Pioneers and Gas Money

by EXMS 8 Replies latest jw experiences

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  EXMS

  As some of you might know, I was a pioneer for 4 years...two years regular auxillary and two years regular. For any of you ol' regular pioneers...While in the ministry and you were driving did the others in the car group give you money for gas? I only sometimes got gas money. If it was only pioneers out, then of course no one gave anything since everybody generally shared driving. But very few times can I recall getting gas money. I had a large SUV, and driving around every day was a big burden on me for gas. I remember a few people paying me with Watchtowers and Awakes. I can't imagine their reasoning with that one. 1 person even gave me cough drops. REALLY?! A Cough Drop for 9 hours of driving around the territory (Rural Territory)??? Anyway, just my late night thought. Has anyone else experienced this?

  EXMS
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  Bubblegum Apotheosis

  EXMS, people are very selfish out in service, when it comes to gas money. This topic will bring up some bad memories, remembering brothers and sisters who don't understand, it's not free to drive. Trying to get gas money, can be like pulling teeth or worse. I gave a brother a $20 and he said "What is this for?" I told him gas, he cried, "I have been in this Hall for a year, and nobody has offered me a penny! "You buy me lunch, you gave me money, why? I thought that is what we are suppose to do, right?
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  Witness 007

  One Auxilary Pioneer sister would park her BMW under a tree in the shade.....I would drive her around for 6 hours, and NEVER gave me anything. I rarely got a dollar and I was living on $250 a week!!!
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  OnTheWayOut

  I was in congregations that were better than that about the gas. I remember one who took advantage of that. We had this pioneer sister who always always always tried to volunteer to drive. After her car group loaded up, the first thing she would do was go to the gas station near the KH. She said she had to get $4 worth of gas to cover the day. People in the group would say, "Well, here's another $4, Suzi's got $2, so get $10." And so it went.

  I guarantee this kept her in gasoline enough for all of her driving.
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  designs

  One of the Pioneer guys in our group back in the late 60s refused to put in his Quarters (gas was .25cents then) we would drive to a Territory at the far end of our area and just drop him off.

  I'll have to post a pic of our Pioneer Chevy special, 1950 fast-back Chevy usually with 6 Surfboards hanging out the trunk, our CO at the time Lowell Dixon refused to ride in it! Maybe it was the dead fish we had impaled on the antenna.
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  freeintime

  What got me was when you'd drive, and then take a break and the friends would spend a good amount of money on the break and at the end of service say "Oh I don't have any cash on me for gas" very loving!!
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  breakfast of champions

  The best are the pioneers who NEVER DRIVE and then don't contribute. We had one pioneer say that she didn't drive because it was TOO EXPENSIVE! Duh!

  we even had a pioneer sister who was banned from driving because she was a terrible, dangerous driver. She was another one who never contributed.
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  WTWizard

  I never donated for gas money because I wasn't making all that much money to donate. Then again, I almost never spent that much on breaks--the most I would spend was around 2 toilet papers for an orange juice (and that was maybe once or twice a month or so). I made it a point to not carry more than around 10 toilet papers in field circus for that very reason--I knew that if I carried more, they would find some way to mooch as much as possible off of me--as if they were running a taxi service instead of getting their damn time in themselves.

  If you are going to pious-sneer, I do not advocate getting some SUV that is going to use 18 gallons to go one lousy mile--or 50 liters per kilometer. That's what I noticed--the same witlesses that mooched the money had those big gas guzzlers that used so damn much gas that they always needed 500 toilet papers to drive one kilometer.
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  raven

  Yes, I pioneered 2 years Aux and 2 years Regular.. Not once was I ever given gas money.. It was very upsetting and frustrating especially since I worked only 2 days a week.. Driving around a heavy car full of people from 9-12 and then again from 12-4PM- talking so much to where I couldn't concentrate on where to turn where to go specifically. And not to mention sister "back seat driver" screeching directions and how to drive.. VERY stressful and never again will I do it.