The Elder Bag. Going the way of the Dodo?

by Open mind 63 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Open mind

  Another time & place. 20-25 years ago in a conservative "God's Country" US State. A look around the Kingdom Hall could easily identify the Theocratic Pecking Order.

  plus a song book, KM, etc. and no bag whatsoever =

  Rank & File/newbie.

  

  = Wannabe MS or MS or possibly fringe elder on his way down the totem pole.

  = ELDER! Secretary, SO, PO, newly appointed, didn't matter. If you were an elder and wanted to flaunt it, you got yourself one of these bad boys!

  Fast forward 20-25 years. Move to Calipornea. Computers gets smaller and cheaper. WT Library is now a status symbol on PDAs. And it looks like the Catalog Case of yesteryear is now an embarrassment. (As it always should have been.) Even to a Congregation Secretary.

  What was your experience?

  om
• 

  Magwitch

  What was worse was when one of these "badboys" was brought door to door.

  At lease the householder was at first hopeful we were Fuller Brush salesmen.
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  cantleave

  LMAO - I know exactly what you are talking about. Current elders always seem to have a standard sized brief case a diary (usually black A5 size) and a brown folder containing talk outlines, group report summaries prepared by the cong sec and the emergency planning stuff. NB: The Elders with a decent job will replace the Diary with a Blackberry.
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  VoidEater

  Sheesh...that was the worst "flashback" experience I've ever had...
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  zombie dub

  hahahahaha, nearly all the elders in my cong had these monstrosities too - for all their "important secret things"
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  drew sagan

  Memories!

  They were still in style when I was a JW (left in 2007). I think you west coast folk are ahead of the game. I'm going to guess the old men in Western PA (where I'm located) still tote those oversized atrocities around.

  I did notice that some JWs are really into the "folder" thing when it comes to door to door work.
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  drew sagan

  I remember one Elder that was very young and dreamed of climbing the JW corporate ladder. He got special appointments very young, and went to MTS. He would carry around one of those big bags everywhere he went. Inside was a reference Bible, Elder Book, letters, documents, outlines, magazines, etc. It was jam packed. He was poor, and I think that he would use the same thing for field service.

  I remember this guy one time brought his reference Bible to a wedding.
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  Mickey mouse

  It still looks better than those women's hand bags a lot of brothers were carrying in the UK about 10 years ago.

  Check out these: http://www.ministrygallery.com/english/bags.htm
• 

  Finally-Free

  I had number 2, only in black to match my suit and shoes, and I wasn't even an MS. I had a different bag for field circus. What an asskisser!

  W
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  GromitSK

  "At lease the householder was at first hopeful we were Fuller Brush salesmen. " then disappointed when they turned out to be Fuller S*** salesmen. :)