when in field service, was there any stupid rules that had to be followed?

by rockmehardplace 25 Replies latest jw friends

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  rockmehardplace

  i was reading the topic on sisters having to sit in the backseat even if it was their car. made me think of a few rules i was subjected to.

  one was we were not allowed to have a radio on. i was recently baptized and it was the first time i was taking my new car out in fs. car groups are made and it is me and 3 other brothers. one was an elder, one a pioneer/ms, the other was newly baptized like me. i offer to drive and we get in the car. as we pull out the elder sitting up front with me turns my radio off. i figure it was so that we could talk without interruption. we work the territory for awhile and then stop for a break. after break i head to the car and get in and turn on the radio. he leans over and turns it back off. it is then that he begins to tell me that while in fs, it is not dignified to listen to the radio. as time goes by, i find this to be the thought of most in the hall.

  one other rule i always hated was that if going out, we always tried to make sure the pioneers drove if possible. that way, they could benefit from gas money. it was like an unwritten rule. when i drove, no one chipped in for gas, but if i pioneer drove, everyone was expected to give at least a few dollars.
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  teel

  Having to wear a tie. It should have been my wake-up call, but I refused to open my eyes - on my first ever time I went into FS I went without a tie, it was too hot. So the elder says, I'm sorry, but we can't allow you to go today, we'll do a Bible-study with you instead.
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  dissed

  I was in a territory where we were not allowed to wear a tie. Even the CO when visiting had to take off his tie in FS.

  But heaven forbid, if you had a two door car.......
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  undercover

  Yea, the radio was not a welcome distraction. I think one person tried to play "Kingdom Melodies" tapes and that was quickly and violently protested. Even most fully indoctrinated dubs preferred silence over that horrid music.

  One thing that was prevelant in one congregation I was in was to not use the car's air conditioning...even in the hottest part of summer...in the South. The thought was that you would only get used to the comfort of the car and not want to get back out in the heat. We weren't there to ride around in comfort, we were looking for sheep (read: sell magazines). I heard more than once, about how the early disciples walked everywhere in all kinds of weather and they didn't have air conditioning.

  Over time that little bit of sadist/masochistic behavior fell out of favor. AC had become part of everyday, all day life in the South and we got to where we couldn't live without it. No way we were riding around in a hot car anymore. Kids today probably listen to ipods, text, and play video games while riding in cars to the territory or between long calls.
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  rockmehardplace

  But heaven forbid, if you had a two door car.......

  that was so true. i was always a four door car person before being a jw. we had a brother who owned a ford explorer but was only the two door version. he offered to drive on a few occassions at first but they never let him since he did not have four doors. he quickly gave up offering to drive until he bought another suv with four doors.
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  man in black

  OMG I remember one elder who had this fanatic way of thinking. (Mike P)

  he would create things like the saying NBM which meant "no break morning". In other words we would work 9 - 12 without stopping, he thought

  that this was a cute way of making service more enjoyable for the kids .

  One Saturday in July my wife, two kids ( 8 and 4) me this elder, his wife, and two of his kids went out in our minivan. Suddenly he announces that this is a NBM, because he and his wife were aux. pioneering that month. My kids were alright for about 30 minutes until the question "can we stop and get something to drink" was asked. I dealt with it until 10:30, by then the temp was getting close to 90, and my boys, and his had their ties on,

  NO BREAK TODAY, (NBM) he said, sounding like a younger version of the soup nazi from Seinfeld.

  Well I drove past the donut shop and turned in, my boys were sooo happy that they could take a break, yet this elder and his wife suddenly got silent. He turned to me and said, " I thought we decided that we were not taking a break this morning" I said that YOU decided that. My kids need to stop for a while because of the heat, and the four of us went into the air conditioned shop .

  This nut and his family wouldn't budge, they sat out in the car waiting, trying to make us feel guilty for taking a break from FS. When we returned, my kids were in a better mood, but his family was hot, sweaty, and he was mad that we dared to disobey his decision to keep going all morning.

  That was one of the first times I thought that these people were a tad crazy.Taking care of my family was way more important to me than making sure that he got his time in that hot/humid July day.
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  undercover

  speaking of four door cars...

  When the scourge of the road - mini-vans - were first introduced, I swore a JW worked for Chrysler (I think they introduced the first popular one) as this thing was gobbled up by dubs everywhere. They loved em. They could carry a lot of people and stuff.

  I hated them as a driving machine...but for service I came to like riding in them, especially in rural territory or return visits. With 8 people in a car it took much longer to get back to your turn to get out and take a door.

  But it was interesting to see a mini-van pull up in a suburbun neighborhood and watch as 8 to 10 dubs spilled out with one brother barking directions in how to "attack" the neighborhood. It was akin to seeing a SWAT team swoop in, snipers spilling out of their van and "hut hut hut hutting" as they took up their positions.

  But along came a CO who hated the mini-van...but not for the same reason I did. He forbade...yes, forbade...more than 4 people to a car when he made up car groups. All the dubs showed up with their mini-vans all washed and cleaned, hoping to take the CO in their "spiritual" car and then the CO says, "only 4 to a car group". A couple of elders said, "we have mini-vans, we can take more" but the CO knew that the more to a group, the less one did so he refused to allow more than 4 to a group. So instead of a few mini-vans leaving the hall, we had half-full mini-vans and a bunch of other regular (dirty) cars each with only 4 people leave for the territories.

  It's amazing how people copy COs. This CO introduced the "will car drivers please sit at the end of this row (only 4 seats in the row)....now everyone else fill up the rows" After everyone was seated he announced, "there's your car groups. Let's go".

  After his visit, that's how every elder and MS made up car groups from then on...
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  logic

  I always thought that field service brought out the worst in jws. The articles on jws mental problems sure

  proves true.
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  dissed

  Undercover - Your observations can be very funny......

  Before the mini-vans, we had the VW vans in our rural territory. You could easily get a very long nap in between your turns to talk.
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  poopsiecakes

  I was always pretty free and loose when it came to counting time in service. But it always amused me when others in the group would loudly decide for everyone when we could start our time. Personally, I felt that when I left my house in skirt and pantyhose my time started - no matter how long the arrangement went or how long the coffee breaks were. But there was always one or two in the car group who would insist on doing some kind of drive by witness so that the car group could 'start our time'. So some poor unsuspecting soul waiting for a bus would be descended upon by a watchtower wielding person.....good times.....