I remember the 1963 assembly I was 4.
Remember when assemblies were fun?
by Aphrodite 107 Replies latest jw friends
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fokyc
I did see a lot of fingers there! Which one were you?
fokyc
PS I just love your avatar!
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freddo
Before they built the Bristol Assembly Hall and when I was living in Somerset we used to have circuit assemblies at Pontin's Brean Holiday Camp. As a late teenager this was fun. Some of us would go in an old car that one of us owned - another group would ride their motorbikes and we would share a chalet which was hilarious. It was always a windswept November or February too.
Program
Friday night - bag a bunkbed feed the electricity meter with 10p coins, turn on the two-bar fire and go over to the main hall (which still had posters up from the Worldly entertainment) for entertainment where the brothers were allowed to serve tea and cakes and put on bible based skits and plays from 8pm to 10pm. Skive out early at about 9.30 and walk out of the camp to the "Beachcomber pub" and knock back a few pints of Bass bitter until closing time and play "Space Invaders" at 20p a go.
Saturday - big fry up breakfast, put on checked jacket, massive shirt collar and tie knot and turn-up flared brown trousers, hair as long as we dared with centre parting of wavy hair with massive shoes that looked like lifeboats and go and grab some seats while checking out the girlies in their platform shoes and tight fitting outfits. (Think Farrah Fawcett styles)
Sessions - where we would pass notes to one another and get told off by the zealous attendants all the way through.
Saturday evening back over the pub - limit ourselves to 5 pints (don't want to get a bad name for Jah!) - playing darts or cards or just chatting.
Saturday evening run the gauntlet of the gatehouse security who would shut the gate at 11pm unless you could sweet talk your way in.
(Baptism - wow some of those girls wore the skimpiest of bikini's before the great T shirt clampdown that came later.)
Sunday morning - up late grab a coffee and skate into the sessions. We had David Algar as DO who would wear jeans to walk about the place after the sessions - who gave brilliant talks then.
Sunday lunchtime - last chance to get phone numbers of the sisters.
Sunday tea time - drive home with a David Bowie tape blaring out of the massive speakers in our Vauxhall Viva or Ford Cortina.
I loved those assemblies. Some of my mates from back then are out and some are in and I'm in the middle.
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undercover
I haven't read all 5 pages, especially since the first few are two years old...
but when I first saw the thread title I remembered, "yea...there was a time when assemblies/conventions were fun..." but then I thought about it and realized that they were fun as a kid, teenager and young adult before marriage.
I wasn't there for 'spritual nourishment', I was there to hang with friends, make new friends and, when older, meet girls. When I got my own car, I travelled with my friends, not my family. We shared rooms at the hotels and had parties. For a few years the convention city was less than 30 mintues away but we got hotel rooms anyway...just so we could have a four day party.
After I got married, conventions became a bore and a drudgery. I was an MS, I was expected to volunteer as an attendant at conventions. I was in charge of an entire cleaning department at an assembly hall. There was no time for fun. I missed going out to dinner with friends after the session because I had to work.
I think back to being a kid and I try to remember my parents during convention week and I can't remember them smiling or laughing. They seemed tired and irritable. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing that they probably didn't consider the convention 'fun'. Oh, they'll spout the company line about it being "upbuilding" and all that propaganda BS, but "fun"; I don't think they would admit that.
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TardNFeatheredJW
I used to love it. Looked forward to it all year.
The CA, I used to work in the kitchen, dishes (the only dishwashing job I would actually like), boxes, cooking as I got older. Then socializing, sitting with friends. It was a blast. I used to hit extras, Buckingham PA and the one out past harrisburg... can't remember the name.
The DC, I really had a hoot. Allentown when I was little, would watch the bands play, talk to people, eat lots of danishes and fruit. Was a loner there, mostly. Then Philly was fun. Hotel across the street, swimming, meet up with friends, work meals. Socialize as I got older.
Then they stopped doing lunches. At that point it sucked. We would head out to BK or some other fast food crap house, but it wasn't the same.
I loved just walking around Vet Stadium for hours during the sessions, I think what I loved the most was that I wasn't knocking on doors.
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hamsterbait
When I still really believed it I hung onto every word of the talks, and volunteered at the intervals.
