Duped!
Portville boys "attend" Amway meeting
1979 PCS graduates, Jim Reynolds and Boomer Connell, were tricked into attending an Amway meeting in Buffalo last Saturday
night. They were "invited" by a common acquaintance, Juan Cortez, who not only told the boys that the meeting was for
local artists...he snuck out of the gathering of Amway die-hards early.
Reynolds and Connell were quite pissed, especially since everyone else at the event was already with the multi-level
company. Boomer discovered the gaff before Jimmy - that the group's main goal was to reel them all the
way in and sign on the dotted line.
"Juan, and Jimmy actually, had me believing that it was a local film producers' group...a bunch of artistic legends
in the city. These were supposed to be guys who were heavy into the up and coming videography scene. I walk into
this house, and there's all this Amway literature carefully placed around the joint. For the next hour, we had
to endure their crap. What a trip. I high-tailed it out of there after I had my fill of the great finger foods."
"Apparently, this Juan guy used to work for Channel 7", continued Boomer. "Figures. Jimmy knows him better
than I do. That's the first and last Amway meeting I ever experience."
Reynolds, on the other hand, has been duped five times by the Amway folks.
"Judas Priest, the first time was in college, then three times in med school, now this latest one," Jimmy recalled.
"Every frickin' time, they lie to me and we mysteriously end up at a secret Amway gathering. They're like a cult."
According to Reynolds, the two were immediately surrounded by Amway officials and people who were apparently above Cortez
on the Amway pyramid. Ten Amway "friends" unsuccessfully pleaded with them to join the controversial
and unconventional business, which some people claim is a scam.
Reynolds added, "They attacked us like vultures, and because Boomer was with me, the whole thing became uncomfortable...sad,
really. I'm beginning to think there's something wrong with me. But, maybe this is just the way city people really
are."
Connell admitted that he had to use an old coping mechanism to deal with the ordeal. "In situations like that,
I pretend that I'm an actor in a real live play or sitcom. I secretly pick a role to play, and then just go with
it. Then the whole thing becomes quite funny."
"But, the bottom line," remarked Connell, "...those people were &*%$#s! Whacked!"
