Remember how great the get-togethers were in the 1980's??

by PaNiCAtTaCk 31 Replies latest jw friends

  • PaNiCAtTaCk
    PaNiCAtTaCk

    hey thats cool my dad also played in orchestras. I know he play in New York and it was a great experience for him.

  • HappyDad
    HappyDad

    searching99.........

    You have a PM.

    HappyDad

  • aarque
    aarque

    Growing up in the late 50's and 60's, the hall would have get togethers. The problem was, we would find out about them after the fact. For the most part we were never invited; being part of a divided household made all the difference. So, when in our teens, my sisters (sibs) and I would go roller skating. But, somehow, word got out and a lot of the parents would dump their kids off at the rink for us to watch. We stopped going.

  • mcsemike
    mcsemike

    I guess I would say it was just plain FUN to be a JW. I don't remember in the 70's any attitude among the 20 and 30 year olds about being saved and the world wasn't. We had parties, studies with householders, invited them to dinner and picnics, etc. DF'ing was rare and the elders were actually nice people. They almost acted like they could be voted out if they weren't. After 1980, things got tough. After reading Ray's COC, I now know why.

    It's a real shame it changed. Of course, you can't stay in a religion just because they have nice parties. So does the world. But we weren't always in that "us against them, and them are the enemy" frame of mind.

  • rawdata
    rawdata
    Then I guess the Bastards of Brooklyn got wind that it's "slaves" were smiling and laughing and learning to interact with others of the human race

    Oh man, when I was at bethel ('89 to '94) it was that way all the way to the top. Where I worked was on a main visitors tour route. We could get "counseled" if we were similing too broadly and didn't look serious enough while we were working. And god forbid if we laughed. There were certain overseers that would, if they heard any laughing, yank whoever was laughing off to the side and tell them to quit goofing off and to get serious. It didn't matter if we were working as hard as humanly possible. They would always quote Timothy or Titus or some other scripture and tell us we had to be serious minded.

    In conversations with one of my overseers (who is now one of the Gooberning Body), he admitted that there is a faction in the WT leadership that doesn't believe that anyone who laughs and shows other expressions of hapiness can also be a serious person. Thought the place isn't swarming with these kind of folks, there is enough (and in the right positions of the hierarchy) to take out their issues on everyone else.

  • El Kabong
    El Kabong

    In the late '70's, early '80's, the youth in our congregation would usually go bowling, roller skating, Ice Skating, the Movies, or something else on Sunday evenings. Great association and lots of laughs. Usually, we would top off the evening going to Howard Johnson's or somewhere for Ice Cream. But, like all fun things, that came to an end. The first thing to go was roller skating, because they played the evil Disco Music, and of course, listening to those disco beats, it would of course lead to sexual immorality. Sheesh!!

  • Soledad
    Soledad

    No I don't because I was never invited to any. I remember the friends bragging about the good times they had. I was about 7-8 years old and felt the tears well up in my eyes everytime I would hear about these get-togethers. The congregations I attended were always very cliquish.

  • jayhawk1
    jayhawk1

    Does anybody else remember when the Society told all Kingdom Halls that such activities as Pot Luck dinners, Skating and Swimming Parties could no longer be announced from the Kingdom Hall stage? The Society made it clear the Weekly Announcements was for discussing literature placements, need for contributions, and other Kingdom activities only.

    For my Kingdom Hall, that was the beginning of the end of what few fun times we had.

  • becca1
    becca1

    Having moved around a lot growing up (60's, 70's, 80's) I can say that "fun" was a relative term. What you could do for fun depended on which area, circuit or cong. you were in. As for today, it does seem that there are less and less opportunities for getting together regardless of where you are from.

  • mcsemike
    mcsemike

    I thought Jehovah was a "happy God" and his people were "joyful" and "singing his praises"?

    I've been to meetings, hell, I've been to parties that looked like funerals. These people have no joy. How can they, with a rate of depression and mental illnesses dozens of times the general population?

    What first attracted me to this religion was that everyone was happy, smiling, had parties and get togethers. I know now it was "love bombing", but they truly seemed genuine at the time (1971-1977). I first met a JW in 1971 and got baptized and married in 1977. A few years later, I was a book study conductor and the 1980 Bethel purge had occurred. Maybe that was the beginning of the end of any fun.

    It's sad to see people, especially young people (including children) so serious and just about "waiting to die" so they can get into the "new system". They just "wish their lives away" in their hurry to survive Armageddon. It's really is a very sad and tragic life they lead.

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