Aversion to Polo mints

New Worldly Translation

I don't know if anyone else has this affliction along with an aversion to Trebor extra strong mints. It goes back to my days attending the kingdom hall and taking a packet of mints to suck on and pass the time. Mints being the only food type allowed at meeting time I seem to recall. Jehooba having commanded the elders that 'of all the abundant sweets and confectionaries provided by thy lord Jehooba. Thou may only partake of the mint; namely the Polo and Extra Strong begat by Trebor. Thus sayeth the lord Jehooba'.

Anyway now when I smell a polo mint I feel a bit queasy and memories of the trepidation of setting off for the hall and popping a mint in my mouth for the car journey come flooding back. I can even smell the malodorous, slightly sweaty, clinging atmosphere of the kingdom hall after 3 congregations of 100 people had sat and perspired with all the windows tight shut. This was another reason for taking mints to drown out that clawing hum with minty freshness.

Now alas I can't even look at a polo without the fear of deep emotional scarring. If someone sucks an extra strong in my presence I have to leave the room in case I throw up. Things aren't so bad with the Fox's glacier but I have steared clear just in case.

Has anyone else developed this phobia because of their experience with the JW's? Will I always be destined to be mint-less from now on?

ozziepost

How old were you when you realised that Trebor was simply the name Robert spelt backwards?

New Worldly Translation

28 years 8 months and 7 days

ozziepost

GentlyFeral

Greetings, NWT,

I'm reminded of Steve Hassan's book, Combatting Cult Mind Control, where he talks about fellow exes (Moonies, in his case) being freshly traumatized every time they passed the beach where they were baptized, for instance.

He said that the best thing to do with those triggers is to form new, positive associations for them. You could take a pack of Polo mints to your favorite night club. And I'm told that extra strong mints add new dimensions to oral sex, but I haven't had a chance to try this. But you get the idea.

gently feral

PaulJ

aaahhh. I never really liked minty polo's. I preferred the fruity ones. With sweets silence and stealth were the keys. There is an art to carefully opening a wrapper and getting sweet after sweet into your mouth without anyone noticing. Maybe it was just the congs i was in but there always seemed to be an odd brother in the corner sucking on a fishermans friend. (for those shocked by that, can i just explain that a fishermans friend is a kind of sweet, not some euphenism for something else... ok???)

New Worldly Translation

LOL Paul, yeah someone sucking a fishermans friend sounds like they were trying Gently Feral's suggestion

Trouble with fisherman's friends is that everyone within a 100 yard radius knows your sucking one cos they stink out the place. There always seemed to be in every congregation an old woman who handed out stale sweets from an old biscuit tin after the meeting. She was called Sis Barchitis in our cong but we nicknamed her Sis Bronchitis cos everytime she answered up she'd let out a phlemy cough down the mic. Apart from her jelly babies being like boiled sweets I was always a bit wary of her cos having read fairy stories I thought she was gonna lure all the kids back to her gingerbread house and cook us!

PaulJ

Sweets were always more permissable at assemblies. Wine gums were my favourite as a kid. I think my mum gave them to me to keep me awake... how can you NOT doze off on the sunday afternoon!!!!

Aversion to Polo mints

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