Marcos--LOL on the Fred Franz thing. I knew a closet gay bethelite that used to be Franz's nurse/caretaker for a time. I wonder if it's the same guy. By the way, do you think Fred Franz was gay? I've heard different things.
Well, I agree that there are a lot of jerky bethelites, especially overseers. I've got a story about one Bethel elder that I'd like to share:
My congregation was in Queens and was not well served the train. It was over an hour ride (sometimes over an hour and a half) to get to the territory. Unfortunately, the Kingdom Hall was over a mile away from the train station--so that meant a long walk. Because of this the single bethelites depended on the married couples who had cars for rides to the meeting. One couple hated taking riders and would use every trick they could to avoid driving us. For example, they would leave without you if you were two or three minutes late, they would refuse to tell you in advance when they were planning to head back to bethel on Sundays, and they would make comments to you if you complaimed about the situation, like 'well, there's always the train.'
The other couple was eager to take riders because they needed the $3 each rider contributed for each roundtrip. Their car was a cramped import with no radio, AC, etc. The worst part of the car were the bald tires--especially in winter.
I was assigned to the Sunday morning bookstudy. At first, I thought that was great because it gave me a free night during the week. However, I soon realized it wasn't so good. Bookstudy was at 8:30 in the morning. We left by car at eight o'clock. Following bookstudy was a 9:45 meeting for field service. After an hour or two of service, it was time to head to the hall for the 12 o'clock meeting. Usually, we would be home on Sundays by 3 or 4 o'clock. Because of the busy schedule, if you wanted to have any kind of coffee and breakfast in the morning you had to go down to the table on Sunday morning. So that meant that on Sunday I was up pretty early. I realized that I had traded a weekday night for my Saturday night.
It got worse a few months later when the meeting was changed to 3 o'clock. The CO wouldn't permit the bookstudy to interfere with field service so it couldn't be anywhere from 9:30 to noon. We were offered bookstudy at the old time (8:30) or at 1:00, I think. For some reason, the group voted for 8:30. That meant I was out in the territory from 8:30 in the morning until six or seven at night.
Of course, only the couple with the car with bald tires went to the Sunday morning bookstudy. Then, the brother started giving public talks to other congregations one or two times a month during the morning. Since I was his assistant, that meant I had to conduct bookstudy. That also meant I had to take the train to get there. The only way to get there on time, I found, was to leave at 6:45 in the morning. Of course, that was before breakfast was served, so if I wanted anything I had to buy it myself.
The next year the meetings were changed again. The public talk and WT study was moved to 9:00 am and the book study to 2:00 pm. Remember, the Kingdom Hall was a mile away from the train station. If I couldn't get a ride, I had to take the train. To get there on time by train meant leaving home at about 7:00 am. (Once again, sacrificing breakfast.) After the meeting was field service, then book study, then the congregation provided a meal at about 3:30.
One Saturday we got between six and eight inches of snowfall. Most congregations had already cancelled their Sunday meetings. Those that had not usually just waited until the morning to make the call. My estimate is that over 90% of NYC congregations cancelled their meetings that Sunday. The exceptions were the Russian congregations and a few oddballs--like ours. I did not want to ride in a car with bald tires. I also didn't want to take the train at seven in the morning and then walk a mile through six inches of snow. (I didn't have any snow shoes either--just dress shoes.)
So, on Saturday I already decided to skip the meeting on Sunday.
It seemed like a great opportunity to have some fun that night. I got together about a dozen bethelites and we went to the roof of 107 after midnight (so no one would stop us) and built a huge snowman. It was 10 feet tall, and about six feet wide at the bottom. It was a lot of fun and we didn't finish until after 3 in the morning. The next morning you could see it from the 360 Furman, the Brooklyn Bridge, and 90 Sands.
Well, another bethelite told this elder (the one with bald tires) that I skipped Sunday's meeting because I was tired from staying up all night building snowmen. When I saw him next, he chewed me out and literally began to shove me. It took everything I had not to pick him up (he was a little guy) and carry him out of the KH and throw him in the snow.
Well, thanks for reading my story.
James
