by new boy 38 Replies latest jw friends
My writing a book about my strange life as a JW. I need some help.
Does anyone remember when they used to get these charts out at the service meetings which had all the hours, "back calls" and bible studies on it? What did they call that?
Remember when they did skits in the services meetings.
Anything else you can remember about that time period?
Look on page 3:
YOUR SERVICE MEETING
Congregation Prepares Sermon
It was a pleasure for the Society to receive reports from congregations stating that the three- to eight-minute and ten- to fifteen-minute sermon outlines in the October, 1955, "Inform-ant" have been of much assistance to brothers. Since the arrangement to supply an outline for the entire congregation to discuss and develop and then use in the field has been so successful, another very practical out- line is shown below. It will be handled in the same manner as the last ones. Brothers should be encouraged to study the outlines before coming to the meeting and to have with them a pencil and paper to Jot down points they wish to remember. It would be well for the school servant or another capable brother to serve as chairman.
When I came into the world in 1952 my parents lived in the apartment above the Kingdom Hall so I'm literally a "born in.
I remember everything you mentioned. The first charts I remember were the ones that listed the monthly QUOTAS for each publisher and what the cong. averages were. I remember my parents looking down on the ones who only met the quotas. They thought the quotas were a minimum REQUIRED but in order to be exemplary these should be exceeded. (especially the hrs.)
If I remember correctly the quotas were:
Hours: 12
magazines: 12
books: 1 or 2 (cant remember)
Booklets: (can't remember)
Subscriptions: 2 per campaign
back calls: 6
Bible studies: 1 (your own child/ren didn't count)
These were per month so the chart was brought out every month. Pioneers had a separate chart. I only remember the quotas of 100 hours and 100 magazines. One magazine was expected to be placed per hour for everyone.!
Sometime in the early 1960's the quotas were called GOALS a slightly softened viewpoint that maybe, just maybe, you wouldn't die at Armageddon if the minimum was not reached.
I also remember a chart that looked like a giant thermometer where special campaigns were graphed. The congregation was supposed to reach a certain goal for subs, vacation pioneers, or whatever. Each week we watched the thermometer rise toward the goal. Stupid as it sounds the charts provided a little entertainment for a kid like me who had to sit still and listen to these endless meetings without anything but the Watchtower publications. UGH......
Skits were a welcome diversion to the boredom. in 1961 we moved to a much more lively congregation. Most KHs had a small closet with a door on each side of the stage. Inside the closet there were props for the skits. We had a telephone, an apron, (for a sister to wear to play a householder) a couple of folding chairs, to portray seating on a bus, train, plane etc. There was a hardhat, a cardboard prop to look like a car . Those are just things I remember, there may have been more.
When d2d was being demo'd they actually knocked on the door on the stage. A pretend householder would sometimes have a frying pan in hand and say they were cooking, or have a baby in hand (you get the idea) the JW was to OVERCOME the objection. Might as well have demonstrated how to stick your foot in the door. HAha Nevertheless, these skits at least had some entertainment value and often provided some good laughs.
NewBoy/OldBoy,
Second paragraph, of course. That got pulled out on Thursday night, once a month, during the serve-us recruitment meetings. The Society, needed to know how each congo was doing, in regards to how they were doing with that's months goals in recruiting. Did we measure up? Congo average. National average. If not, why not?
Question: Are you putting in your book about the handed out Test Sheets given to everyone enrolled (and who showed up that night), to test their knowledge of how much they had paid attention to the WT brain washing at the "Theocratic Ministry School"? After 20, 30, or was it 40 minutes of silence, we diligently, all handed our filled in test sheet back in to be graded by the school overseer in charge. The following week, he would hand back the graded sheets. At my KHall there were always the same sisters that scored between 95-100%. They were considered the most spiritual sisters in the congo. Yes, they were great WT recruiters for the JW religion. Through those 1950's and 1960's year time frame, two of those highly spiritual sisters slept around, (not with each other that I know of) and neither one was ever even spoken to by the servants/elders (ummm... wonder who they were sleeping with?), another one hated sex, so her Jdud husband got DF for doing the horizontal cha cha cha, on his wife's Bible study student, another one, actually there were two of them, their house was filthy, but they were at each meeting, with their hand up being called on. Another one was divorced and sex starved. Went on one date with a handsome man who was studying, and yep, they rented a room and she was DF. He did get baptized, she got reinstated, they did get married and had a very happy and successful marriage. One of these highly spiritual sisters with all the right answers on her test sheet, had given birth as an unwed mother, to her only child, at age 15. She has hated and abused her good Jdub daughter, all of her life. This good daughter is retiring soon and moving to be by her mom and help her step father, an elder, who is ill. After over half a century, what do I think of these spiritual sisters that scored so highly on their tests? One was really nice. (One of the above was sleeping with her husband). She is alive and still recruiting for WT.
Women could not give talks until January 1959...only men.
If someone was disfellowshipped, they would give the reason when it was announced.
Wow Bonnie, I remember that too. My dad was the guy who often made the announcement. After prayerful consideration it has been determined that So and So is disfellowshipped for adultery, or apostasy etc.
At some point they stopped saying the precise reason but would say So and So is disfellowshipped for "conduct unbecoming a Christian"
