I cannot think of any worse place to have a convention than the Pontiac Silverdome. For years my family went to South Bend, Indiana to avoid it. Then when South Bend stopped having conventions (probably having something to do with the Catholics not appreciating the brothers slamming the religion that financed, built, and hosts the lovely arena they were using), we tried Madison, Wisconsin for a year, before finally trudging back over to Silverdome.
Almost every congregation in Michigan would make the long journey to the southeast corner of the state every June for 3, sometimes 4 days of the most miserable conditions ever experienced. I recall wishing I lived in one of those poor countries in Africa or South America so I could have an assembly hall that was A) open to the outside so everyone's body heat wouldn't be trapped, and B) I could wear clothes that were comfortable and actually meant for the weather. Temperatures inside the non air-conditioned Silverdome would peak in the 90's, and the crowd would be rippling with those fold-up fans. No matter how crowded it would get on the 3rd level, they always had half of the seats roped off and allowed no one to sit there. I'm not sure what the rationale behind that was. The acoustics in the Silverdome are also incredibly awful. The echo is so bad you can barely hear anything. It may sound like a blessing now, but believe me, having an booming, echoeing voice in your face is not too enjoyable when you have to sit for 6-8 hours in 90 degree heat and in full dress clothes.
Amusing memory: When I was a kid my mother refused to let me have binoculars at the convention because she was afraid I'd look down the sisters' blouses.
I shared mine, now share yours. The Silverdome can't be the worst.
The official "Reminisce about your most hated convomition site" thread
by B_Deserter 40 Replies latest jw experiences
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B_Deserter
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Vivamus
I disliked them all.
We had a convention once in Rotterdam Ahoy. I hated that cuz we had crappy seats, crappy audio and we needed to rent the place. I hated the renting cuz we had to donate money for it (can't rememebr I actually donated tho).
All the other conventions were held at a center the JW's owned. Near Barneveld (can't for the life of me remember what the place was called)... I hated that cuz it was a terrible long drive, and we always had a huge traffic jam on the way back home.
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Wordly Andre
When I was a kid we had to go to the Dodger Stadium, nothing wrong with that stadium but for some reason we had to "save" seats for our extended family and friends, so that means that us kids were given a stack of old Watchtowers and Awakes, so that when the gates open we had to run and slam as many of those magazines down on empty seats as we could, just so that our family could all sit together. It wasn't till I was an adult that I actually went to Dodger Stadium to see a baseball game, OOH they had these piss bowls in the mens room, big round circle kind of like peeing in a fountain
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nvrgnbk
Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia sucked pretty bad.
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5go
Belton County Expo center only rivaled by the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio and Astro Arena in Houston. Arguably the astro arena was really the worst though getting out of the parking lot was the begining of the problem not the end. BTW the Astrodome was cool not to be confused with the spec next door called the astro arena.
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UU Now
Cleveland Stadium. Coming back to my seat from the restroom one day in my damn slick-soled, dressy sandals, I fell down on one of the ramps, got up, took two steps, and fell down again. I scraped up my knee and the front of my ankle (don't ask me how). It took months for my ankle to heal -- at one point, a piece of concrete worked its way out through the scab (nice job cleaning the wound, First Aid sister!).
And then there were all those smelly high school gyms. And sitting in open stadiums getting sunburned and heatstroked. Ugh.
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ShirleyW
Back in either 1966 or 1967, there was an ASSembly in Washington DC (back in the day although we were in NYC, assemblies were usually out of town), can't remember the name of the stadium, but, FOUR DAYS WITH NO BATHROOMS ! ! ! They were out of order for the whole ASSemly! ! ! Thank goodness I was a child and didn't yet have a coffee/alcohol habit . . .but then, think of all the dear Bro's and Sis' that had such a habit and no facilities to run to !!
Can't even imagine that these days such a venue would even be made available to the public to use anyway !!!
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joelbear69
see, the fact is that assemblies were actually the great tribulation we kept hearing about. and i'm fascinated by those dodger stadium men's rooms. yes. fascinated
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Open mind
The Cow Palace in San Francisco is usually not too bad unless we happen to get a (rare) heat wave.
Even then, it is situated in a natural "wind tunnel" that could be an easy solution to sweltering temps inside. Only problem is, if they open the doors, guess who gets hit with the draft? That's right, the Elderly. Most of them don't want a cold wind chilling them. Can't say that I blame them. Prolly feel the same way myself in a few more decades.
Anyway, it's always a huge tug-of-war between the attendants with sweltering families and the attendants with hypothermic grandparents.
Good times.
Open Mind
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Wordly Andre
oh I just remembered one more, the Norco JW building, they would have them there sometimes, I remember we got in trouble for walking down the street, I think we were going to go to a gas station or something to buy candy, and we were told we couldn't leave the grounds. Sounds very People Temple to me!!!