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Chris Higgins
Jonestown
by Chris Higgins - April 9, 2007 - 12:06 PM

Jim JonesI’ve always heard of Jonestown and “drinking the Kool-Aid,” but I’ve never known much about it. On this morning’s Oregon Public Broadcasting local news segment, I heard an interview with one of only five survivors from Jonestown (he lives in Oregon now). Listen to the interview with Tim Carter, who survived because he was sent away on an errand while the rest of the colony…you know, drank the Kool-Aid. (Actually, apparently it was Flavor Aid.) What was the errand? According to Wikipedia, Carter was sent by Jim Jones (pictured at left) to the Soviet Embassy in Guyana to drop off money and documents.

The radio story was linked to an American Experience documentary on Jonestown which airs tonight on PBS stations in US. I’m certainly going to tune in!

More resources: Wikipedia article on Jonestown, Word Spy on the phrase “Drink the Kool-Aid,” Father Cares (a 1981 NPR audio documentary on Jonestown).

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Comments (8)

  1. You must be pretty young. It’s hard for me to think of Jonestown as “hisory”, but I guess I’m just really really old.

    posted by Miss Cellania on 4-9-2007 at 12:11 pm

  2. Or even “history.”

    posted by Miss Cellania on 4-9-2007 at 12:11 pm

  3. Yeah, I was born in 1978…so at least I was extant, though not really tuned into the world yet. :)

    posted by Higgins on 4-9-2007 at 12:14 pm

  4. Oh jeez, we used to say ‘Don’t drink the purple kool-aid’.

    posted by Jane on 4-9-2007 at 12:24 pm

  5. The phrase about “drinking the kool-aid” may now be linked with the Jonestown tragedy (though I don’t believe that is at all), but it certainly wasn’t coined because of it. We all first heard the expression come out in popular use after Kesey’s Acid-Tests in the mid-60s. Folks would talk of someone who “drank the kool-aid” as a way to say that the drinker was a new convert to a potentially controversial idea.

    Kesey’s kool-aid was laced with LSD so the drinker was more than likely to see the world differently after a cup; Jones’ brew left the drinker dead.

    posted by anonymous on 4-9-2007 at 11:21 pm

  6. There was a two hour special on JonesTown about a month ago on History Channel, if they replay the show, it is definatly worth a watch, very informative, plus it has interviews with 2 or 3 survivors from JonesTown including his Jones’ son

    posted by Lindsey on 4-10-2007 at 4:13 pm

  7. I SAW THE SHOW ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL. IT WAS VERY EERY, SEEING THE LAST MOMENTS AS THESE PEOPLE DID WHAT THEY WERE TOLD TO DO, KILL THEMSELVES! IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE INSIDE THE MIND OF A CRAZY MAN AND SERIOUSLY BRAINWASHED PEOPLE, TRY TO CATCH IT NEXT TIME ITS ON

    posted by JOHN BROWN on 4-11-2007 at 9:52 am

  8. To commentor, JOHN BROWN:

    You’re a moron and you obviously DIDNT watch the movie. Your comment is disgusting, much like you. Why dont you do us all a favor and shut up!

    posted by Joey on 11-3-2007 at 7:34 pm

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