What were your childhood summers like as a JW?

reneeisorym

I always had to pioneer and it sucked... In Mississippi it was 100 degrees and very very humid. It was like a greenhouse. We would get all dressed up and just pour sweat. I remember it became fashionable to get a bottle and fill it full of water and freeze it. We could then hold it to our necks and try to cool off. Most of the pioneers were poor so they wouldn't run the air conditioning. So I always begged to go with the 3 pioneers that would run their air conditioning. I know we looked beautiful knocking on people's doors soaking wet with our make up gone. And we would just pray that someone would invite us in so we could have a long talk with their a/c on. Then those left in the car were left to the miserable heat stuck in a car.

I always hate it when other kids talked about how much fun they had in the summer. They would go to camps and stuff. We didn't get to go to camps... Then now people will talk about how much fun they had as a child durning the summer when they didn't have anything to worry about except where to find worms so they could fish.

WANTMOMBACK

That is such a funny subject!!! I wasn't even a JW and my mom really wasn't a practicing one but even so we never got to do sh*! We couldn't play sports, spend the night with friends, go to camp etc. etc. etc.!!!! The bad part is she never even did anything with the crazy religion but we had to follow all of the ridiculously stringent rules that THEY live by

reneeisorym

Oh wow. That really had to suck.

TheCoolerKing

I feel your pain Renee!!!

Being raised as a JW definately sucked! Unlike you though, I didn't pioneer when I was young. But I do remember those hot summer days in Field Service on Sat. mornings! Oh and how about those wonderful summer assemblies too! Sitting outside and baking in the sun for hours at the packed stadiums. Wearing a tie and having the sweat pour down my back. And even worse, we never had an umbrella or tent to sit under!

We didn't have any AC at home either. But we weren't allowed to play outside with the neighborhood kids because they were "worldly". We weren't allowed to go anywhere, like the "cool" neighborhood pool for instance. Again, that's where the "worldly" kids were. No camp, no amusement parks, etc. (Again we were told, "Too many 'worldly' kids are there!")

As sad as it sounds, I actually looked forward to going to the 5 meetings during the week...because the Kingdom Hall had AC!!

maxwell

I only pioneered a few summers during my teens after I was baptized. My summers were mostly actually fun. I remember the first summer after my family moved from Memphis to a rural area about an hour outside of Memphis. Some women from the congregation stopped by for a break from field service and remarked that I had a tan and I'm a black guy. I had been running around outside all day. I tend to prefer the urban area where I live now more, but I can't deny I had some fun summers out there in the boonies. Sometimes our parents gave us a lot of chores, but there was still time to play and run around my parents' few acres which seemed to be a lot of space to me at the time. One summer in my early teens, I spent a lot of time working on my saxophone hobby. Then the summer after my 11th grade year, I didn't pioneer but ended up attending two supposedly college-level classes as a part of a summer pre-engineering program. Yeah, I know, school in the summer, fun?? It was to me, because it was related to the my eventual major in college, and it wasn't field service.

lonelysheep

Oh, Renee, that's horrible!!

As a child who grew up attending church, I looked forward to our summer hours--earlier and SHORTER Sunday service between Memorial & Labor Days to allow MORE time to do fun, non-religious things!!

Tyrone van leyen

My childhoods were spent obeyeing my fathers rules when I wasn't obeying the watchtowers. There was never any family vacations unless you wanna call sitting in bleechers dressed in a full suit and tie a vacation. Doing well at school, despite all the witness crap was a given. I had no freinds. There was always work to do as I grew up on a farm.

I don't know why, but from the youngest ages I can remember digging trenches for stone walls. I'm talking 6 and seven years old. No help from adults just enforcement. Digging wells by hand with my brothers. I can remember my dad taking us out of school to do this in gr. 6. My brother had a shortened shovel and the other brother would be lifting the bucket of hard clay while I would haul it to the back of the property. We dug several wells this way. One 31 feet in one day. I mean 6:00am to 3:00am lowering a trouble light to see my poor brother at the bottom.

We also dug septic systems one of which I was physically thrown in when I was a kid. One day while my dad was at work, he ordered me to to dig a trench about 50 yards and in places over 8 ft. in depth. I was only 13 years old. He wanted a 1 inch drop every 10 feet so the water could drain from the basement. I remember it being extremely hot out and working hard all day only to be thrown in the hole because it was off by a couple of inches. We got paid for nothing.

One day i remeber him waking us up at 3:00am and demanding we dig up his septic system. We had to string out trouble lights in the feild and dig through weeds and sewage.

I remeber failing in math. I was never good at math. He made me take summer school, and when I got home he made me dig fence post holes in the hot sun in the feild for no apparent fucking reason.

When I hit my teen years, He had me digging a basement by hand while I was school. It took me foour years to accomplish. He gave me 200 dollars for my work. I then bought a car with the small amount of money and then he told me to get it off his property. Years later He made me dig his cottage by hand as well. He left me out in the middle of nowhere by myself for 4 months and this time I got paid, but it was only 2000 dolars.

I didn't have a childhood in more ways than one. It was all punishment oriented and was very depressing with no hope and no understanding. I was an amazing public speaker with a quick wit and he couldn't see me doing anything other than digging holes. It reminds me of the movie Coolhand luke where he has to dig a hole and fill it in and dig it out over and over again for the prison gaurds.

If I wrote all the details of my childhood you simply wouldn't beleive what this man was like.

Then you all wonder, why I'm depressed, why I don't like working, why I never had a sense for money, why I never vacation, why I have a bad back, why I still have no freinds, why I left home. It was more than insanity. It was totaly unbearable. The witnesses were just a fly in the ointment.

I hate the witnesses for having no mercy on me. Everyone turned their backs on me in my darkest hour after all my loyalty to the org. and my father. No wonder I ended up going way off the deep end.

I was raised for a war that never happened.

Beep,Beep

How sad. What a shame you suffered so.

Now I too grew up in a Witness family but I never had to suffer like you said you did. We played baseball, even little league baseball. Family outings like picnics, trips to amusement parks (Kennywood near Pittsburg was/is a good one), museums. We had summer passes to the community swimming pool, just the thing for a hot summer afternoon.

Yes we did field service as well.

reneeisorym

I remember when I wasn't in service, my parents had me in the garden. I had to hoe, pick vegetables, help with canning, cut corn off of the cob, pick peas/butter beans, and spread out manure. I would help take stuff off after they cut the shrubs and weeded things. I remember working for hours on end for $2 an hour for my grandparents. Fun fun. No wonder I always felt like I was 10 years older than I actually am.

Tyrone van leyen

Yes, well thank you for acknowleginging my pain. I'm certainly not trying to outdo anyone here. I thought it was a good question and I realize that there are always others who have suffered more. I can't imagine what it must be like growing up in war torn countries itc. We have all suffered. I must admit though, the bitterness doesn't seem to end, but things have gotten a little better. There was no sexual abuse in my my family for instance. On the other hand there was no sex period, not even a mention of it in your dreams. It's a different story for everyone and everyone has a valid beef, especially with the org.! My case, is an example of how the watchtower makes a bad scene, even worse, if you can imagine. It was an absolutly joyless stoic existence. I did have a few good times like everyone else, but I have to strain to think of them.

What were your childhood summers like as a JW?

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