Curious About Cult-ure

[Alex]

There is no socializing outside of the organization and if there is its going to school or a Job. Everything else is with people in the organization. Camping was with them or family. No school activities, although I did do a play once - big surprise. I'm sure I could disect those experiances with how I am today, but we'll save that.

There is a lot of censorship. Naturally growing up, I got the brunt of this. Music was very selective. TV and Movies also. I rarely went to the movies and when I did it was with the group. My comic book collection barely survived and there were many casualties along the way. If you were reading it was one of thier books or magazines.

See, there is where I wonder what is coming from the top and what is just random local variation. Me and all the JW kids I knew in school freely associated with the other kids at school, participated in school activities (sports and such) and were generally just regular kids people thought were weird because we wouldn't say the Pledge of Allegiance or do birthday stuff.

As for censorship, there was never any real attempt to control what read or the music my sisters listened to (I had no interest in music myself). My first exposure to Garrison Keillor was when one of our elders brought over some Lake Wobegon tapes one night and we listened to them. And he and I frequently discussed the science fiction and fantasy I was reading with no condemnation.

But maybe I, somehow, ended up in a "liberal" Kingdom Hall (though my experiences at the three we attended at various times were all pretty similar).

Or, even then I was so strong-willed in my personal directions that I was oblivious to attempts to control them (similarly, I either never experienced peer pressure at school or was immune to the point of not noticing it).