How Many Remember the Mass Skating Rink Parties of the Late 70's ?

by Perry 47 Replies latest jw friends

  • jam
    jam

    eyeuse2badub; I missed out , I came in around 1970 in Pasadena. They moved

    to Hollywood Ca mid- 70's.

  • jookbeard
    jookbeard

    Sunday night ice skating at Richmond Ice Rink was a big event for years until they knocked it down, I think most of the guys would just stay in the bar drinking ! I never saw any fights but there was a lot of jealousy especially if a brother picked a hot sister to skate with and they'd "hold hands!"

  • SAHS
    SAHS

    In the early ’80s, the congregation here in Ontario used to rent a local recreation center once a year for a square dance. They even had a brother who was a professional square dance caller. It was put on by an elder who was fairly old. There weren’t a whole lot of people who attended (basically just one congregation), so it wasn’t like it was an unmanageable or unruly in any way, and there was no alcohol. It was mostly families with children. It was actually quite wholesome, positive, and fun for everyone. You would think that such a get-together would be considered acceptable by anybody’s standards. But, . . . .

    Apparently, one of the starched-shirt elders at the Canadian Bethel felt that it wasn’t appropriate just for the remote possibility that it might somehow get out of hand. So they canned the annual square dance!

    I wasn’t into square dancing myself, but I always thought about the square dance as being the ultimate wholesome family event, and I couldn’t believe that it was actually being stopped because of the opinion of some old fuddy-duddy at Bethel (I think it was Ernie Funk). That made me realize that this had to be quite an authoritarian high control group if I ever saw one! That’s just plain sad.

    As a result of that, the young people instead started getting together just among themselves and went to clubs and bars around the airport strip – where I would imagine the atmosphere would not really be considered an improvement. I guess that was a case where the rigid, pseudo-pious stupidity of the uppity secretariat class in the holy Bethel just ends up backfiring. Idiots!

  • Magwitch
    Magwitch

    First Monday of every month in Rice Lake, WI. The entire circuit would show up. Couple dance with Kent Erickson to Bee Gees How Can You Mend A Broken Heart .....Good memories. We held hands - what a rush

  • tinker
    tinker

    Late 60's, Glacier Falls, Anahiem, CA, Sunday nights I believe. Also somewhere in Paramont and might have gone to Pasadena a few times too,can't remember. As teenage Jdubs we had no school activities so these skating parties were our only recreation. Wonderful memories but yes I remember there was lots of criticizum and the events got slowed down to like once a month.

    When my children became preteens I was the mom who organized the Skating Parties. It often turned into family nights where even the dads/elders showed up. Pure fun. I still want to JUMP every time I hear Van Halen.

  • LoisLane looking for Superman
    LoisLane looking for Superman

    In the early 1960's, it was off to the Pasadena Winter Garden to ice skate with other JW kids. Afterward, everyone would go to Van de Kamp Bakery and

    Restaurant for hot chocolate.

    In the late 1960's, the place to go was the Culver City Ice Skating Rink every other Monday night. It cost $1.00 if you told the girl at the pay booth in front

    you were with the JW group.

    Afterward, we would go to Shakey's Pizza Parlor to visit.

    Mid 1970's was an Ice Chalet in Torrance.

    LoisLane

  • quellycatface
    quellycatface

    Oh wow!! I used to go to Richmond in Surrey when I was about 12. I still remember it. I honestly had fun.

  • wannaexit
    wannaexit

    How did I miss this thread--does it ever bring back memories. And if a guy asked you to skate, well you were just about married. I can still hear Lionel Ritchie in my head.

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