Then I noticed how all the other youngsters did their own thing and had fun partying.
I was never invited. Though I once arranged something after the A$$embly that several others invited themselves to.
It was the 1993 DA that set me to thinking. The change in "when you see these things occurring"
All things that made it fun are now gone.
It is just talk after talk telling us to worship their Golden Cow the Gibbering Buddies.
HB
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jookbeard
Anyone remember the pub after Twickers called The Barney Arms? there was council one year not to go there on the final Sunday, I was there one year and the place was drank dry
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miseryloveselders
Miss the days when it was fun. As a child, I had fond memories of Cheese Danishes, and the small Orange Juices with the aluminum foil top. Dad would sometimes stop at McDonalds for breakfast. My older siblings would parade me around since I was the baby. I didnt seem to mind if for some reason when my sister's friends would say he's so cute, and give me a peck on the cheek. Didnt figure it out till my teenage years why I didnt mind it. I was too young to comprehend what was being delivered from the platform, so I would write down as many scriptures as I heard the speaker say. My mom would be so proud of my notebook.
Ahh, the teenage years. They were fun too, but could be problematic. I remember vaguely feeling so special when the original Young People Ask book was released, and all the young people were asked to sit in a special section. I still have that copy of the book that I recieved from what was possibly over 20 years ago, I can't recall when it was released? 86"? It wasn't a bad book. I think it was better than the most recent. I remember getting baptized, and all the congratulations I recieved. I remember doing the same for others my age too. It genuinely felt good too. Then there was the walking around the stadium, or the Center just looking at the opposite sex. Hanging with "ya boys", feeling like a king when you got word back that, "she likes you!" Then the older guys would have "privileges" and be sitting at tables for cleaning, or attendants, etc. Short sleeved shirts, so the Sisters could see their biceps. They'd see you, and call you over and let you sit with them. It made you feel like you had "some pull." You'd walk behind them holding some random cleaning solvent bottle, and a roll of toilet paper, like you had a mission. For that moment you thought you were really somebody.
When it was all over, my Father would be ecstatic because his book study group didnt have to clean on the last day! We'd stop at Roy Rogers's Chicken on the way back, and there was always other Witnesses there. We'd see friends from other Congregations that you'd typically wouldnt see all year with the exception of the Conventions or Assemblies, or "Card parties". Back then "The Slave" didnt harp on wearing your badges, or looking like a gump before and after sessions. So at resteraunts, people were dressed as if they were going on Vacation, or like they were getting undressed from the Assembly. Shirts unbuttoned, no tie, etc.. It wasnt so rigid then. Terrible nowadays.
As an adult, i can't say that I recall any fun assemblies or conventions. Its all pretty much routine anymore. An announcement is made regarding your circuit's dates and location. The Elders pass around the lists showing what hotels the Society is in cahoots with. The friends make some phone calls. You request time off from work. You show up. You daydream, occasionally fall asleep. You listen to some "outlines", or "manuscripts". You find some satisfaction in some of the livelier speakers or the ones you know. You "clap when your supposed to clap" in the middle of a talk when the speaker asks one of those questions the audience is supposed to agree with. You take some notes, handle any privileges, or assignments. You clean. You eat lunch "in the facility." You "associate". You give extra badges to the less responsible. You sigh when the prayer is too long. You compliment one another's attire. You put on a smile. You say, "this years was the best ever!" You go home, and look forward to doing it all over again.
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undercover
Jookbeard - your pub story reminded me of a convention where we stayed in the swankiest hotel in town. Small city, so it wasn't like the Waldorf Astoria or anything but it was nice historical building with a nice lobby bar.
After the sessions the bar was so full you couldn't get a table and we were standing three deep at the bar trying to get the poor lone bartender's attention. As the evening wore on, it seemed no one left and by the time the bar closed sometime after midnight a good many dubs were pretty well snockered.
After a couple of years, the Society removed the hotel from the list. Don't know if it had anything to do with the rowdiness or not, but no other hotels they had on the list had bars. We ignored the list and stayed at the hotel anyway. It was the nicest in town, had the bar and was in walking distance to the convention site.
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Leolaia
Booooooooooooooring