by fulano 22 Replies latest jw friends
Yep, similar list. Had to make a scene in school by refusing the flag salute and all holidays (and I DID really want to join in). Had to not watch most cartoons, most toys were bad, mainly due to them being 'violent' in nature. So what did we do? Made lego warships and blew them up, or crashed toy cars into each other. So much for avoiding 'violence' Most TV shows were bad.
Oh, and no Smurfs
What ticked me off that I couldn't do as a child was join the school band,join student council, try out for the girls basketball team, girl scouts,4-H you name it. I was so jealous of the kids who had fun things to do.
Great Posts!!!
Brings back ole memories of polyester pants, crewcuts, and carrying some leather bag that was almost half as big as me full of JW litature. Dad never bought another T.V after the ole black and white one broke. I remember not being able to watch six million dollar man with Lee Majors, cuz it was too violent.(haaa... can u believe it?) I finally bought a color T.V for the family when i was sixteen and working.
No after school friends, no spending the night anywhere, no extra cirricular activities like sports, no wild music(anything with 4/4 timing was too fast and wild)( although they did let me joing the school band,) and definately no girls calling the house, or letter writing. When the senior prom thing came up, a nice JW girl from out of state (her parents and mine were friends) wanted to come stay with us for a week or so, and go to the prom with me. Dad said no, because of what the neighbors might think.
My brother in law wouldnt let his kids wear jeans either, and my father in law wasnt allowed to have a deck of cards in the house. LOL!!!!!
I wasnt allowed to buy comic books.
Marvel super hero comics were my first expression of individual reading choice when I was about 10 years old. Anyway, I made a big mistake when I was about 12, I let my dad read one, It was a "Thor" comic. In that particular issue Thor was stripped of his powers and abandoned on earth and cried out "My father Odin, Why have you forsaken me?" . Parallels there. My fathers brain started ticking.He went thru my comic collection. He pointed out that Captain America was nothing more than Nationalistic Propaganda. Brainwashing children. Next the comics were blanket banned by him as "Satanic propaganda" and "false Gods" and "Nationalistic symbols". They were burnt in the back yard. But on this issue I wasnt willing to lie down and submit. I still bought them, but they were concealed and hidden. Under the house, where I would lie in the dust reading them by torchlight. Under the matress of my bed. He always found them. You know how parents are, you come into the house on a rainy day with dry dust on your knees and an ever observant parent wonders "why has he been under the house?". Next thing, you are caught. There were regular book burnings in the back yard. Beatings. But I bought them anyway and copped the hiding for "defiance".
Later the same issue spread over into my choice of reading novels once I started buying those.
You were definately one determined "little bugger"
"It's never too late to have a happy childhood." - Gloria Steinem
I am so glad my parents were not the "theocratic" type....I had my friends over, I wore what I wanted, etc. But I do feel bad for you guys.....and of course, all the restrictions are a big reason why so many jw kids have little or no real interest in the relligion.....who could blame them?
i remember not being able to celebrate birthdays and stuff but later on in high school, one thing that really p****d me off was wearing my uniform up to the knee............now though, you go past a high school and that seems to be the fashion.
Let's see, Off the top of my head
1. Go on Vacation. Our vacations consisted of my having to wear a (ill fitting) suit and tie and sit in the hot sun for 4 days straight every summer.
2. Read MAD. (I read it anyway!!)
3. Watch Certain Cartoons.
4. Participate in School Activities
5. I wasn't allowed to watch TV or go out if I stayed home from a Meeting.
and sadly...
6. Masturbate. (Yeah right - I was a teenager, waddaya expect?)
Edited by El Kabong because the old #5 made absolutly no sense.
Edited by - El Kabong on 11 November 2002 18:38:57
Heh, yeah....we weren't allowed to do a lot either...
My Mom went through a stage where we weren't allowed to
watch "violent" cartoons. Since she wasn't too consistent, this
did not last forever...but while under this violent cartoon restriction,
she did allow us to watch the shows that she felt were safe--the ones
that she grew up watching...so in weird way, she was responsible for
us kids discovering the joys of the Three Stooges, The Bowery Boys,
Lil rascals, the Marx Brothers, and my favorites, Abbott and Costello:
I remember all those Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein...or the Mummy....
heh, they were always "meeting" up with some scary character. LoL...
I haven't watched those in years....
Yeah, I was restricted from a lot of fun when I was a JW kid and it wasn't right.
But, thanks Mom, for the cartoon restriction, LoL...without it I would have never
discovered those great movies from the past....
And Mum, your Gloria Steinem quote is right on.....
Edited by - nilfun on 11 November 2002 17:6:34
