by minimus 9 Replies latest jw friends
We went on "vacation " EVERY YEAR because we were Jehovah's Witnesses! We were so fortunate to stay in a cheap hotel more often than not so that we could enjoy a Witness convention.
We never enjoyed a real vacation though until many years later and the funny thing is---so many JWs thought it was so materialistic because we went on more than one "vacation " per year.
One of my greatest regrets is that we only had three holidays in my entire childhood. Yes we went to conventions instead. Boring football stadiums for days on end. Were there conventions for five days or did I dream it? Wicked when I think how little money my mother had and those fat cats in America with their rock star lifestyle.
That's why I'm so keen to make up for lost time. I've been to much of Europe, might try India this winter. For my parents they never left the UK and it's too late for them.
Seven day international conventions for us typically at Yankee Stadium! I went to Disney in Florida and California in my thirties!
That's one thing I can say my parents did well. We would go camping several times a summer and we went to Colorado twice. In fact my parents still take 4-6 camping trips a year. I think if da troof is so great why do they have to get away from it so much because they never go to the meetings when they are away.
My husband and I went to a congregation where a lot of people went on vacation a lot. They would grow beards and get fake tattoos and drink like fish.
Sadly, we haven't been on a vacation since we left the Jdubs. BUT- we haven't been to a CONVENTION either so I guess that's a vacation in itself.
Minimus yes I thought there were some seven day conventions.
If we didn't go to the conventions we never would have left town. It was something anyway. In early times, as kids, we worked in the kitchen at the international conventions. The mass kitchen outside with giant pots to clean and people lined up to eat standing at long tables were so much fun. Later they became a time to see old friends and drink crappy soda and eat hoagies. At least the motels had a pool.
I feel really bad for making the convention the family vacation. This year we skipped the convention and went to visit family instead. We went to the amusement park and had a wonderful time.
My husband is non JW and every summer we had huge arguments over the convention. He didnt want to go and l would try to make it sound like great fun...so exhausting.
My father was not yet duped by da troof when I was growing up, but whenever we did go on a summer vacation my mother always managed to find a KH to attend in most of the places we visited, what a buzzkill. She always said "wherever you go can always find Jehovah's people and hear the same exact thing we would be hearing at home" . . . .ugh, sickening just to remember that.
I remember a lot of "virtue signalling" (not that we called it that, then) over vacations.
The congregation I attended was an odd mix of the very wealthy and a few very poor. Some of each were on the BOE.
More than one MS or elder recommendation was held up, at least for a time, due to one or more of the poorer elders complaining that the person to be recommended (one of the wealthier ones) took "too many vacations".
The principal complainer was a retiree with a very fixed income who never had the money to go anywhere. Of course, he cloaked his disapproval in pompous talk of "setting a good example" by "not missing too many meetings", like he himself pointed out that he never did.
"Too many vacations" was maybe 2 or 3 per year, some of those to visit family (which, of course, is not really much of a vacation, depending on the family....but I digress...)
Rich JWs are not good examples
