The time my Jehovah's Witness mom ripped my rock band photos and poster

by RULES & REGULATIONS 14 Replies latest jw experiences

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  RULES & REGULATIONS

  

  In 1977 ( I was 18 years old), I attended a Led Zeppelin concert at the Chicago Stadium. Sat in the 10th. row. Loved every second. I took photos of the band and bought a poster to put up in my wall.

  The next day, I hung up the poster and went to get my photos developed. The photos came out so well, I had them enlarged and put into photo frames.

  Several days later, I get home from work and see that my poster is ripped from the wall and my framed pictures are all ripped into pieces. I ask my Jehovah's Witness mom,'' Who took my poster down and who ripped my photo frames?'' She tells me that since I listen to ''DEVIL MUSIC,'' and since the band in the poster all look like freaks, she did. I never forgave her!

  Did your parents or you as a parent, do anything that showed your self-righteous disapproval?
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  joe134cd

  I’ll tell you my story that highlights the irony of this. I was a young JW kid who decided to put up music posters, of the time. Harmless stuff really. One day my self righteous great uncle decided he was going to take issue with it and guilt tripped me into taking it down, which I did. Skip forward a few decades latter. My elder uncle has died and I go to pay his widowed wife a visit. Low and behold she has got a blown up photo of the governing body hanging on her wall. I questioned her about it, in an extremely tactful way. She couldn’t see a problem with it.
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  Foolednomore

  When I was I teen, I had a poster of Scareface say hello to my little friend on my bedroom wall. One elder who saw my room made a comment about the poster. I sent him his very own copy of the same poster. I think he had something against Italians since that's our homeland and he didn't like that we dressed like Mobsters. My dad told me he watches to much mafia movies.
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  greenhornet

  My mom would break and throw my records. I had Credence, Beatles Hendrix and many more. So I would put my records in her Lawrence Welk music album covers. She found my records again and broke them in two, however she broke up her records.
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  BluesBrother

  As a young man , I was a believer and a big fan of rock music. I just reasoned that the GB had their knickers in a twist , over that. I said tha Holy Spiirit might direct the doctrines but I could see that it was the men who gave such advice.

  I also knew that if ever my parents did such things to me , I would leave home…Thankfully they never did.

  Actually , thinking back, around where I was we all listened to such counsel but did nothing about it. Most of the lads still enjoyed music and went to concerts and older ones let slip what films they enjoyed, stuff that I considered too strong to watch.
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  Vidiot

  Hah!

  Reminds me of a story told around the local congos about a suspected “demonic” rock album that was allegedly very hard to burn.

  Well, duh.

  It was vinyl.

  😏
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  Mum

  How sad! My friend's JW mom drove us to Cincinnati from Dayton to see a Beach Boys concert in 1964. The "rules" seem to get more and more oppressive.
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  WokenfromJWcult

  I recall in the 80’s some had issues with Gloria Estefan and Barry Manalo just because they rejected the watchtower teachings. Most still used their music anyway at “gatherings”
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  hoser

  My older brother had kiss, fleetwood mac, and prism.

  My mom burnt them in the back yard when he was at work.
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  WingCommander

  This type of censorship BS didn't just stop with worldly music. NO.

  As a child of the 80's, not only could I not have or listen to worldly rock music, but I was forbidden from wearing any clothing whatsoever that bore large logos. This was considered worldly, materialistic, or having a "showy display of one's wealth." No t-shirts with pictures of anything on them either.

  This meant up until I was about 15 and old enough to get a job and buy my own clothes with my own money, I was forced to always have a very cheap, "Generic" look at school. You can guess how this went over, and how it crushed my self-esteem and effected my demeanor. My parents were also the typical "cheap" JW's, so especially as a child this meant shopping at the local Goodwill and thrift shops. So not only generic crap, but used out-of-style CRAP. I was perpetually pissed off at this treatment, especially because we were more middle-class, and THEY didn't buy their clothes at Goodwill. (though they did dress cheap and generic)

  As soon as I was old enough and had my own money, it was on. I bought the clothes I wanted, I bought the music I wanted, and anything else. Fugg 'em! I've never shopped or subjected my son to a Goodwill store either. (only high-end thrift store, of which there are a few around here with damn nice stuff when he was a very small kid)

  I was also not allowed to have any posters on my wall of anything other than nature scenes. Everything else was considered idolatry, false idols. Growing up a JW was INSANITY. Everything was "No." No friends that weren't JW's, no riding the bus, no school activities, no afterschool anything, no sports, no going to friends houses, no going outside of my own yard, no going to the mall without parents, no going to the movies no NOTHING that wasn't JW-related. This is how I grew up. My parents NEVER took me to see a movie in a movie theater. I was 16 yrs old when I went by myself to a movie theater the first time. I was so excited! The isolation I was subjected to was prison-like frankly. Gee, any wonder I was resent this oppressive cult now? Big mystery.