Passing the time at JW Assemblies

by Leolaia 66 Replies latest jw friends

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    Welcome to the board, FMZ!

    blondie....I never saw Mulan's BS bingo. How does it go?

    It's interesting reading the notebook I used to have a conversation with my friends during the convention. It has all sorts of gossip in it from almost two decades ago!

    Leolaia

  • Tuesday
    Tuesday

    Here's my funny story, while growing up saturdays were the worst because I was addicted to cartoons and saturday wrestling it was my one day I could be myself around my non-JW father. I loved saturdays, so one year my father bought me one of those handheld t.v's well my friend Jonathan convinces me that I can put my hand up to my ear so as to lean on it and listen to the cartoons. Now that's all well and good but you really can't listen to wrestling but I aquiesced and just listened to all of it. The morning was going all well and good till around 11 o'clock which is when Superstars began. For those who remember this is also the time when the baptism talk began. Honestly it's been a while so I don't remember who was wrestling at the time but sure enough I hear in Vince McMahon's distinctive growl (this was back in the day when he was "just a commentator") "Oh my God, did you see that move! That was the most amazing move I've ever seen" a small tear was forming in the corner of my eye at this point, "Folks that is so great we're going to have to show a replay of this", a visible frown could be seen on my face, "because after this replay I doubt you'll ever see a move like this ever again in your entire life!" I screamed "Nooooooooooooooo". I'll just say Bad Timing because it was the only time in history the word No was said for the questions during the Baptism talk. I still haven't gotten my handheld t.v. back. I was 11 honestly, you think in 12 years all would be forgiven?

  • Farkel
    Farkel

    The last DA I attended, I kept alert by making a list of all the times the speakers made reference to Christ, Jehovah and the Societeee. Here are the results:

    Jesus/Christ: 5

    Jehovah: 2,549

    The Societeee: 643,298,502.892,902,159,438,792,742,980

    Farkel

  • Winston Smith :>D
    Winston Smith :>D
    What were some of the ways you tried to make the hours pass?

    In my younger days while sitting in the Madison Collie -See'em for the DC I would imagine taking plywood and laying it over the tops of all of the seats and then using the place as a kick-ass skateboard park!

    Girl watching was a good staple to pass time.

    Then there were times when birds somehow got inside and flew around at the Mad Town DC.

    One time a squirrel got on the stage at the Mad Town DC.

    The critter was probably trying to get the big-ass nut that was talking on stage.

    As I got older, I actually paid attention and took notes.

    Recently I found my notes in the basement the other day.

    I tried burning them but the pages wouldn't catch fire and all I heard was the howl of demons everytime I brought the sheets close to a flame.

  • Stefanie
    Stefanie

    I would let my mind wonder and think of what i would be doing if i wasnt sitting there. I would sit next to my ex and think i could do much better and picture myself with someone esle. I would think about giving the kids their first birthday presents.

    Turns out I was dreaming and my dream came true.

  • Valis
    Valis

    Here goes...wake up @5:50...go make hoagies....work until is starts...then fall blissfully asleep cuz you have been workin hard for your Jehovah...mom knows so she doesn't bother waking you...then at lunch break go work again....peddling danished and puddings to the masses...then volunteer for cleanup and food prep for the next day....rinse and repeat...wax on wax off...*LOL*

    Sincerely,

    District Overbeer

  • nojudgement
    nojudgement

    My program for passing time:

    • Make sure I am good and tired before I sit down so that by the time I sit down, I'm relieved to be just sitting down.
    • After the song and prayer and while they are doing the phoney family summary of the daily text, I used to scan the program and look up all the songs that were going to be song throughout the convention and rate them "hate that one, catchy tune, ugh - I'll make sure I'm back late from lunch so that I don't have to sing it, like it, etc."
    • Then I'd look at all of the talk titles and once again discover there would be no encouragement for the SINGLE people who were trying to serve faithfully in their 30's and beyond. Only families, widows and the youth.
    • Cringe when I would read topics that had anything to do with a symposium on bible prophesy. Daniel, Isaiah, Revelation. Ack!!! I just didn't care enough to hear all those details. I would rather just take their word for whatever they are thinking and not have to hear about what the beast and the copper bottom statue and the 3 witnesses mean.
    • After my program review. I dive into my purse and remove a candy or mint to suck on. I would have a whole supply of mints, candy, gum to keep myself stimulated. No wonder I would have a sugar crash in the afternoon.
    • Then I'd scan the crowd on the assembly floor and watch all of the people getting up and down and up and down and I'd rate their outfits.
    • I'd maybe start listening by now and looking up scriptures or notetaking - just to burn some of the candy calorie off and keep active.
    • I'd make BIG check marks next to each talk as it passed to give myself mental encouragement that we were actually moving forward and this would end soon.
    • When I could stand it no more...I would do the bathroom run and try to run into as many people as possible to chat with. When I was younger my parents would mouth at me "where have you been, what took you so long." I would just shrug my shoulders and say "you know the lines are out the door and the bathroom smelled like caca so I had to find one that didn't make me gag."

    I used to really hate it when they would summarize the previous day, or the whole assembly at the end! It was like having to relive a nightmare! And the concluding prayer!!!!! Ack! I finally just learned to sit down. Not that I can't stand for 7 minutes...but I would be so annoyed standing there I would want to hurl myself over the rail. Then it would be OVER!!!

  • Winston Smith :>D
    Winston Smith :>D
    I would be so annoyed standing there I would want to hurl myself over the rail. Then it would be OVER!!!

    ROFL!!!

    Your summary of a DC brought back some nasty memories. Much too accurate!

  • franklin J
    franklin J

    welcome to the forum FMZ,

    about BS Bingo, never heard of it but would like to play!

    When I was a kid, we had our circuit assemblies at a newly purchased old movie palace in Queens, NY, called the Bliss Theater. It was an Egyptian extravaganza and one felt like they had just entered an elaborate Egyptian Tomb in Luxor on the Nile. Of course, our Theocratic friends were very quick to add that all the "pagan" statuary and bas reliefs ( done in gilt plaster) on the walls; were just too expensive to remove and were all just "Egyptian" works of art anyway. Idolatry if you ask me. So the Sun discs were painted to look like a map of the world, and all the Egyptian statues holding the wall sconces remained. A good bland paint job toned it all down to more modest tastes ( there was nothing "modest" about the decor!)

    As a child with a vivid imagination; bored out of my mind; I would imagine that I was on an excavation in Egypt and had opened Tuts tomb! Ironic, all these years later to realize that it might as well have been Mummies speaking up on that platform ( I actually would kind of prefer the mummies talking to me!) Shocking for me to realize that as I got older; I actually BECAME one of those mummies speaking up there! Oh no....this is sounding like one of those B rate Mummy movies.....

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    nojudgement.....I have been out for over 12 years, and you brought it all back in such horrifying detail! I kinda wonder, in that vast arena of convention-goers, are there people there who actually LIKED that crap and couldn't wait for the next convention?

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