Anyone recall asemblies actually being fun?

tim hooper

When I was a wee lad, there was a carnival atmosphere at assemblies as this old footage will show:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/witnesses-baptised/query/jehovahs+witnesses

Yep the Big Tent days were fun. Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and the Orange County Fair Grounds were a blast. As a teen I worked in Expediting which meant you weren't stuck sitting in the stadium and got to be constantly on the move.

Magnum

Yes, I remember.

I watched the video. Wow! It made me feel sentimental and nostalgic. There really seemed to be more of a depth to JWs back then. Everything is so shallow in JWdom now. Those older days seemed to be more exciting and noble. There was a real hope then. It seemed that the scripture was being fulfilled – the one that said people from all nations would stream to the mountain of Jehovah.

Those days are gone. No more excitement. It all seems so plastic and cheap now. Damn, I wish it had all been true. I miss the old district conventions. I miss packing up the car and heading out of town with my mom and sister and grandparents to go to exciting conventions when it all seemed real and we thought we were on the verge of a new world. I miss the all the deep conversation and talks. All gone now – all gone. There was just a different feel back then. Damn, it’s gone. The individual JWs just aren’t the same anymore. The ones in my area just have no depth – little knowledge, low intelligence, not much common sense. They have no knowledge of what it used to be like. I can’t relate to them. They’re just mindless robots.

And to think that the org says that apostates are evil, heartless people who have no spirituality. Not true – at least not true with me and, I think, many of you. I truly wish it had all been true.

blondie

We never ate out...liked the cafeteria food.

Our father was not with us and we did some entertainment things afterwards with jw family..."divided family" bad association you know

Staying in a hotel (we camped or slept in the truck or mooched off "friends")

1966 to 1975 = waiting for the call the end is here today

Wild comments by Fred Franz

It was what you did after the assembly that was fun.........

designs

The after parties up in the Hollywood Hills were legendary.

Fred Franz marching off the podium goose step fashion- very strange.

Ucantnome

i always hated the assemblies. as an adult i rarely attended them.

joe134cd

Sorry you got me on that one. More of a pain in the arse really.

Pistoff

I had fun when I worked in Trucking, Expediting, and when I ran a concession stand, a blast.

When I was pre-teen, I worked pushing buckets of ice to concession stands in a grocery cart till until someone checked my age, busted.

When I was older, I did overnight security with a friend, always under the influence and brown bagging it.

Walking the catwalk over the stadium when you're loaded, not so scary.

ShirleyW

Well as a kid the excitement was always the food.

I remember the first year they started doing dramas at the assemblies, since it was new and I was kid then as well that was exciting at the time.

HowTheBibleWasCreated

I remember the conventions of the early 80s. Big stadiums, cafteria lineups and long lunch breaks. Four day conventions. Most of my early assemblies were in Victoria BC but my parents would fly down to San Diego some years for the convention there... After the conventio was Sea World and a trip up to LA for Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm.

Conventions used to be fun.... but we grew up

Anyone recall asemblies actually being fun?

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