Calling all Bethelites

by Nadsam 44 Replies latest jw experiences

  • zugzwang
    zugzwang

    Breakfast/daytext/table overseer.

    I always seemed to be hungry. My table head was Dave Mercante, Zone Servant and personal secretary to one of the GB. I always kind of felt like I was privy to some pretty private stuff around him. He liked to brag about how much he knew and of course I thought I was pretty special to be the "teacher's pet." How retarded I was.

    Monday night WT study

    Waste of time. Never studied ahead for it and when I followed along during the study I got even less out of it than I would have if I would have studied on my own.

    Tuesdays Bookstudy at one of the Local Cong.

    The most worthless meeting. Traveling an hour and a half each way for a one hour meeting? Come on!

    Wednesday evening fieldservice

    Never did that. Wednesday evenings was for sleeping.

    Thursdays parts on the service meeting

    A less than enthoused audience listening to a less than grand speaker.

    Fridays "family evening" / evening fieldservice

    Fridays was "get drunk night." It was also a good time to get together with friends to play chess.

    SUNDAYS FIELD SERVICE/MEETING/LATE SUPPER

    All I ever wanted to do on Sunday's was sleep. At Bethel is when I started to hate the Sunday meeting.

    Daily sisters housekeeping/snooping through your possessions

    Hide your porn carefully

    What I hated most was the attitude of most people there. (Oh course I had it too, I was a product of the same system) The "I'm better than you" attitude that everyone had. And everyone had it. From the sister checking my ID (such authority she wielded) to the newbies who were supposed to be following my lead (everyone wanted to be in charge of everyone else) everyone thought they were something special. If it weren't for my own low self esteem I probably would have been a real a$$ myself. Sadly what I miss most about Bethel is the view of NYC. I loved walking out on the prominade and just marveling at the beauty of the island of Manhattan. I haven't been back there since I left Bethel in 99. I'm getting all nostalgic now. I think I'm going to cry! (or not!)

  • got my forty homey?
    got my forty homey?

    When I was a commuter Bethelite my Father still wanted me to sit in on the Saturday night borefest Watchtower study despite doint it at bethel Monday nights. So what I would do is tell him I was attending the Monday night Watchtower Study to get out of doing the Monday night Family Tuesday Night Family Bookstudy. Monday nights was beer drinking night!

  • Black Man
    Black Man

  • Breakfast/daytext/table overseer.

    • When I was at a GB table it was kinda cool because they didn't care what I did. When I wasn't at a GB table, I'd have some asshole trying to quiz me on an obscure point that he discovered in the insight book. For breakfast, the food SUCKED. There was evidently some GB members that loved prunes and granola because we had that shit more often than not at Brooklyn, while cats at the farm and patterson were having pancakes and french toast......you know a REAL breakfast. I was once counseled for not appreciating spiritual things when I brought a McDonald's breakfast to the table.

  • Monday night WT study

    • Absolute waste of time. However, one of my roommates was a techie-wizard and was able to hook things up so that we could get the program on our television set. We could watch it from our room and feel that we didn't miss a beat.

  • Tuesdays Bookstudy at one of the Local Cong.

    • Another waste. Traveling an hour to an hour and a half for an hour study. ASSININE.

  • Wednesday evening fieldservice

    • Never attempted this.

  • Thursdays parts on the service meeting

    • I actually liked these, because I usually was assigned good parts.

  • Fridays "family evening" / evening fieldservice

    • You are basically at the mercy of old-ass Bethelites who have no since of entertainment and leisure. It was a giant step for African-Americans one year, when they had a group of black brothers sing a Boys II Men tune. Other than that, the evening was a complete waste of time, energy and intentions.

  • Saturdays Quick Build Hall construction assistance

    • Never got involved in this.

  • SUNDAYS FIELD SERVICE/MEETING/LATE SUPPER

    • Absolutely sucked, because for brothers, Sundays was the only day that you didn't have to work and you STILL couldn't sleep in.

  • Daily sisters housekeeping/snooping through your possessions

    • I had some cool housekeepers for the most part. But there were some horror stories with others.

  • Car pools

    • I carpooled with "company men" who basically talked "shop" the whole time. BORING.

  • Allowance day

    • Was okay except for those months where you basically transported you money to accounting to pay for that high phone bill.

  • Laundry day / missing clothing / badly sewed clothing

    • Didn't really dig having numbers on all my clothes, but it saved me time from having to wash them all the time.

  • Boring library

    • I enjoyed the library and wished I could have extracted a couple jewels from there (i.e. - Branch Book)

  • farm duty !!! stalls vs $#IT vs gardening

    • Never heard of this. I was a Brooklynite.

