Since I started coming here, there's something I've been thinking about.
A while back I saw a woman on the tram I haven't seen for many years. She didn't recognize me. She looked absolutely miserable, like she was on her way to jump from a bridge or something.
This woman was the elder of two sisters I used to play with sometimes when I was a kid. Me and my friends were nearly always happy and carefree. But those two girls, they were scared, anxious and worried about almost everything. Whatever you wanted to do, like play in the forest, fish for salamanders in the dam, or go to the playground, you always had to spend a long time nagging/luring them with you, even though they clearly wanted to come. My other friends thought they were bummers. They were, honestly, by I had a childhood crush on the younger sister -- she was an absolutely beautiful girl.
The family of the two sisters belonged to some christian congregation that seemed to be unusually strict. Almost draconic, even. The sisters were absolutely forbidden to do certain things, like participating in some school subjects, reading comics, watching TV, and having any physical contact with boys whatsoever.
Sometimes I used to invite the younger sister to play with me at home. She was of course not allowed to do this either, but she did it anyway. We sometimes watched TV together and I could tell she was absolutely entranced. But afterwards she always flew into a panic and started washing her eyes in the bathroom. Her mother had told her that she could tell if she had been watching TV, since it made her eyes dirty. She was trying to wash the dirt away.
The church of this congregation wasn't that far away from my childhood home. It was all very mysterious and no outsiders knew much about these people. When they went to church they wore clothes that I can only describe as 'old timey'. Like people would wear before the turn of the last century. The women and girls wore what I believe is called bonnets, and all their clothing was black.
Anyway -- besides from telling you this story, I'd like to ask if anyone here knows what kind of congregation this was. The two sisters once hinted that their family had somehow come from America.
A while back I saw a woman on the tram I haven't seen for many years. She didn't recognize me. She looked absolutely miserable, like she was on her way to jump from a bridge or something.
This woman was the elder of two sisters I used to play with sometimes when I was a kid. Me and my friends were nearly always happy and carefree. But those two girls, they were scared, anxious and worried about almost everything. Whatever you wanted to do, like play in the forest, fish for salamanders in the dam, or go to the playground, you always had to spend a long time nagging/luring them with you, even though they clearly wanted to come. My other friends thought they were bummers. They were, honestly, by I had a childhood crush on the younger sister -- she was an absolutely beautiful girl.
The family of the two sisters belonged to some christian congregation that seemed to be unusually strict. Almost draconic, even. The sisters were absolutely forbidden to do certain things, like participating in some school subjects, reading comics, watching TV, and having any physical contact with boys whatsoever.
Sometimes I used to invite the younger sister to play with me at home. She was of course not allowed to do this either, but she did it anyway. We sometimes watched TV together and I could tell she was absolutely entranced. But afterwards she always flew into a panic and started washing her eyes in the bathroom. Her mother had told her that she could tell if she had been watching TV, since it made her eyes dirty. She was trying to wash the dirt away.
The church of this congregation wasn't that far away from my childhood home. It was all very mysterious and no outsiders knew much about these people. When they went to church they wore clothes that I can only describe as 'old timey'. Like people would wear before the turn of the last century. The women and girls wore what I believe is called bonnets, and all their clothing was black.
Anyway -- besides from telling you this story, I'd like to ask if anyone here knows what kind of congregation this was. The two sisters once hinted that their family had somehow come from America.
