The joys of field service

TallTexan

I posted this as a response under another post, but I couldn't resist starting a topic on it...lol. Does this sound familiar to anyone???? When I was a JW, I thought there was nothing cooler than getting up at 7 a.m. on Saturday, getting showered, putting on dress clothes, meeting at 8:30 a.m., answering a bunch of phony 'how are you this morning's', watching as people jockey for position in their favorite car groups so that they could be with their friends (because God forbid you get stuck in a car group with someone NOT in your clique), and miss Looney Tunes while listening to some lame attempt at a 30-second presentation by Brother Monotonous, then being sure to get out by 9:00 a.m. 'Cuz if you were with Brother Rule-Conscious you couldn't start your time until you knocked on that first door. Then, I got to walk around in 100 degree heat/100% humidity in the 'mild' coastal Texas climate, wake people up or disturb their leisurely morning, get two dozen apathetic responses, a dozen 'no answers' when you know they were home, a couple of sympathy magazine takers, a few death threats, embarassed at my school-mates houses (that pesky fear of man...lol). Then you get to meet for coffee/donuts/cinnamon rolls/breakfast tacos with the same insincere, phony, hypocritical, self-righteous know-it-alls from the morning. You get to hear everyone embellish their calls and how much success they had. Then you offered magazines to the waitress, cashier, other patrons while someone was picking up the check. Then you left without leaving a tip (because JW's are notoriously cheap), but you did leave three tracts, two old magazine issues, and an invitation to Memorial on the table (because that's worth more than money). That hour and a half until break-time seemed to take forever - and you were really in trouble if you forgot to wear a watch. After you left, if you were fortunate, you got to make return visits or magazine calls, which was a nice break from door knocking. Or maybe you were with someone who was smart enough to schedule a study for Sat morning, so that was at least a good wasted hour right there. And if you were really fortunate, you were NOT with brother Overzealous who wouldn't leave the territory until 2 p.m. because 'back in the day we went out from dawn til dusk'. Then I got to go home, strip off all my sweat-soaked dress clothes and start studying for the meeting the next day - or watch Kung-Fu theater on Channel 39 - for you Houston natives - whichever came first. Oh, and don't forget the Saturday afternoon hall cleaning/lawn mowing. Thanks for shattering my reality that I was not the ABSOULTE COOLEST person for going in service. And here all this time I thought it was the thing to do and the place to be on a Saturday morning.....

Legolas

LMAO!!!!

skyman

This like reading a ex-war survivor story. Bad thing is I can identify with you on every word.

Virgogirl

Yeah, how 'bout a hot dress, knee length, and itchy, sweaty panty hose in the south suburban tenements of Chicago, setting down your Witlessing bag on the floor and praying Jehoppy didn't let the roaches crawl in!

onesong

Good God TallTexan, I haven't been out in over a year and had almost completely forgot just how much fun it was. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

You didn't mention just how good you feel when it's over..."I don't have to feel guilty the rest of this day!"

Did anyone else actually go thru their "call book" afterwards and straighten it out? Holy sh*t , I can't believe I did that .

Elsewhere

I normally tried to ride in the "Elder's Car" so I could ride around checking up on all of the other JWs going door-to-door. We would drive around in the nice cold AC or warm Heater ensuring everyone was working the correct block and side of the street. When people were done we would then direct them to another location.

The "Elder's Car" was the place to be!

Once I moved out on my own and had my own car I would show up for the FS meeting and then drive home. (Then marked two hours, four magazines and two return-visits on my time sheet )

<---- Watching bugs bunny while everyone else was out in 100 degree F weather.

ackack

You appear to have forgotten about Tim Hortons.

AAaahhh.. Tim Horton's was great. And thankfully, my last bookstudy conductor LOVED tim hortons, so we'ed always go through the drive through at least once.

ackack

ButtLight

Ha Ha, thats funny. The only time I didnt mind as much, is when I was in Chicago, standing on a busy corner just handing out pamplets. I never had to say a word!

stillAwitness

It was hard for us ladies wasn't it Virgo girl!?

UGH! And I lived in Florida and the elder in our congregation was a straight Elder Gestapo (as I like to call them) and insisted that the sisters should not be wearing backless sandals, and sleeveless tops out in service.

I rememeber as a kid not be allowed to work with anyone who wasn't at least in their mid-20's even after I had got baptized.

"Its dangerous for tow young people to go to the door alone." Whatever!

luna2

I was never organized enough. Saturday morning was a hectic rush to get myself and my two boys dressed, find our magazines, tracts, Bibles, and my Reasoning Book, make sure it was all tucked into our bookbags along with an envelope for donations (sometimes I forgot that), and get to the KH on time so we wouldn't be glared at by which ever elder was in charge. Half the time I hadn't even read the stupid magazines I was placing that week. Then, after 20 to 40 min. of looking at the day's text, commenting on it, discussing possible presentations and getting divided up into car groups, it was time to face the public. I hated it.

We'd usually stop for break by about 10:30, so most of the time, you didn't even get an hour in. Then we'd decend upon the designated McDonald's like a horde of locusts. Very few people just got a drink or some fries either...the majority bought a full lunch. Seemed like we rarely got out of there in under 40 minutes. Such a waste of a morning.

It got so that I could hardly face going out on Saturdays...if we made it twice a month, that was doing good.

The joys of field service

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