by carla 18 Replies latest jw friends
My father was not a JW. It was easy to miss meetings when he wanted to go to a friends for a party. He routinely missed weekends going out of town. The only meeting we went to was the book study. I think some JWs didn't know we existed. Homework on meeting nights. Although I was a girl I was expected to get a good education to be able to support myself. My father didn't want to have to support us the rest of our life. It seems that everyone had different experiences.
Blondie
lay in bed in the am and listen. . .it's quiet in the house, maybe my parents are going, we don't have to go! what was i thinking, of course they're going. . .
. . .wait for my mom to open my door and ask "are you going out in service?" (like, I'm 12, and I have a choice??!) my stock answer, fearing her divine wrath, 'I don't know'. What! Everyone who loves Hoho is going out in service! Get up, we leave in 35 minutes!
. . .lay there some more, maybe i don't feel very good. . .maybe Hoho knows I feel just fine. . .maybe i won't see any of my classmates, maybe we won't work that street again where 3 of them live all in a row. . .
Thank God that I had liberal JW parents. We just attended all the meeting, NO field service!!! The meetings were enough. I remember as a teen I began to have headaches. Looking back it was probably JW stress. So anytime I really wanted to miss a meeting I got a head ache Now I did have an aunt and uncle who were hardcore JW and when I would spend the weekend with them it was a totally different story. Sat morning field service, Sat night study WT, Sun meeting and maybe Field service after Sunday meeting
Saturday morning: wake to the noise of pioneer sisters getting ready to go out. Pretend to be asleep so they can't ask me if I want to join them. If I'm unlucky, or pre 15, I'm dragged out of bed by mum or guilt.
If I'm lucky, or older: Lie in bed until 9:30 when the field service group finally stops talking about Habakkuk and buggers off. Start homework.
I remember weekends as a kid, and there was very little fun time ( this was in the 1960's...we were raised in borg). The Ministry School and Service meetings were on Friday nights. So, we'd get home from school, clean up, eat dinner, and out the door for a 2+ hour meeting which meant getting to bed past the usual bedtime. We had to get up early Saturday mornings for field service and we would hit the doors by 9am and work until noon or longer, with no coffee breaks. (we never heard of such a thing until a special pioneer from Kansas joined our congregation in the late '60s and was shocked that we didn't take breaks) When we finally got home, we had chores to do. I looked forward to Saturday nights. We would get chips or other snacks and all of us (parents and three sibling and self) would sit and watch "Saturday Night at the Movies" (remember that program? They showed some great movies.) Sundays we had to get up early to get ready because there were so many of us. The talk and WT study started at 1PM and sometimes ended around 4 (there was a bit of an intermission between the two meetings). We'd go home, change, eat dinner, do our chores, then get to bed early since it was a school night. The only free nights, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays were for home bible studies (which were squeezed in when my dad was at work since he was not a JW), chores and meeting prep and homework and sometimes extra field service. I learned early on to get as much homework done is school as possible. We just did it... we didn't know any other kind of life. Our lives completely revolved around the hall. In the summer when school was out, we did extra field service. We lived on a very busy street and had no yard, so playing outside was extremely limited. When I was older, early teens, I would escape to the library whenever I could; it was my refuge. (maybe that's why I've been a librarian for 36 years) Looking back, it's a wonder we didn't all rebel (one sibling did, ended up disfellowshipped for years and we totally shunned her, as required. She was reinstated years later, but our relationship has suffered and things between her and the rest of us have never been right since.) We had no time for friends and no time for any real fun. and it has affected us to this day... all four of us are socially awkward, have no close friends, and would rather be by ourselves. It was a terrible way to grow up...
On a very few Saturdays, the weather was bad or for some reason my dad didn't go out in the door-to-door work, I got to stay home and watch "Bugs Bunny" and "Pink Panther" cartoons.
Otherwise it was time to get dressed and go with dad and my sister for Saturday field service. Dad was book study conductor, so he usually conducted the meeting before field service. Mom didn't go out with us much on Saturdays, it seemed she would go out with her friends from the Hall during the week, and do chores at home on Saturday.
I remember looking up at grown-up householders, and hoping they'd take the magazines just because they didn't want to refuse them from a child. Sometimes, though they'd look at my dad and say "no, thanks". Other times I'd work with another adult or older child. I had usually a short rehearsed presentation that would be used at each door. Then around 11 a.m. came the service break. Sometimes this was short, other times we'd get to have a longer break with more good snacks or lunch. This is the part of the morning most JW kids look forward to.
After break it was time for back-calls, later called return visits. I usually had few or none, being so young.
Then it was time to come home and put on comfortable clothes and enjoy the rest of the day. I looked forward to coming home, because the rest of the day I could just relax and play.
Oh how I hated going out in circus service. I would much rather have stayed home and watched cartoons like a normal kid. But no cartoons for me...had to do some begging preaching. This after the Friday night meeting where we didn't usually get home until after 10pm.
Then Saturday morning circus serivce from 9-12. Afternoon, Brother Fill-in-for-Dad would come and have an hour long "bible study" with us from that awful Paradise book.
No, happy memories of Saturdays here.
BFD
Sometimes in service. Sometimes not. My memory of service back then was of going to many, many more houses than we did in later years. I mean, with my dad, you covered territory! He'd drop a couple of us kids off with the instruction to go to all the houses in an entire block. (Yes, all the way around the block.) One time there was a church on a certain block. I started to pass it up, but then felt guilty. ("Dad said to do the whole block. What if there's someone in there who'll listen to the good news?") So, at 12 years old, I went in and started teaching this Nazarene pastor why the Trinity was wrong.
When I didn't go in service, I'd watch Saturday morning cartoons. Later in the day, TV options were very limited since, in our little northeast Michigan town, there were really only two channels to pick from--besides the typically boring PBS channel. It seemed like Hee Haw was always on. A shroud of depression would fall over me when Buck & Roy began "pickin' and grinnin'." Then there was Soul Train. I was probably the only white child in a completely non-black part of the world who could recite the opening voiceover verbatim:
"It's the Sooooouuul Train! Soul Train: the hippest trip in America. Sixty non-stop minutes across the tracks of your mind into the exciting world of soul. And now here's your host for the Soul Train: Donnnn Corneliusssss!"
I really didn't have any friends, and was a pretty lonely, bored kid most of the time. We lived out in the country. There were virtually no JW kids my age most of the time. What I really liked was being able to stay home on Sunday mornings--if I was sick. Seemed like a lot more TV choices. Old Laurel & Hardy flicks. The TV show Daktari was a favorite of mine too. But, alas, sickness came all too infrequently.
Saturday:
7 am -- wake up/eat breakfast
8am -- leave for service
12pm--get home
1pm -- chores/yard work
(occasionally we went shopping as a family Sat. afternoon -- ever other month or so)
sometimes when Dad had a hard week, we would just chill all afternoon.
I never did my Watchtower.
5pm -- dinner
7-10pm TV time.
