JW teenagers party's

by bigmac 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  bigmac

  i fondly remember my teenage days as a JW--back in the 1960's.

  circuit assemblies-in Birmingham, England UK. after the sunday afternoon god-fest there was usually a party--somewhere--in the evening.

  one of the lads--his parents were care-takers (janitors?) of an office block in the city centre. his dad was never a dub--his mom was. we had a collection to get enough money so the old man could take mom out for the evening. word went around there would be a party at **** place after the assembly. they were always a riot. booze, smoking--even dope. lots of "party-games"--involving losing clothing--& couples paring off. sex was not uncommon.

  afterwards, occasionally, word would get back to someones parents--then all hell would break out.

  happy days. innocent--untill proven guilty.
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  Morbidzbaby

  We never had anything like that. It was all ridiculous stuff like 50's parties, 80's parties...all decade-themed. Lots of adults present.
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  Dune

  Argh, we had country, mo-town and jazz themed parties.
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  sizemik

  bigmac . . . you had it good bro. Best we had was square dancing around hay-bales and bible-based skits . . . strictly no booze or "fraternizing". Even then they got stopped by an Elder who attended and felt the sister who played Jezebel in a family bible drama was "too brazen"
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  Lore

  A party only uccurs on significant wedding anniversaries and graduations.

  It involves every guest bringing enough food to feed 10 people, so you end up with 50 people and 500 peoples worth of food.

  You then stand around and talk until the food is all gone.

  It's like the 20 minutes before and after a meeting, but with food and it lasts several hours.

  Any music if it exists would come from a small radio in the far corner playing country songs at 50% volume.
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  d

  The Jw parties were often vert dry, The music was dull because it had to be appropiate.Some parties I went to were okay. But most were dull.
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  bigmac

  the party's i referrred to were on the "mods & rockers era"--beatles & rolling stones music.

  i dont think our parents thought their teenage JW kids were capable of enjoying themselves---how wrong they were.

  sometimes fights broke out--usually over a girl. mostly it was teenage rebellion--taken that stage further by rebelling against the religion's stranglehold.

  in more recent years ive heard of "get out of the truth" party's---now they DO sound interesting.
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  RagingBull

  I knew a guy who rented a place and had a live DJ, alcohol...great music. No elders at all. Word got back and he was "corrected" in his thinking of how appropriate parties should go. Even told him that if someone had too much alcohol and committed fornication later that night, he could be held responsible for it also. Only in the organization can a grown man over 25yrs of age be counseled about a party where only 21yr olds and above were invited to.
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  Nice_Dream

  The parties I went to were exactly as Lore described. Music couldn't be too loud, or too "suggestive." Adult chaperones made sure there was no under age drinking or kids going off together. Even decade parties were out because it was "glorifying an era."

  The only fun parties were the ones my friend's parents put on with lots of drunken adults and kids sitting around watching their parents act like fools. What a sad time!
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  scotoma

  There were great parties in the 50's and 60's. Drinking. Drag Racing on rural highways. Necking. Petting. Everything just short of coitus. And the organization held onto their young people through all that. In fact most of the elder's in their 60's now wouldn't want the young people to know what they were up to back then. Young men were also given a lot of responsibility in those days. It was not unusual to have a Theocratic Ministry School Overseer at the age of 17 or 18. Some of the best parties were when a brother was about to head off to jail for the draft.

  Then came the "RULES". It all came to an end when they brought in the body of elders concept. The watershed year was 1971. Look up the occurence of the word "ELDER" in the back issues of the Watchtower.

  Between 1950 and 1959 the word ELDER appeared 37 times.

  Between 1960 and 1969 the word ELDER appeared 24 times.

  Between 1970 and 1979 the word ELDER appeared 446 times.

  Between 1990 and 1999 the word ELDER appeared 582 times.

  Focusing a little closer:

  1970 ELDER appeared 3 times.

  1971 ELDER appeared 38 times

  and then after that it has consistently appeared 40-60 times per year thereafter.

  1971 was the year the organization started to go crazy.

  This could be a whole thread in itself. But those who have been around from the 1950's until now KNOW what I'm talking about.

  A lot of young people are disfellowshipeed for smoking. Some that have been disfellowshipped for smoking don't smoke anymore but they still don't want to come back.