In an earlier post, I mentioned a recent trip to a local Assembly Hall to catch up on the latest in JW rhetoric -- which incidentally sounds pretty much like it always has.
While being regaled with exhortations to elevate the importance of meeting attendance to the status of that approaching a patient on life support, I couldn't help but chuckle as how so many -- not all, mind you, but many Bethelites during my tenure there in the late sixties, honed their skill at ducking meetings to the level of fine art.
Because it was policy that work assignments took precedence over all other obligations including and especially meetings and field service, many would find some pretext to stay back and piddle away at their desk or workbench. This was particularly true of the stafers assigned to the maintenance of the Bethel home.
For those assigned to weekend reception duty at 124 Columbia Heights, the building in which most of the higher-ups live, their first order of business on Sunday mornings was to go to the Hotel St. George newstand and pick up a bunch of Sunday New York Times, to deliver to the doors of bigshots like Knorr, Suiter, Couch, et al. Because these fellows so frequently lazed about the home, sleeping in, rummaging around the kitchen, etc, in casual clothes, we dubbed gthem ``the Ban-Lon'' brigade in reference to the polo shirts they favored on such occasion.
Of course, none of this inhibited them in the least from intoning solemnly on the vital importance of regularity in meetings and service whenever they took to the podium.
Or take the plight of anyone assigned to work on a project the Society deemed a top priority, such as the Watchtower Farm construction when I was there.
When ordered to shape up to move up to the farm for the job, we were laughed at when asked about bringing along ``nice'' clothes for meetings and service. In short, all we encountered was wall-to-wall work, often through the weekends and onto the the following week, and absolutely no contact with the local congregation. About the only meetings we attended were an hour's family Watchtower study on Monday, which we attended in overalls or jeans.
For such jobs, the Society would often call in to Bethel any special pioneer or circuit overseer who had specialized construction skillls. You should have seen the looks on their faces when their ovcerseers told them they wouldn't be excused from work just to go to a meeting or out in field service! (Wesley Benner, the CO who hounded Ray Franz, was one such guy). Many of these types proved to be as naive as the newest new person when it came to believing the Society's rhetoric about the sanctity of meetings and service.
This is getting long, so I'll limit myself to two last reflections, real quick. You servants, remember you we're urged to be reliable? One time when assigned to pick strawberries at Mountain Farm on a Tuesday, it got late and we were not finished. We were sent back to pick after dinner by the headlights of several pickup trucks. When I requested to make a phone call to the book study to tell them I wouldn't show up to conduct, I was told to forget it.
At the assembly, the dubs were urged never to submit to a boss's orders to overcharge or cheat in any way. I couldn't help but think that in almost 40 years of full time work, the only one who asked me to do something dishonest was my Bethel overseer (i.e. to hide several gallons of paint thinner which were over the allowed limit as a city inspector was on his way to the shop). My roomate, who worked as a plumber, was once assigned as a lookout while others finished unlicensed plumbing work in the Greenpoint Avenue Assembly Hall.
Of course, I still have many pleasant memories of the place, mostly of the comraderie and mutual commiserations of friends I made, many of whom turned out to be friends for life -- some still there, others out, loyal JW and ex-JW alike -- and for some of the dear, sincere older members of the family, now all gone.
But I must say that it's rare for anyone to go through the Bethel experience and come out with his/her idealism intact.
Thanks for listening (reading), whatever....
