Have You Ever Served as an Attendant? Share Your Stories! (page 3)

teejay

>>>>> Did I want to grow up to be the President of the United States? Did I want to be a Firefighter? A Policeman? A Doctor???

Ahhh, noooo! Me? I wanted to be an Attendant!

Please tell me that I'm not the only dork who felt this way.

No, B, you're not the only one who felt that way.

One thing I'll say...

There is an art to being a competent attendant and I've seen few really good ones. The position is not much different from refereeing a game: if you notice the ref, then he's probably not doing his job as well as he could. Same way with attendants.

Cool thread.

LittleToe

I worked for years on the Attendant and Security teams (never on the hallowed "Watchman" squad, though).

We had first-aid / bomb-searching / health and safety / fire training, on a regular basis.

The last few years, before I left, I was a Captain looking after the attendants for the concourse.
The last District Convention, I attended, I spent the whole time walking around looking after the boys and arranging details.
I think I actually managed to go see the Drama, but skipped all the talks.

It was a case of "like father like son". I always admired my dad when he got to direct folks around and jump up for the count. It was a proud day when I got to work with, and later oversee him.
Things that make you go "Hmmmmm"

BluesBrother

Yesssirr! ex attendant at your service . What a power trip, You wore the badge, you stood up and watched over the whole shebang and had authority to get the rest to do what you wanted - and sometimes you helped a little old lady or a lost child and that made you feel good.

The attendants meetings were an ego trip since you were made to feel that we were responsible for everything.

Once someone called me a "Little Hitler" when I asked them to move along . I was all of 18 or 19 , so they were probably right . My captain had solemnly charged me with the duty to make sure the area was kept clear and stop them from congregating in chatty groups and blocking the entrance. As someone said , it took a lot of skill and tact to do the job well

kyria

There was a weird custom at my hall called "Halloween Duty", after the place was egged for the 49th time, they had brothers on round-the-clock surveillance. You had to be one of the truly lucky ones to be picked to stay up all night long outside a Kingdom Hall in late October. Yup, truly blessed.

Funchback

garybuss said:

Later I had a run in with two attendants and they belly pushed me and my 3 year old son away from a vending machine. It was a next to the last straw thing for me. They're lucky to be alive.

Classic! By the way, I always enjoy your posts, Gary.

I remember taking the count at the Circuit Assembly and all of us went to hand in the count. The cocky District Overseer thought the #'s were too low and he made all of us count again.

What a jackass!

Funchback

kyria said:

There was a weird custom at my hall called "Halloween Duty", after the place was egged for the 49th time, they had brothers on round-the-clock surveillance.

HAHAHAHAHA! We had that, TOO! Plus, we had to do it on 'Mischief' (or, some areas refer to it as 'Hell') night (that's the night before Halloween). This was in Philly. They began this custom after OUR hall got egged one night. By the way, it always seemed to be Joe Publisher or Johnny Ministerial Servant who did the watch. NEVER did the elder's do it!

Once again it's the "You're good enough to do volunteer labor" schtick but they never seemed to want to appoint me as an elder (or M.S. even).

kyria

Ha! I should have known that something was wrong with that job when they gave a privilege to my father!! He seemed none to pleased with it, but maybe he thought it was his internship to elderdom.

I wonder if the "hall watch" was something that was decided individually or if the halls got some kind of letter from Bethel that said "If your hall gets egged, stick the lackeys out in front of it with a thermos of hot coffee".

You didn't even get a cool nametag for that job

zev

There was a weird custom at my hall called "Halloween Duty", after the place was egged for the 49th time, they had brothers on round-the-clock surveillance. You had to be one of the truly lucky ones to be picked to stay up all night long outside a Kingdom Hall in late October. Yup, truly blessed.

i remember that! i was there with my dad more often than not.

I wonder if the "hall watch" was something that was decided individually or if the halls got some kind of letter from Bethel that said "If your hall gets egged, stick the lackeys out in front of it with a thermos of hot coffee".

that was a local thing.

and we didnt have coffee.

we had wiskey and brandy to keep us warm.

and i'm not kidding either. even as a 13-14 year old we "partook". i remember sitting in my dads powder blue amc gremlin with kevin lynch, (who was some sort of cousin many times removed) drinking brandy and talking on the cb raising our own kind of hell.

Mac

Yeah..I did! Do I want to share.........nope!!! mac, *who got free pies with his nametag......lol*

Belmont

My favourite attendant was the one with a concentration problem. He would count half way along the row (mouthing the numbers), then give up and walk away. We would then watch him hand in his imaginary count.

Have You Ever Served as an Attendant? Share Your Stories!

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