I worked in the bindery on machines that sewed parts of books together. Each machine had a "checker" who took the books out of the machine and inspected them to be sure they were sewed in the correct order. One time I put a note in one of the books to give my checker a laugh. It read. " Help...I'm being held captive in a tower and being forced to sew books all day with no pay !" My checker missed the note but the next one in line (a real goody goddy sour puss) found it and turned me in to the floor overseer. I got a pretty good chewing out because if that wouldn't have been found, it could have ended up in the hands of the public and I could be responsible for someone not accepting THE TRUTH because of it.
My room mate was on a press that was running an AWAKE! article about Soccer or sports. On the cover was a close up photo of a soccer ball about to be kicked. He hated one of the guys that was on his crew....almost came to blows a few times. He had a photos of the entire crew so he cut out the guys head from one of the photos and stuck it on the soccer ball so it looked like he was about to get kicked in the head. The magazine went down the line and almost made it off the floor before somebody caught it. My room mate almost got booted out for that little stunt.
My room mate and I got a hold of the dish duty form/slips. They are the dreaded notices that are slid under your door telling you that you have to do dish duty in the kitchen on Saturday after already working a half day in the factory. We'd place them on our friends doors and let them suffer all week thinking they had to do dish duty.
On night watchman duty, Me and a friend used to rollerskate through the factory pulling a pallet jack behind us with other guys riding on them. We could whip through the factory in no time. Once I went zooming across the roof across the front of the big WATCHTOWER and clock that you can see from the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a surreal moment as I looked at those big green letters that I had seen in photos my whole life, up close and realize that all those people driving on the bridge ( and Jehovah) could probably see us as we skated past the flood lights.
They used to have 'Hoppers" on every floor which is a large closet that you can put any unwanted items you might have that someone else might want. We'd go Hopper Shopping sometimes , to see what kind of stuff was available. One time we found a giant girdle that had these metal clips for holding up nylons. We grabbed it to give one of our friends who was a pretty hefty dude. After we gave it to him and we all had a laugh, a couple of us grabbed it and stretched it out like a sling shot. When we let go, it flew out the 9th floor window or the Towers Hotel and fluttered down to the sidewalk below. No one dared to look out the window in case someone looked up to see which window it came from. We waited nervously for a few days expecting an announcement about it at the breakfast table.
My Mom used to cut hair and she showed me how to cut my own. I was pretty particular about my hair having always had good haircuts my whole life. When I got to Bethel I noticed everyone had the 1950's same shaved up the back long on top slicked to the right hair style. Our floor overseer would just come up behing you while you were working, tap you on the shoulder and tell you to head to the barber shop. I always refused and said I'd take care of it myself. He just hated this...it totally blew his mind that someone was refusing his directions. Pretty soon brothers were asking me why my hair still looked good and when they found out I could cut hair I had a whole bunch of customers (non paying). After enough brothers began refusing hair cuts my little side line came to a halt.
