Not to impugn the distaff side (women) but, waaaaay back when I was an active Witness, it was when the wives (sisters) got together they would trash whoever wasn't there at the time.
Gossip covered every topic.
1.Who doesn't keep their house spotless.
2.Whose husband is asking for sex all the time.
3.Who is not rearing their children properly.
4.Who is wearing clothes that are "worldly".
And the brothers? They had a different kind of rubbish talk. It was usually one on one and not in a group of others. One on one a brother would tell you ANYthing. It usually revolved around some sister and her physical appearance.
I recall one of my friends telling me he had to put a bell next to his bed so that his wife could ring the bell if she ever had an orgasm because she was so inert he just couldn't tell. I'm not kidding.
Another brother complained because his wife wanted the lights off when they did their divine "be fruitful" duties and how he installed a dimmer to comprimise. She kept dimming it and he kept brightening it!
Another brother (unmarried) used to describe which sisters he dated (from another congregation) would do what on a date. One sister (back in1966) was very popular!
My best friend's wife had a friend who was a sister (unmarried). The friend's wife asked the unmarried sister if she had any trouble with dating guys who wanted to go too far. The sister replied she knew how to handle that! I'm not making this up. She said "Oh, I just suck em off and they leave me alone". !!!
There was a brother, an older guy, who NEVER ever went out in service. Never. But, he stood at the door of the Kingdom Hall and passed out wintergreen lifesaver mints. He had worked for the railroad in the "old days". He use to tell inapropriate stories in front of the Kingdom Hall after the meetins were over. There was the time Harry James (famous 40's trumpet player) rode the train with his new wife and actress, Betty Grable. The porter on the train charged 20 bucks to let other train employees peek over the top of the train berth (like a bed with curtains) to watch Harry and Betty do the wild thang.
There was an extremely outgoing Italian brother in his late 60's who was incredibly intelligent and who gave the best comments at the meetings that would touch on interesting side points in history. This brother would make wise cracks out loud during a talk or study that would be extremely funny and crack everybody up. Often they were off color. Needless to say, he never got a part on any program or talk or had any "responsibility" given him. He would have been an incredibly gifted speaker--but, no. His name was Bro. Tosti. I'll never forget him.
Then there was Bro. Sullivan, whom everyone called Scooter. His reply to almost anything was:
"Not necessarily!". He could make an argument out of "good morning".
Bro.Beard was our congregation overseer (back when they had those). He was not a highly educated person. He'd request that brothers and sisters move their "cheers" forward so they could hear better. He meant chairs. Just before the Watchtower Study, Bro. Beard would mount the lecturn and tap on the microphone and announce, "We're gettin' ready to commence to begin." He would use only one connective when stringing sentences together: "Also too". In an hour talk I once counted the phrase "Also too" 41 times.
There was an older sister who was one of the anointed. She would go up to mothers with small children and tell them to make their children write down the name of JEHOVAH and JESUS on a sheet of paper and every time they hear the name of one or the other, instruct the child to put a check mark next to the name. At the end of the meeting the sister wanted to inspect the check marks and see if the speakers had "honored' Jehovah enough.
Do I miss going to the Kingdom Hall? No, but I sure miss the colorful characters.
There was a certain brother who was color blind at the Hall. His socks never matched. Sometimes even his shoes were different colors. He was an endless source of amusement.
I don't know if all that qualifies as "rubbish" but, it is stuck in my memory; so, it must have some kind of entertainment value. No?
