Knocking on schoolmates doors

BettyHumpter

I left the JW's shortly after I graduated High School. But when I was still at home i'd get dragged into door to door every saturday morning without fail unless it was pissing rain.

I can remember always being anxious to know what territory my group was assigned. I remember some Saturdays i'd look at it and think Oh Crap, I have tons of schoolmates in that neighborhood. I had several strategies. The first was to try to find another group that perhaps had a rural territory where I was unlikely to run into anyone and ask my parents if I could accompany that group instead, "to get to know them better".

If that failed, I spent the ministry doing calculations in my head. Trying to figure when I would volunteer to get outta the car so that the rotation had the lowest chance of it being my turn when we got to someones house I knew.

The worst were when we would enter a subdivision and walk around on foot. In that case if we were approaching a classmates door, my hail mary was to say "you take that one and i'll take the one next door, we'll get more done that way".

If the person I was with declined, I just hoped no one answered the door.

BettyHumpter

Another thing I remember...in my days in school, the Pledge of Allegiance wasn't done, so it was never an issue like in the 1950's or whenever they used to do that. Well, it wasn't done until the fall of 1990, that is. My junior year in High School. Iraq invaded Kuwait, we sent 500,000 soldiers over and suddenly the pledge was back every morning in homeroom. Thanks alot Saddam.

I think I sorta put a hand near my heart and half heartedly said the words. I didn't believe the religion at that point, I was just biding my time in that respect, I just thought the whole pledge thing was dumb. But I also didn't want to make a spectacle of myself.

Sea Breeze

All painfully familiar. Kids suffer the most indignities as JW's. I think that is by design.

Foolednomore

Running in to schoolmates was always a challenge. I started to work in field circus with my brother who shared my Idea of not talking to anyone about Jw crap and getting rid of most the Watchtower and Awake in the public trash without getting seen. Yes we Pioneered and placed record Watchtower/Awake records. But actually talking to anyone is a different story. We would go to a door and not even knock or ring. And if someone would answer we would talk them out of it or just say we are Jw's end of conversation.

smiddy3

I regret taking my young sons D2D with me now and coming face to face with their school mates ,what an asshole dad I was .

How would I have liked that if my dad had been a JW ? I cringe when I think of it.

Sorry boys.

BluesBrother

Yes , schooldays were the worst for a young JW... The fear of meeting a school mate in the Ministry, I mean just what do you say ? ?

Even worst was Monday morning back at school and being pilloried by everybody who had heard about it ...

My Name is of No Consequence

Try getting your Social Studies teacher at the door...

Biahi

Betty, I remember being in 1st grade, and half-heartedly saying the pledge, teacher kept me after class, she thought I didn’t know the words. I knew them very well, I had to explain to her about the 💩 beliefs. So embarrassing. All I wanted to do was fit in!

Ron.W.

And if we're all going be clothes free and running around in the buff, who's gonna mow our ass too!!🤣

TonusOH

I can't recall ever worrying about a classmate opening the door when I was in field service. Maybe that is not too surprising- growing up in a bad area, it was unlikely that parents would allow their kids to get the door when someone knocked unexpectedly. And I have no idea how I would have responded if a classmate had opened the door. But as I recall, we did not get any grief about our religion in school. Most kids just saw it as a kind of weird thing, a curiosity. I never did appreciate how lucky I was.

As for the pledge of allegiance, I had it kind of easy there as well. We (there was usually one or two other JW kids in my home room) either stood outside while the rest of the class made the pledge, or we could sit at our desks or stand quietly with our hands at our sides. To be honest, it was easier to stand outside than to be surrounded by kids when you were explicitly not doing what they were doing. But again, I don't recall getting any shit over it.

Knocking on schoolmates doors

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