Comparisons between todays Witnesses and those 40 years ago

by truthseeker 53 Replies latest jw friends

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  Scarred for life

  I remember all of the stuff that has been mentioned back in the 60's and early 70's. We always stayed in inexpensive motels. But it was never fun to me. I remember the 8 day assemblies. Fortunately, one of those was held in Charlotte, NC where we lived so we didn't have to go out of town and stay in a motel. But we did have relatives staying with us.

  And it was NOT exciting to me. It was terrifying and gradually more and more unbelievable. I left in 1973. I couldn't take it anymore. I realized it was all a cruel hoax.
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  garybuss

  The Witnesses who were assholes 40 years ago are old assholes now.
  
  
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  Bonnie_Clyde

  I remember being one of 16 people who stayed in a "worldly" house in Milwaukee in either 1961 or 1963--a 6-day assembly (I think). We paid about $4 each per night, and I guess the couple that let us stay must have really needed the money to have put up with us. We had one bathroom to share, and that got real interesting.

  Also remember the magazines in the windows of the vehicles especially when traveling to New York in 1958. It was so great to see fellow witnesses waving back to us along the road. There was a sense of commeraderie that is missing today, but it was all an illusion.
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  moshe

  We stayed in a private home at the first assembly we attended in 1972- it was $3.00/day per person. So it cost my wife and I $36.00 for lodging. We did the whole one week assembly 800 miles from home for $100 worth of travelers checks. They started talks afer lunch on one day and they ran until 9pm. The morning wasn't free, as everyone was expected to hit the sidewalks and canvass the city for suckers who would come to the keynote address and dramas. I don't think JW's would be willing to rough it like that for 7-8 days now. What a waste of my week of vacation- sitting in the hot colliseum 8-10 hrs a day. ( they were too cheap to turn on the A/C.) JW's loved to debate anytime anyplace and it was common for them to put advertisments in the local paper about special CO visits or to just make fun of the Clergy and Christendom. I think in the 60's many JW's still had Rutherford's antagonistic attitude and the desire to do battle with the great harlot. Getting fired from a job for going to an asssembly or for refusing to do military contract work was a badge of honor and you might even get used in an assembly demonstration about loyalty to the org. Today's JW is a wimp, no doubt about it.
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  mouthy

  The Witnesses who were assholes 40 years ago are old assholes now.

  Well Gary thanks very much!!!!!! I was one from 1963-1987
  Could use a tube for the hemroids
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  WTWizard

  I can remember comments that went off the paragraph. Often, when I was in, I would give an illustration that was not the stock one mentioned in the paragraph, or give a comment to tie in what was being said with reality. And that was back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These days, if you do much more than give the comment in the words in the paragraph, you are risking a trip to the back room.

  Also, I can remember the entertainment being phased out. Once upon a time, the witlesses had gatherings--and that was only in the 1980s, not the 1960s. Then, washtowel by washtowel, Kingdumb Misery by Kingdumb Misery, those things were done away with. No more congregation picnics or other parties. No more having several families getting together to have fun. It has become a much more dull, stagnant time to be one of Jehovah's Witlesses.

  It works both ways. Yes, it was much harder back in the 1960s-'80s. But, there was more going on. These days, it is much more just wasting one's time waiting for the "real life" that never comes.
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  JustHuman14

  40 years ago.....shit I'm getting older and still I haven't see any 'new systme' yet or the BIG A...I was 7 in 1975 end I recall that the end was just about to start. Good old days are gone for the WT. Again I recall the early 80's when KH were full for the Sunday field service with elders taking the lead and ready to give their life for the WT. Now most of those elders have died, or they are too old, and some have lost their privellage.

  At that time it was the Generation that it will never die and the end will come, with our preaching separeting the Goatlike ones with the sheeplike ones. The heavenly door was closed and the 'Anointed' were reducing in numbers. We knew how to 'use the Bible' in our fingertips.

  Now all above are gone, and we found out that our life was sucrificed to the Altar of the WT's Organizational idolatry

  JustHuman14 formely known justhuman
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  JeffT

  One of the things that attracted me to the cult was the sense of community. I'd just gotten out of college and it was easy to gravitate to a new bunch of people. We had congregation picnics that included softball or touch football. Gatherings of a dozen or so people for a Friday night dinner (usually including a pretty good wine supply) were common. I understand that all of that is gone now. Makes me wonder why anybody is still in.
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  screwproof

  I remember going to assemblies far far away. I remember one in Oklahoma City and a horrible storm that came up when it was over and we were on our way home on the Will rodgers turnpike. Lightning was horrible. Also I remember going to Milwaukee and staying in a home that scared me silly. I thought it was haunted!! The home we stayed in at Oklahoma City had a Oil well under it, yes she opened the door to the cellar and showed us the big ole pump pumping away. I was so scared it would blow up, but you have to remember I was probably all of 10 years old.

  I also remember all the get togethers they use to have, it was fun being with all the other kids and having so much fun. They do nothing for the young ones anymore and they wonder why they leave when they are old enough? I remember parties, and ball games, and house warmings, they dont do anything like that anymore.

  mouthy, I am so sorry your daughter does not speak to you anymore, that just breaks my heart to think of it, I would hate for a daughter to do me that way.
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  Finally-Free

  The Witnesses who were assholes 40 years ago are old assholes now.

  They were just a little better at hiding that fact in the old days.

  W