Getting Fed at Assemblies and Camping Around the Stadium

by mikronboy 17 Replies latest jw friends

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  RULES & REGULATIONS

  Just shows to me that people living six decades ago were a much hardier stock than the wimps today.

  Here is my wimp story:

  Our congregation was assigned Milwaukee County Stadium for our 1975 four day summer convention. Our congregation was 90 miles away from Milwaukee, located on the north side of Chicago.

  Some congregation members stayed at Milwaukee hotels for the four day convention. Since my parents and some congregation members were either too cheap/ or didn't have the means to pay for hotels and meals, they decided to charter a bus to Milwaukee for the four days. The chartered bus picked us up at 7.a.m. every morning at our Chicago Kingdom Hall. It was a 2 hour drive to Milwaukee. The starting time for the 4 day Assembly was at 9:45 a.m. .

  Since the bus arrived around 9 a.m. each morning in Milwaukee, all seats that were shaded/partly shaded or had a cover from the blazing sun in the middle of July were all taken. We had no choice but to sit on the outfield seats ( which were in full sun, all day long). Imagine sitting in the blazing sun all day long with a jacket/ tie or mothers having to take care of small children in the oppressive heat. Talk about sunstroke!

  The convention meetings ended around 5 p.m. We would get back on the chartered bus around 6 p.m. and drove back to Chicago for another 2 hour drive. It would be around 8:30 p.m. each night that we would arrive back home. We ate dinner around 8:30 p.m., went to bed, and did the same routine for the next 3 days.
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  Reasonfirst

  Hahaha!!!!

  Some Aussie conventions could've been better organised (that's putting it very kindly).

  I recall one DA just out of Sydney at Fairy Meadow (a suburb of Wollongong). Make what you will of the 'fairies' in the suburb's name. And, it was on a larger open grassed area

  Anyway the Circuit OS, a H.F. James, who been put in charge of the organising the convention, either wasn't given much money for the arrangements, or he believed in doing it cheap. He decided to use hessian bagging to screen off large areas, and much of it blew down on (one very windy days) .

  All the seating was in large tents, and on the first day, heavy rain turned the seating areas into deep mud with a particularly nasty smell. We soon found out from the local bros, that the seating area was where a circus using the area couple of weeks before this convention, had tethered the elephants. If we learnt nothing else at this assembly, we learned what elephant shit smelt like. I recall being up to my knees in mud after walking on one spot

  The cafeteria was also on grass, with hygiene hassles. The branch overseer, D.H.Held, looked askance to find big red ants under a covered plate on his tray.

  Being a JW was (occasionally) fun in those days.
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  Diogenesister

  Just shows to me that people living six decades ago were a much hardier stock than the wimps today.

  Holy Hell. It sounds like something out of a nightmare.

  Well I must be a real oddball then, because it looks like my idea of heaven!😂 Never happier than taking my scouts off camping for a week...oggie oggie oggie 👂.. .. .. !

  Went to Twickers but living in Bedford we were near enough to drive down daily.

  * NB no air con required in the UK (usually).
  
  
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  Diogenesister

  R & R Since the bus arrived around 9 a.m. each morning in Milwaukee, all seats that were shaded/partly shaded or had a cover from the blazing sun in the middle of July were all taken. We had no choice but to sit on the outfield seats ( which were in full sun, all day long). Imagine sitting in the blazing sun all day long with a jacket/ tie or mothers having to take care of small children in the oppressive heat. Talk about sunstroke!

  Ruddy Nora can you imagine all the poor sods who probably developed melanomas back then?!😳
  
  
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  HiddlesWife

  I remember that this was "all the rage" for the JWs as far back as the 1950s and 1960s. WT served HOT breakfasts, lunches plus dinners with utensils and napkins included with every meal. Then later were the foodstuffs (FROZEN puddings, hoagies, SHASTA sodas, cheese danishes, ice cream floats, hamburgers, and oh sooo much more) that a majority FONDLY remembers--until 1995, when that arrangement was KILLED by the incoming GB2.0. So. as a result, the membership along with invited outside visitors had to: B.Y.O.G. it [Bring. Your. Own. Grub.].

  Again (and I'll comment ad nauseam), I believe IMPHO that WT wants to see people INCONVENIENCED! Funds and finances-- FRICKIN' PHOOEY! This cultporation almost noticed that lots of attendees were sleeping after these DELISH meals and couldn't stay awake long enough to get SUBLIMINALLY INFLUENCED via the rhetorical propaganda they spew out regularly!

  [I'm done now. . . . .until next time!😁]
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  Reasonfirst

  Besides convention food service, there was the problem of getting rid of human waste. All this talk about the (not so) joyfulness of assembling together, brought this long forgotten memory to mind.

  It was, I think, a National or international assembly in Melbourne. VIC._ There had been problems in procuring a site, (for some forgotten reason) - so a decision was made to use a greenfield site, and build our own facilities.

  Seating etc was easy, and so was the cafeteria, but what about the dunnies? And, here we see the JW genius for shit at work.

  Instead of individual toilets, with all the attendant problems of changing full pans (which would fill fast at big assemblies), some genius came up with the idea of big pits, which could be screened with perimeter screening.

  Then the most brilliant part of this pre-assembly planning. Instead of individual seats with holes for your bum, there would be long poles so you sit on the pole with your bum hole over the open pit, and have a brotherly chat with your your neighbour, about the wonders of the assembly program.

  What a great idea, cheap, labour-saving etc. Gotta say, I made sure I went at home, before I left home, so I only used these pit toilets to pee.

  The climax of this assembly experience, is that the inevitable happened. An elderly sister fell backwards into the open pit, and the sisters facility had to be shut down while some brothers were called in to wade through the divine shit and help her out.

  If you think I'm making this up, I assure you it's god's truth.
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  road to nowhere

  The restrooms! We rented city stadiums with old plumbing, there were drips from the ceiling

  At least not pits. I worked 2 miles from the site and had a key so drove over there for my business as even the mens was a steamy mess.

  The assembly hall, being a mirror image plan still lacks enough women facilities. The hand dryers are ear damage loud.
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  stan livedeath

  My dear mum told of an experience using the improvised mass latrine at one of the UK assemblies.

  She was perched on one of the seats when the latrine servant yanked the honey bucket out from under her from behind a privacy curtain.