What a risk; installing Part II before determining if anyone ever cares for Part I.
Joe B. Barnett, a cool, charismatic JW, married my aunt Doris. He sold his '55 orange and white Chevy convertible, bought a VW bug and pioneered. He was not an ordinary pioneer, JW or uncle. We're 11 years apart in age, which would make him 79 at this strategic point and time.
A phrase I frequently use, "stymied, stifled and squelched," is borrowed from Uncle Joe. He also learned a few things from my precocious little JW self, but I doubt he remembers.
Joe taught JWism in a smooth, palatable way, with illustrations, reasoning honed from years of proselytizing to unbelievers. He loved to actually teach. "Look at that chapter, pick a theme and four verses you want to use," he would tell us. Among his youthful disciples, I was probably the best at that. He never argued with my verse choices.
Uncle Joe brought janitorial work to the the Pacific Northwest JW world in the early 60's. He showed me the subliminal watchtower symbol on his "Castle Maintenance" business cards. All, nearly all of us, were into making a living in the off hours, bidding on jobs, waxing far into the night, janitorializing ourselves into pioneerdom.
Uncle Joe organized flag football extravagandas, with enough young male witnesses to make several teams. He like being Johnny Unitas, but, if another wanted to play quarterback, Uncle Joe could morph into Raymond Barry. Witnesses are frustrated athletes, frustrated businessmen, frustrated men, whose belief system stymies, stifles and squelches their aspirations, dreams, goals.
A few years ago, I received a phone call from Uncle Joe. He wanted to come down to Texas and spend a week with me. Why on earth and why now? He let it slip that he'd been spending some time with a mutual friend, George Pringle, and helped George "get his head on straight."