by OpenFireGlass 42 Replies latest jw friends
Love letters were the demise for many of the kids in congregations that I attended growing up....
I know I ended up in the library/back room several times for this (hopless romantic/ sagitarius) even put on public reproof for it. (though I believe it was my dad's idea to have the elders put me on public reproof so that he could have more control over me)
I saw quite a few kids yanked out of school when their parents found their love letters! That makes me so ANGRY! All three of my kids fell in love sometime between the ages of 12 and 18. I knew it was normal! I would even go so far as to say it was necessary for their development! It is hard to believe that a young one could be made to feel such shame and to be punished for this! Still, I know it happens.
Just for Axel.
When I was 14 or so, I was in love with a football player at my high school. I clipped out his picture and preserved it with a thick layer of scotch tape. We talked a lot, and he was very interested in me.....NOT..... I had already been found with the picture in my purse (regular searches) which I was forced to chew...LOL!
Anyhow I wrote him a love letter which looking back on, had to have been a crackup. We began a 'secret' relationship. He wrote me a love letter back. I hid it, or so I thought.
My sister found it one day when we were doing chores. She is 18 months older than me. We were already having a huge fight, so she said she was going to show it to my parents when they got home. She was gloating, I was sweating. I was in a panic, my parents believed heavily in corporal punishment. The picture had been enough. So I planned to get the letter back.
She went in the bathroom to shower. That particular bathroom had a window that looked over the basement stairs. I went Commando on her ass. I climbed by pulling myself up on the ledge, hanging with one hand. I pushed the window open quietly. (Remember she is in the shower singing). I climbed in through the window like a cat. To this day I don't know how I did it. I dropped on the floor, got the letter out of her blue jeans pocket very silently.
I paused by the door, because I knew once I opened the door (from the inside--it was locked!!! from the outside) all hell would break loose.
With one movement, I unlocked the door, opened it and ran. By this time my sister had already jumped out of the shower buck naked and was running after me soaking wet. I had about a 4 second lead on her. I ran to the living room, opened the wood burning fireplace and threw the letter in the middle of the pile of logs. The slow burn started.
By this time she was already on top of me beating the crapola out of me. It didn't matter. I watched that letter burn burn burn.
Freaking HILARIOUS, thanks for the memory. Everytime my sister and I talk about it we cry in tears of laughter.
I never was caught with love letters. I wrote a couple to one of the foriegn exchange students from Denmark. Christian. He was beautiful. Anyway, nothing came of it. He had so many girls after him, he wasn't going to look twice at a little freshman. Uninformed, if you are reading this, I just expressed how nice I thought he was, just a little crush. Ha Ha. I don't think I would have gotten in trouble if they had found out. My parents were pretty easy going.
Open fire glass, your punishement seemed really harsh. Did your dad ever apologize?
Lo Ru---Bad girl!
Open fire glass--a father that would do that would not apologize.
Am I right?
U
I planned to sneak my way to the Junior Prom. I had a dress borrowed and waiting at a friends house. I had a date. I had the help and support of my boss and co-workers who were going to cover for me if my parents called my work that night looking for me. I had it all worked out! I was going to my first dance ever, and it was the Junior Prom!!!!
I was so excited about my plan, I wrote it all down in a note to give to my friend in math class. (DOH!!) I never gave it to her, forgot the note in my pocket and my mom found it when she was doing the laundry. I am STILL kicking myself over that stupid move!!!
My parents made other plans for me that night.
This happened to me all the time!
Grade 4 my crush phoned me and unbeknowest to me my mother listened in on the extension, major trouble ensued with me being grounded forevr it seemed.
Grades 5 & 6 saw many love letters fall from pockets, forgotten inside school books etc. I thought I would smarter and threw one in the trash (way down at the bottom of the bag) only to have crows tear the bag apart on garbage day and my mom find it as she was cleaning up the curb!! Major trouble again!!
Grades 7& 8 I thought I had finally learned. I never took notes home, never mentioned boys names, wouldn't tell my sister anything cause she would always rat me out. Every boyfriend I had those years I had to break up with because one JW in my grade always ratted me out to my parents. He made the boyfriends mad and for a while they were nasty to him and told everyone not to tell him anything because he was getting me in trouble. So junior high!
Anyway my parents were freaking out about me and boys so I got pulled out of school and had to teach myself grades 9-11.
No more boys for me until I enrolled myself (totally against my parents wishes) in grade12 to finish getting my high school credits. Then I made up for lost time. LOL!
Dams
It never fails to amaze me how much we all have in common trying to grow up in this mess. No wonder some of us have arrested development! We were so protected from the opposite sex! Maybe their unwarranted attention to sex turned us the opposite way from which they wanted us to go. Ya know, that forbidden apply thingy. My mother snooped constantly. I learned not to take stuff home, of course I had the occasional lapse of memory about what was in my pockets. Maybe that's why Catholic school girls wear skirts? When I was publicly reproved--it was because of a love letter. When I was df'd it was because of a love letter that I was never even priviledged to see. Funny thing is, Mom found the letters---but she never found my cigarettes. The only way I would ever snoop is if I suspected my kids were making pipe bombs (like columbine--that mama should have snooped a little) or doing drugs. Even then, I would not haul them in front of some old men to hear every detail of their fledging sex life. Oh, I was reproved for smoking pot---even though I hadn't. I was holding it for a friend with strict parents.---DOH!!!!!
I went to school when the mini-skirt became popular!!! There were strict rules about how short women could wear their dresses...in case some of you don't know this...they were supposed to be half-way over your knee-cap. I remember a demonstration at the KH where an elder actually had a sister on stage and measured her dress with a ruler!!! I had to come up with a good smart plan that I could get away with. So I opted for all skirts and blouses as my wardrobe. We lived down a road that had a sharp turn in it and when I made that turn every morning to catch the bus, I rolled my skirt up to an acceptable length, and covered it with a wide belt. Worked for years and I never got caught!!! Every afternoon, at the sharp turn, I stopped and unrolled my skirt and walked in like the good girl I was! Ha!
Swalker
Just goes to show, people, that you should follow the lead of the FDS - they seldom put anything incriminating in writing, these days!
