by Parousia 35 Replies latest jw friends
Stared at the mural behind the podium and imagined all the animals walking by. Pinching my brother and making him cry so I could take him out to the second school. Drawing with a pen on my brothers' arms. Picking five words out of the Bible and trying to rearrange them into a sentence. Staring at elders and making them uncomfortable. Sleeping. You name it.
CG
This brother told me of giving a talk in a small town where almost all the congregation was older and the public talk was right after lunch. While giving the talk he noticed many of them going to sleep. It finally became so bad that all of them fell asleep. He paused for a while and no one moved, so he just quietly walked out the back door and left them sleeping.
Ken P.
I spent many, many hours plotting my revenge against the little old man who caught my mom off guard at a low point in her life, and converted her. He died when I was about 13. That sort of took the fun out of my fantasies. I then just wished armaggedon would come and put me out my misery. I figured death would have been less boring than the meetings.
Shoshana
Good ? Some of us found relief at the kingdom hall in a weird way. In my book I write about this. (I've edited this)
__________
Today, our two-hour meeting begins with a Bible talk by Elder Bryan Smith on the responsibilities of being the male head in a Christian family.
" The man as head of the household...." My mind drifts off as usual.
What just happened couldn't have happened, I tell myself. I just imagined ... took place. But Papa said it would happen again, ..... Well, I won't think about that now. I'll just not think about it at all. How can I do that? I knowI'll pretend it never happened. If it did, it happened to someone else. That's right. ....I'll never think about it again.
While Brother Smith is delivering his sermon, specifically focusing on two biblical characters from the Old Testament, I slip into a daydream, fantasizing about living amongst them - Lot's wife, who disobeyed her husband, looked back at Sodom, and was turned into a pillar of salt, and Jonah, who lived for three days inside a whale. Although I'm not even five years old, I question how this is possible. I wonder what it must have felt like. It sounds all so terribly frightening and very exciting at the same time.
Chapter 2, Father's Touch by Donald D'Haene
Edited by - morrisamb on 3 February 2003 9:28:4
When you are a child how in the hell can you pay attention to someone who is almost speaking a foriegn language. Words like thocratric order faithful and discreet slave Jehovah's universal sovernty (or however you spell it) Your only choices were to daydream or sleep.
But now they don;t want your kids to do anything at the meetings but listen. But I let my 9 year old sleep, draw, color, write or anything else she wants to do. And my dub wife dosen't give me any problem because she was raised in the truth and knows how boring the meetings were.
Diamond
I was one of the kids who wasn't allowed to sleep so I had to act interested while zoning out, sorta like when Homer Simpson zones out when Marge or Mr. Burns are talking to him. Other semi-interesting moments included flys. Sometimes our congregation had inordinate numbers of them so it was fun to watch them land on people and how they reacted. Some were mad swatters, others seemed oblivious and allowed the flys to crawl all over them. I also greatly enjoyed watching the "appointed reader" on stage on those hot summer months. It rarely failed but sometime during the Watchtower study the reader would start nodding off. Of course the more spiritual ones had the furrowed brows, looking concerned...while the rest of us were hoping Brother Dozer would fall off his chair. Then there were the times a couple of my friends and I would bring several of those little fuzzy caterpillars to a meeting...great fun. In some ways we were like Tom Sawyer when he was being beaten by Aunt Polly to learn his scriptures and attend Sunday services...but alas ol' Tom only had to endure it once a week.
-BONEZZ
Ah yes! The "fun" part of the meetings:
Secret "hand codes" from us kids to each other during droll public talks. Drawing messages and symbols mocking the current WT study, and passing it around. Looking at the ceiling and watching flies mate. Checking out the cute Mexican sister my age, in the front row with the nice ta-tas. Meeting afterwards in the parking lot, planning our weekends of sin! Swapping 80's music from 45's, then when CD's hit the market.
There was a store called Jeans West (with the appropriate JW logo) at the mall, that sold the latest Don Johnson outfits...and we would compare our new threads with each other.
Wooing women.
Trying to make plans for service for the next day, with the "hot chick" of the month.
Making plans to sneak out of our house, to meet up with WORLDY girls from our Jr. High and Highschools!
Drawing extra long hair on Jebus' armpits in My Book of Bible stories.
Flicking paper on the back of some kid's head, who is sitting in front of you.
Fighting in the parking lot. Oh yes, we "brothers" had few throw of hands. Must of been a "SEATTLE" thing?
The mandatory bathroom meet up during "song" on Tuesdays. In which our teen-aged-hormones would dictate our conversation as to who was "wearing a slip or not".
Waiting for that kid you hated to drink from the water fountain, and tactically positioning yourself as to bump his nose in to the water.
Answering "Yes" and "No" to every question on the written review...when it didn't call for such answer. Or with friends, write in the words of: FUBS. (F*(*&ed up Bullsh*t).
Ripping a nice ripe one, and blaming it on your sister(s).
Rubbing your feet on the carpet, and shocking your friends.
Play with the Rubik's Cube.
Stare at the paintings on the wall, done by the girl I had a crush on.
Changing Kingdom Melodies Songs in to parodies. "Let's watch how we balk, this is a bunch of crock...la la la la"....
Yes, we kept ourselves "occupied"...
( to bad I didn't meet that ONE "sister" sooner...yah...YOU! )
As a child, I would zone out. I had a pretty good imagination by the time I was 12.
As a teenager, I would mentally undress the good looking women.
I used to chew gum a LOT at the KH. I would make a huge collection of gum foil wrappers in my suit coat pocket. I had tons of them! I was always the one choosing the seats, so I would always choose the same ones. During the prayer, I'd lift up the plastic plug on the end of the chair (one on each side) and my goal was to fill them with the foil balls I had in my suit coat. I succeeded many times :)
I just dreamed of something else, went to the bathroom 20 times, hung out in the back with back injuries, walked around the parking lot, scribbled, looked for hot sisters and at what they were wearing, you know, the usual.
ash
I listened to ball games on my transistor radio. It was in my pocket, and I discreetly snaked the tiny earphone cord up my shirt, and into my right (hidden from view) ear. This worked well for a long time. I never got caught. Of course, during the "seven inning stretch" was a good time to offer my obligatory comment during the Watchtower study.
