I was a girl scout, but my excuse was that my dad was not a JW. My mom wasn't baptised until I grew out of the GS stuff. We always bought/ate the cookies in my house, but there was definitely a prejudice against them in the congregation.
Our congregation wasn't too nuts about garage sales. My aunt was nuts about the haunted house or demon possessed house she lived in though (darling old turn of the century home). Holiday candy lost all evil powers after the day, but a marshmallow santa eaten before Christmas was a really bad thing (those palmer/russell stover candies were nasty ALL the time, so no great loss, usually!) My Peeps were always a little stale and leftoverish. We had a family tradition of the storybook lifesaver pack after christmas. Loved those things. The only thing we could accept from Grandma was a box of mandarin oranges (I still associate with holidays and still love them).
The local nuts were feeling the bumps on each others heads, checking out for disease using that, the iridology method and the tongue fuzz check.
In NJ, people made shrines of dead people (Italian catholics never really fully convert to JWism in NJ, I think!) They were a lot more liberal on the East Coast about clubbing and social things and there were a few born in single moms who got preg/df'd, reinst. and then went on to be pioneers and getting public assistance. Sweet racket. On the west coast, I don't see that playing well. (where I grew up). We had the men w/families playing the public assistance thing maintaining minimal standards for their families. I did think that most JWs I met were nice folks, but the religion brings out bad things in people's character sometimes. Or it sure doesn't really end/minimize them.