  • Inking the press!

    • Never.

  • Digging/carpentry/bricklaying/box packing/loading

    • Nope.

  • Nasty crotch grabbin roomies

    • Didn't have to worry about this. I made sure I roomed with cats that I knew after my first 6 months or so there.

  • Not gettin sum..except nasty looks from roomies

    • Wasn't a problem at the time.

  • Lousy infermary (basic asprin cures all !!!)

    • Infirmary was a fuckin' joke. And don't be a newbie and get injured playing basketball. You get all of these weird, judgmental looks and sneers.

  • Longest pompous a$$ prayers going on and on and on....

    • Only the ones trying to climb the ladder would do this. The ones who owned the ladder had nothing to prove.

  • Old anointed bro's ..that pee themselves and need help !

    • They weren't that bad and were really kinda down-to-earth for the most part. I had no problem with them.

  • Assembly sound duty OMG!

    • Nope.

  • Food Service overseeing

    • Nope.

  • Parking attendant work

    • Nope.

  • Apostate lookout/Security work (it does exist guys !)

    • When I was a night-watchman, this would come up from time to time.

  • That wake up bell OMG OMG OMG !!

    • INSIPID. Like we were cattle of something. I would have preferred the cowbell.

  • Joyzabel
    Joyzabel

    NEVER being able to sleep in!!!!!

    gawd I hated those bells.

    Head of the table keeping count how many mornings you missed. (I just wanted to sleep in once in awhile).

    Force reading the bible to say you got it done during entrance school.

    Hour or more commute to KH, missing dinner to get to meetings on time. Coming home after midnight and getting up early again!!!!

    NEVER getting to sleep in!!! (Who wants to sleep in on a saturday when your hubby has to get up and go to work! ppphhhhfff)

    The smug, self-rightous attitude of "elite" bethelites. (you know who they are, sat "in front" of you, according to senority)

    The out right propaganda from the GB..."the best place to be in the world" "cream of the crop"

    The only good thing was that Bethel was in NYC!!! I LOVE NYC. .....Broadway, Bloomindales, Time Square, etc, etc, etc.

    Joy

  • Kenneson
    Kenneson

    If you haven't checked out the following site yet, you will want to. If you scroll down to July 9, 2002 you can find my comment there describing my experiences and feelings.

    http://www.freeminds.org/bethel/bethelguest.htm

  • mann377
    mann377

    I hated dish duties, night watchmen duties.

    On my last day at Bethel the people at my table would not speak to me even though we all had sat there for 14 months. This still saddens me although it has been 30 yrs. the pain is still there.

  • boa
    boa

    another thing at bethel i just remembered reading through the posts was the annual 'family' day. I attended 2 of them during my stay at canadian bethel and they were absolutely AWESOME. It was the one day that true creativity, excitement, freedom, enjoyment, happiness, diversity, risk-taking even, was allowed and encouraged - it ROCKED!

    I also am posted for Feb 22, 2004 on this site. http://www.freeminds.org/bethel/bethelguest.htm

    To me, I also loved dish duty - it was hard work with a bunch of really fun people - it was a blast and got you out of other duties or meetings whether at your assigned congregation, or the monday night wt study. We joked, sang, giggled, laughed, raced each other in setting up the dishes - a good time and always a good sleep after.

    When we were going to leave bethel, we did so under good circumstances, so the bros including some on the branch committe were very kind and loving towards us. We were given going away parties by our departments, a special pre-lunch drinky poo with one of the b committee bros, special seating at the head table during lunch on one of our last days there. It was a special and loving departure treatment - take it or leave it we all know there are many people who are kind and sincere in the org like in any other group. Of course, if we would have left for one of the non-acceptable reasons, things likely would have been different - sigh.

    boa

  • Undaunted Danny
    Undaunted Danny

    "New things learned on scriptual clarification"

    Ps. 110:3 "..Thou hast the dew of thy youth"

    This means that what really goes on at the Brooklyn bethel,'motherden' is NON STOP masturbation.

  • Black Man
    Black Man

    up.........................

  • metatron
    metatron

    Some guys hid their porn in the ventilation shaft in the common bathroom - at 124 building, I believe. Knorr had a fit

    when this was discovered. He also had a fit when Bethelites 'covered' for each other, as when some factory guys

    tried to hide their falling-down-drunk buddies on the job.

    I basically hated the whole lack of privacy and sweatshop ambiance. Being in NYC was fun, even with the crime.

    The local congregations were very supportive and helpful. If you try to explain Bethel to someone, it's hard to

    articulate how intense it all was.

    metatron

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