by Number 6 17 Replies latest jw experiences
Yet another oldie who remembers fondly the big conventions of my childhood. Never mind 15,000 Number Six... I am sure sure it was nearer 50,000 at the biggest Twickenham events . I did my share of washing trays ...sometimes we endured the heat otherwise rain ,being Britain...
I can remember well old Fred Franz shouting his stuff into the microphone, seemed to go on eternally.
Today? ? They don’t know they’re born
We thought it was Holy Spirit working on us. ~ BoureIdentity
Yes, I remember good and bad when leaving conventions. Good motivation to want to do more (good works). Bad in the guilt department. (Esp when I was exploring my raging hormones.)
I too think all that is gone. There is no real excitement at conventions any longer. The big excitement is to make homemade craft items for the international delegates. The talks are just "pablum" -- milk toast -- nothing of the caliber that Fred Franz could whip up.
Then it's out for burgers and beers! That's the most exciting thing about conventions now!
The thrill of the roaring stadium crowd....that feeling of being special. God's chosen group. Waiting for the next snippet of new light....new books.... Feeling so blessed in that huge crowd of believers with the miserable old world outside. And you'd go home and be on a high for days...then gradually it would wear off and back to the grind. The whole scenario obviously enhanced the United Brotherhood feeling.... I have no.idea what it's like nowadays .... But from what I gather here it's lame beyond belief.
Yes, I too miss the good old days!
"We use to take the old ladies...and tie their boots around their necks and shoot them with our Lugers!....ha ha ha those were the good old days....ya for sure."
Yes and let's not forget the torch light parades
BluesBrother pointed out that JW's got an attendance at one or two Twickenham Rugby Ground Conventions of 50,000 or so, near capacity I would have thought.
And at the time, I think I am right, there were less than 100,000 JW's in the whole of the U.K and Ireland combined !
Think of the effort many had to put in to attend ! but that "Great Crowd" LOL, applauding, was a very emotionally charged thing.
Yet another thing they have lost by smaller and smaller Conventions
After one of those really big ones, a JW I knew, an old Country boy who did not like crowds, said, " Well, I'm never going to one of those again". He never did, not even the smaller Regional ones, though remained a JW until his death.
Thinking back to the mid-late 1960's and 1970's from what I can remember as a poor black child (ok, I'm white, but still was poor), was the way in which the speakers late in the day at Yankee Stadium (New York) on the week-long assembles could get the masses all pumped up.
The speaker would make a sentence in a very low, baritone voice. Always started with "Brothers". Then followed by a long pause.
Then, at a higher level, another statement.
Then yet, at a higher level, another statement.
Then, finally, almost yelling, "Brothers, don't we all agree that ........................................."
Everyone would clap, stand up, clap some more, etc, etc, etc.
The speaker could have said virtually anything (Brothers, don't we agree that the moon is made of cheese ... that there are aliens here among us .....) yes, anything. It made no difference what the speaker said, but everyone would still stand up and applaud.
It was kind of weird actually. You were standing up, applauding before he even finished the sentence and not even knowing what you were applauding for.
I did my share of washing trays ...sometimes we endured the heat otherwise rain ,being Britain...
I started "publishing" in 1963, at the age of 15. I got to go to an international convention in New York with JW's who were strangers to me. I was the only one in my family they were able to fool at that time. I had never been anywhere except Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, so going to New York was the most exciting event in my life!
The JW's took me to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes, a ride on the Staten Island ferry, Rockefeller Center, and to some nice restaurants. The assembly talks and dramas really got me pumped. I was well-behaved, so the JW's liked me and made it a point to be extra nice to me.
Since I was the lone wolf JW in my family, I didn't experience the harshness at the KH that some kids did. The congregation I attended (not the one in my territory, but in the territory of those who studied with me) was in the wealthiest neighborhood in town.
I loved the circuit assemblies, too. I got to stay in a motel (something else I'd never done before) and talk to other JW's about their problems, and listen to the adults gossip about the ones in the congregation who they did not approve of.
I stayed in until 1979, at which time I had married a controlling elder, and the whole experience and disappointment about 1975 turned the whole experience sour. I realized that I had been a better person before I became a JW.
I'm glad I don't have to deal with their sad fantasies anymore.
