Generally I found most people were pretty apathetic and often surprisingly tolerant , but we've all had some bad ones. Looking back , here were my worst couple of experiences - there probably were others but I've probably long forgotten them or blanked them off.
I was a kid of maybe 13 & it was bitterly cold & pouring with rain. I was working alone in a middle class street near my school where I knew a lot of my school teachers lived & was scared stiff at every door – half the time pretending to press bells , doing the fake knock etc. A woman answered one door and took one look at me as I nervously started my magazine presentation and slammed the door on me , telling me to “p**s off”. I remember walking up the alley way & just bursting into tears.
I was working a very rural area with an elder when I was a young pioneer ( maybe 20 years of age) and we called on a very isolated house on this weird guy with a straggly beard who seemed psychotic. He was very aggressive and threatened to set his dogs on us if we didn’t leave at one ( he had a couple of alsations barking noisily. ) I was scared stiff but incredibly the elder ( who was one of these guys determined to overcome any conversation stopper ) decided to try to pacify the guy and then got into an argument with him. I virtually had to drag him away , telling the householder that I was sorry we had called at a bad time and we would leave. I’ve never walked so quickly to the sanctuary of a car. The elder berated me afterwards for not “trusting in Jehovah.”
