Other 'superstitions' of JWs (other than fortune cookies)

by Jim_TX 22 Replies latest jw friends

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  Jim_TX

  Well... the 'fortune cookie' thread got me to thinking about all of the silly things that my mom (and the JWs) did when I was growing up.

  It has been a while, and so I know that I won't be able to remember all of them.

  My mom refused to buy a soft drink named 'Sprite' - as its' logo included a small impish-looking fella (a Sprite) that wore a bottlecap for a hat. She claimed it was deemunz.

  My mom hesitated to buy fried chicken at a place named 'Church's Fried Chicken', as she wasn't sure if the name meant 'religion', or was a person's last name.

  My mom refused to shop at Salvation Army - cause it would be supporting another religion.

  The folks at the local Kingdom Hall came down hard on my mom cause one of my sisters wore a cute little 'sailor's dress'... it had boat anchors, and other 'sailor' emblems on the buttons, that were considered 'militaristic' by the powers-that-be at the local KH. (I'm not sure if my mom put on different buttons, or scrapped the dress entirely. We were very poor, and could hardly afford to toss good clothing - that was given to us in the first place.)

  These are just some of the superstitions that I can recall... I will try to chime in later, with more - when I recall them...

  What about yall? What superstitions did you grow up with as a JW?

  Regards,

  Jim TX
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  Crumpet

  I think certain family's made up their own -

  like we couldn't watch wizard of oz - demonic connotations

  or Knightrider - demonic car

  or Dr Who - demonic daleks

  or some Agatha Christie's - seances - demonic

  When in a fit of frustration I hid myself in the bathroom with a kitchen knife at 10 or 11 - that was considered to be possibly - yep you guessed it a demonic-inspired -act and I was sent to the elders.
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  XJW4EVR

  I was pretty fortunate, in that I had parents that had most of their senses.

  Though my mom did buy into the Proctor & Gamble - Satan deal for a bit.
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  freedom96

  Funny about P & G when it was the majority owner was a witness.
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  serendipity

  Hi Jim,

  I remember the prohibition on the Salvation Army and the 'sailor' suits for kids. Most JW kids in our cong. couldn't watch 'horror' movies or 'ghost' shows, but my mom let us watch what was on network TV, which was tame at the time. We got to watch Scooby Doo, Twilight Zone, Bewitched, Caspar and Vampire/Werewolf/Frankenstein shows.

  The other things I remember:

  Anything with stars and stripes, or even red, white and blue, was too patriotic, as was displaying the shape of the state of Texas as an emblem. (For those non-Texans reading , Texans are even proud of the shape of their state, and use it all over the place.)
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  plmkrzy

  Having something in your house such as a symbol, peace sign, mood ring, old dried up Easter egg, etc.... would invite demons in.
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  Mulan

  We had some great Tiki wall plaques we had to get rid of. False gods.

  Mom decorated Oriental modern in the 50's and had to get rid of her Buddha things. She kept the Asian figurines, just art I guess.

  I remember a problem with the Yahtzee game too in the 60's. Did it say anything about luck on the box? That would do it.

  I refused to buy Lucky Charms for my kids. How silly can you get?
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  looking_glass

  We were able to do things that would have been considered bad because my dad was not a jw and my mom was not a blind follower of the jw faith.

  However, later in life my mother has become more die hard JW. Over the years she has made a stink about things. Like I was wearing a Calladagh ring and she essentially said that I was worshiping the devil. Also, my condo is filled with Asian art and symbols. When she mentioned something I told her that I thought that her collection of beanie babies (don't ask) was against the jw beliefs because they bordered on the same lines as smurfs. Well my mother is so gullible that she went home and started asking around to her jw friends who told her beanie babies were not bad. She called me and told me what they said and I said ... "well I guess it depends on what hall you are in because they really discourage them here but everyone in my hall decorates with Asian symbols or art and its not a problem at all." Either she did not want to fight or she just assumed I was being honest and not sarcastic because she dropped it and has never said another word.
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  under_believer

  su·per·sti·tion (su ' p?r-stish'?n)
  n.

  1. An irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome.

  • They believed that if I watched G.I. Joe on TV, I would become violent.
  • He-Man, the Smurfs, D&D, et. al. would invite demons into our house
  • Star Wars would invite demons into our house
  • Parking in a church parking lot for the night would invite demons into our camper
  • Saying "JehovahJehovahJehovah" would banish demons

  There were more, that's just skimming off the top.
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  cognizant dissident

  Did anybody else ever hear that lecithin was another name for blood? My father read the labels on everything and if it had the word lecithin on it and didn't specify that is was soy lecithin, then we couldn't eat it. We couldn't eat fortune cookies for this reason, not because of the fortunes (bizarre or what?)

  I also remember my grandma sending us beautiful chocolates all the way from England and we couldn't eat them because they said lecithin on the ingredients and they might have blood in them. (horrors). Even as a little kid of 4 years old, this made no sense to me. I remember thinking why would anyone put blood in chocolates to make them taste better? outta the mouths of babes!

  Cog