by Elsewhere 19 Replies latest jw friends
I did not know where most of my schoolmates lived, but I knew they were out there... somewhere. I dreaded the thought of a door opening to a face I knew from school. It was like walking through a minefield for me... every door was like another step... would my next step be my last???
Yes, I did find a few at the door... and I always knew what would happen that Monday... a never ending series of JW jokes and gags.
Oh definitely... I absolutely dreaded this! It happened on more than one occasion.
Yes, it helped that I usually worked with another JW who was in the same school. Most of them knew I was a JW but it was different showing up unannounced at their door on a Saturday morning. Interestingly, I hung out with the "Bible" crowd at school, a born-again Baptist, a strict Lutheran, and a Mormon. We had interesting conversations. We found that we had more in common than differences. Most of my classmates were curious and asked insightful questions. But of course, I was in high school during the days of "consciousness raising," civil rights, and anti-war demonstrations, free love, and drugs.
Blondie
Most definitely! From 1965-70 I lived on an island that was 22 miles long and 11 miles wide. It was almost a guarantee that I would run into schoolmates when we worked "certain" (i.e., white) sections of the island. Very embarrassing.
I really loved working the public houses, as they were called. I always found the interiors to be very charming and cozy. I knew when I stepped into that little shack of a home, held up by corrugated tin and miscellaneous pieces of wood and sometimes cardboard, I was stepping into someone's life. Every available space was crammed with pictures of family, sometimes a wall had a black velvet painting of Martin Luther King, Jr. with a light over it (Robert Kennedy was added later), small pictures of the Virgin Mary and various other saints, crosses, bags of flour, tins of tea and crackers, and a teapot on a noxious gas stove. Sometimes they had running water and sometimes just a barrel of rainwater outside. Chickens would be clucking and scratching outside (and sometimes inside), and on Saturday mornings the meat man would come around in his beat up car and sell fresh meat out of the trunk of his car. The UNREFRIGERATED trunk.
Nina
I only ended up knocking on one door that was one of my schoolmates. He was a pretty cool guy and didn't really say anything about me coming to his door. The worst was when my classmates would see me on the street, bookbag in hand, dressed up in a polyester suit in the middle of summer.
I remember one door that really made me feel like crap. I ended up placing a tract with a girl who was a real hottie. She was friendly as hell. I would have loved to ask her out on a date. That tract was a wall between me and her. I could probably still point out the house to this day.
I dreaded it more than anything, but I don't remember it ever happening. Maybe there is a God, and he decided to answer just that particular prayer.
I knew where most of the kids in my class lived, and stumbled across quite a few others out on the ministry. I hated it, with a passion! I talked my boss into letting me work Saturday mornings for an extra £5.00 as soon as I started work... that only left Sundays to face!!
Possibly the worst one I ever called on was a kid that I'd fought with several times, and won each time!! It didn't go down well - and you guessed it, another fight ensued on Monday after school! I won again - he never learnt!! Strange thing is, we met up again at a school reunion, and it was like we were best mates!!
Bull!
Yes several times.I remmeber refusing to get out of the car on one occation.It didn't help that the kingdom hall was opposite my school.
YES!!!!
My family were the only JW's in school. Talk about feeling like I lived under a microscope, that was me, always scrutinized. I did have the teachers' admiration as I was an A student. I had one teacher that would talk about JW's and bring my name up in other classes as being one. He respected me for what I believed.
I was always relieved when we didn't work the "territory" where I lived.
Codeblue
I absolutely dreaded it. I hated having to live differently than other kids in the first place. For them to see me in my "dress up" clothes when they were all in jeans playing and having fun on a weekend, I just felt like such a dork.
Fortunately, the school's territory and the congregation's territory didn't overlap very much so the risk was very low. That worked out pretty well until the congregations changed the line a bit and we sometimes worked territory right in the neighborhood of the school (where the most kids were). My brother and I put up such a fuss. Our parents scolded us that we shouldn't be ashamed of our religion, but, for the most part, tried to honor our wishes and avoid those territories. I remember being frightened to be in the neighborhood for fear of being seen. I was scared to death a classmate would answer the door. It was so stressful. I only remember seeing one classmate - a girl who answered the door. She didn't say anything about it afterwards.
