiskey whiskey whiskey that makes us all so frisky
in the halls of L R Y! LRY
My eyes are dim
I cannnot see ee ee!
I have (hey!) not (ho!)
brought my specs with me
Oh it's pot pot pot that makes us all so hot...
...
Oh it's cold roast duck that makes us want a sandwich...
...
Oh it's german chocolate cake that makes us wanna layer...
Most of the spiritual songs do not mention LRY by name, so it is hard to determine where they originated. Many of them invite harmony and additional parts, and few of them mention specific theologies directly, although there are many and freqent allusions. For example:
We come from the mountain,
Living in the mountain.
Go back to the mountain,
Turn the world around.
or
Spreading my long wing feathers as I fly
Spreading my long wing feathers as I fly
I circle around
I circle around
The boundaries of the earth
The boundaries of the sky.
One recent Harvard Divinity School student did his Masters thesis on songs of YRUU, many of which originated in LRY.
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