Seems they are now called the Exclusive Brethren. I used to think the Plymouth had something to do with preliminary. I now guess that they sailed from Plymouth, England, and where they landed in the now US, they called it Plymouth.
In the non-catholic part of Victoria where I grew up, we had some Plymouth Brethren people. Because they kept the heads low about their religion, the seemed much less dangerous than the wicked catholics.
I knew nothing about the brethren religion, but some things are starting to add up.
One family of brethren were totally loopy and mentally defective, so I won't bother saying anything about them.
The other family who lived quite close by seemed normal. But now I look back, they were not quite so. I was mates with the two teenage boys when I was very early teens. We rode bikes together and later drove tractors, rode motorbikes and drove their old Morry Minor along bush tracks and around paddocks.
Thier mother, although outwardly pleasant, was a very severe and no nonsense person. The father seemed under her control. She was a good looking woman for her age and wore her hair pulled very very tightly back in a bun. She had a good sense of humour, albeit a little sarcastic.
They were on our party telephone line, so now doubt monitored our morally disappointing calls. They never had a television. They never participated in any, de rigeur for country people, public sports. They never went to the local dances or balls. Sunday was not the day to call in to see them.
We also had Baptist neighbours, and they were pretty much the same, although a bit freeer perphaps. The baptists and the brethren kids removed themselves from the room when religious education classes were happening at school.
But the brethren did host a very fine cracker night in November. No drinkies, but fine food and a very good night. So they were sociable, on their terms.
Their house was old but of a pretty high standard. They renovated it and opened the living area up to the kitchen and used such a modern carpet in the living area, the colour called sunburst orange. Although they did not have tv, they were not luddites. They seemed to have a comfortable enough life from their quite modest farm, maybe a quarter the size of ours. Maybe they inherited money. They were not first generation on that property.
It would have been better if the brethren kept their heads down. Now, although they don't vote, they try to influence the outcome of elections by influence and money. It is a good thing that they have been given some publicity. We need to know about shadowy people behind lobbying our governments.
