Back in the day, when my family moved to a new congregation, I fell head over heels with a young sister who was an elder's daughter. It wasn't long before we were talking about marriage and I was contemplating buying her an engagement ring. My parents were not happy at all. They thought that she was way too pretty and my father commented that she could beckon a man over by just curling her eyelashes. When the CO's visit was due, he and his wife were booked in for lunch at our house and we duly all sat around to dine. My parents brought up the subject of my courtship with said lady, I think that they were hoping that I'd break off the relationship and become a pioneer or something equally tedious. The CO's wife immediately jumped in and demanded to know if I had requested to see her record card! According to her, anyone intending to marry a fellow JW was entitled to check up their field service record card to make sure they were doing sufficient hours in the ministry. Only in this way could one ever be sure that a prospective fiance / fiancee was up to scratch and worthy of a marriage proposal.
Isn't that the strangest thing?