How often did you entertain the "Traveling Overseers", and did you regret it afterwards? (page 3)

shepherd

I can only assume Americans don't know how to cook. In the UK you entertain the C.O. at home.

jws

Entertain them? Always hated that after-dinner show where us kids had to sing, dance, and do comedy sketches.

OK, just kidding. Growing up in the states, I remember having them over to our house where our mother cooked a big meal. I think sometimes we'd have others join us. We also put them up sometimes at our house - until we moved to a congregation that had an apartment for the CO above the hall. When the ceiling was a rockin' during the meeting, don't come a knockin'.

Ours was a blue-collar area and my dad was a carpenter, so feeding them at our house was what we did. There were others with better professions that would take them places. Some people just liked to show off and take them to really fancy places. Like my sister's in-laws. Such suck-ups.

I don't think me or my parents ever regretted it. It always seemed a pleasant conversation. My parents were happy to help and the guests always grateful.

tiki

well.....growing up we had them stay with us, and had a lot of fun actually - but the two couples that i remember were really nice. lunches got problematic later on because it seemed that all the wives had allergies to this that and the other thing........a lot of them wanted to eat lunch at the hall to save precious time for banging on doors. dinners - some who would stay at the apartment at the hall would want it delivered to them rather than going to someone's house. there was one who loved the eatout thing....he befriended my hubby and me because he was very enthralled with my grandfather who was 'anointed' - and he thought we had $$$. he wanted us to go on trips and cruises with him and his wife too.....she was a real wuss.....in the 90 degree heat and humidity she insisted that everyone wear pantyhose.....and if that was too uncomfortable, her suggestion was the antiquated garter belt. yeah, that's real comfy.

this same couple stayed at my aunt's house when they served her congo. she had two bedrooms that were her daughters, who had long married and moved out. well in the middle of the night she is awakened by some noise....come to find out, they are switching mattresses on the beds because they decided they liked one room better than the other - but the preferred mattress was in the other room. last time they stayed there.............this one too - she'd go into the hall and crank up the thermostat because she was always sooooooooo chilly.

long before i escaped i had quit volunteering for the food service - i was working full-time anyway....and some of the couples that were coming around were not my cup of tea. they basically were way too entitled....like you are so privileged to be able to feed them.....in general, too many were convinced of their superiority.

grumblecakes

i know of one CO couple that said they hated it when people would feed them in their home instead of taking them to a restaurant...they also hated cheap restaurants.

Scott77

marked

grumblecakes

what does it mean when someone says "marked"? (sorry, never really participated in a forum before this one)

also, what are those little squares that look like quilt patches that appear i the bar above are posts that get big when you click on them?

Open mind

Many COs would only want to have lunch Wed, Thurs, Friday. That way they could keep Saturday afternoon to themselves. (Not sure if that was officially OK or not, but many COs did this.)

Anway, my wife is a fantastic cook who really enjoys great food and wine. We got this one young CO and his wife who had just gotten into the traveling work. We had them over for one mid-week lunch and hit it off really well. For all their remaining visits, we suggested they join us for Saturday lunch so we could enjoy some good wine(s) with our meal. They were happy to take us up on the offer. The PO arranging lunch schedules would always ask us if we wanted to take a mid-week slot, and we'd always discreetly decline saying we had already had the "privilege" on their first visit. I think it really pissed off the PO, who was a real Circuit/District power player, that this CO and his wife enjoyed hanging out with us relative nobodys.

Other COs over the years were a mixed bag.

om

cobaltcupcake

Taking the TO "out" for lunch or dinner was only for wealthy bros. We always fed them at home.

I had a full-time job, and Saturday afternoon was my housework time. When the CO came through we were assigned to feed him and his wife on Saturday, so before field service on Sat. morning I gathered up all the junk and dirty clothes lying around our tiny apartment and threw it into the bedroom closet.

After lunch my ex and the CO (and a couple of pioneer bros) were chatting in the living room while his wife and I cleared up the food. When we went to join the men, to my horror my ex had opened the bedroom closet and all of the brothers were standing around looking inside. I nearly fainted, but the CO's wife said, "Don't they always do that?"

Turns out we had an unused piece of exercise equipment that my ex had offered to give to the CO and they were looking at it. He pulled it out, and my panties were hanging from a handle. Needless to say, my ex got a piece of my mind afterward. And we cleaned out the closet.

Black Sheep

We entertain them at home. There is never anything to regret.

BluesBrother

Around here, the "done thing" is to cook a lunch for C/O & wife. I did know one sis who wanted to take them out to decent restaurant ,back in the day. She was hurt because he refused point blank saying that it would look bad to the brothers as though they were elitist or something.

Nowadays I here them saying quite openly that they must have lighter lunches, with no dessert, in order to combat expanding waistlines. We have never done it, I am pleased to say.

I hear plenty of horror stories about ill mannered C/O's when staying at a person's home.

How often did you entertain the "Traveling Overseers", and did you regret it afterwards?

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