JW Get-togethers

by Nosferatu 24 Replies latest jw friends

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  Nosferatu

  Do you have any good memories of JW get-togethers? A lot of my good memories of them have tarnished with age. I vaguely remember them. I somewhat remember the bad ones. I tried so hard to fit in with other JWs my age, but I just got funny looks, and ignored. JW gatherings of any kind became an ultimate trigger for depression. This had a huge effect after I left. I would go out with my worldly friends, and would get depressed when I was around large crowds of people, even when it was supposed to be fun. It's better now, but it took a while.

  I remember one particular gathering where a bunch of JWs were playing baseball (they do that a lot). The baseball ended up bouncing off the ground, into the face of one woman, and she fell backwards and hit her head on a rock. She had to be taken to the hospital to get stitches. When this happened, I remember thinking, "If Jehovah watches over his people, why did this happen? Isn't Jehovah supposed to protect his people?"

  Anyway, what's your experience with them?
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  desib77

  I always hated them when I was young. There were too many clicks.

  Desi
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  Sassy

  I remember one picnic very clearly.. someone was offended that my shorts were too short.. so they left the gathering (I didn't know at the time) and then reported to the elders about my inappropriate apparrel... I actually have a picture taken at the cong picnic.. I'll have to get it tonight and scan it in tomorrow.. show you what that big to do was about.... crazy I tell ya..
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  undercover

  I remember them as being fun events for the most part. Especially anytime a sporting event was part of the event. Softball, volleyball being two of the more popular because all ages and both male and female could enjoy without it becoming a testosterone-fest.

  I do remember an impromptu wet t-shirt contest, unplanned and unintentional. I was about 16-17 and a couple of 15-16 yr old hottie sisters were there. It was extremely hot and humid that day. Too hot to be outside. One of the girls found a bucket, filled it with water and dumped it on one of us. Of course we had to retaliate. We grabbed a bucket, filled it and chased the girls around the picnic area. I came face to face with one of the girls (who was, um, well-endowed) and let her have it, right on her tight, white t-shirt. It was then we realized, along with all the parents, adults, elders, et al, that she wasn't wearing a bra and just how perky a 16 yr olds breasts can really be. She didn't seem to mind, I know I didn't, but boy did all the adults go nuts. That pretty much ended the entire event right there. I understood that I probably shouldn't have done it and would have accepted any punishment handed down, but for the whole picnic to just shut down always bugged me. Why should everyone have to be suffer because of a couple of adolescent hi-jinks?

  Thanks for the thread, it brought back some good memories(I can still see that wet t-shirt in my mind's eye).
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  Odrade

  mixed bag. I always looked forward to them, always went home with hurt feelings after being cut out of the crowd. At least it felt like it at the time. Hard to say if it was just young insecurity, or my peers really were that mean. Although I suspect the latter, because others my age remarked on feeling the same way from the same source.

  You know, one of the worst things about this stupid religion is being forced to socialize with nasty mean people that you hate with good reason and having to act like you like them because they are your "brothers." That alone can really mess with your mind on so many levels. Now I don't hang out with anyone I don't genuinely like. Whoohoo!
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  reboot

  I was'nt invited to them....I was told I would be if I got baptised ...........though they would very kindly inform me what was going to happen and where and with whom...then very lovingly let me know how much fun it was and that they wished that I could have been there too...........
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  codeblue

  I enjoyed them during my teen years because I really wanted to do things, and you know you weren't suppose to associate with "worldly" persons, right?

  As I got older, before my first husband left me, I didn't care for them at all, it was embarrassing to go to them alone. Then I got divorced and I was struggling with how to put a "new life together"...Going to them divorced was just another reminder of what I use to do as a "married person". Couldn't handle it.

  Codeblue
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  codeblue

  I enjoyed them during my teen years because I really wanted to do things, and you know you weren't suppose to associate with "worldly" persons, right?

  As I got older, before my first husband left me, I didn't care for them at all, it was embarrassing to go to them alone. Then I got divorced and I was struggling with how to put a "new life together"...Going to them divorced was just another reminder of what I use to do as a "married person". Couldn't handle it.

  Codeblue
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  La Capra

  My dad used to go to some with my mom, even though he wasn't a JW. At one anniversary party, an elder's wife was chatting them up. Since it was an anniversary, the number of years couples had been married was the topic. When my mother answered that they had been married for 20 years (or whatever it was), the shocked elder's wife's reply was "But your oldest, George, is only 17!" My mother was horrified, and my father was pissed. This was the last "witness" event he ever accompanied my mother to.

  A few years later, at a potluck at same elder's wife's house, I was in attendance. I have no clue what the occasion was. I was in my mid teens. Elder's wife's oldest daughter was quite fat, very healthy but fat (Elder's wife was pretty fat too). Whenever the daughter tried to get food from the table, her mother would try to take the plate away, or the food off the plate. When that wouldn't work, she would demand that the daughter split the food on the plate with her.

  I felt so bad for that girl, I still think of it. I wonder how she turned out. That's the only witness get-together that I have specific memories of. The rest sort of merge together into the same jello salads, napkins on heads, kids have to sit on the floor kind of visual...

  At some point my mom stopped letting me hang when the witness kids went out to do things. She would always have some excuse. I know now that the likelihood that I would have gotten into real trouble with them was stronger than if I hung out with my well-heeled worldly friends. I think she actually preferred that, we conjugated verbs in French, and practiced differential equations.

  Shoshana
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  Lady Lee

  Remember them heck I used to organize picnics in the park and a couple of cong parties. I suppose for a long time we had a pretty good congregation that welcomed and encouraged that everyone (except the DFed) would be invited to these picnics. We never had any problems with people getting out of control. All the parties were non-alcoholic and since we were considered rather straight the people who might have caused problems never showed up. They were good clean fun with lots of food to pass around to those who didn't or couldn't bring something. Yes I was the one who always brought way too much of everything and happily shared it with others.

  Those were the good times and I really enjoyed it.

  Then the elders must have gotten an edict from higher up to put controls on this and that people should be doing theocratic things. So they stopped. Personally I think things got really bad after that. There was no real connection with people in a relaxed fun way.

  The WTS has no idea how important these kinds of get-togethers are to keeping people connected in real ways with one another - in helping them feel like they are a part of something bigger and not sitting on the outside.

  Nos I too always felt like the odd-man-out . This is probably why I made sure everyone felt welcome to join us whether they had food to bring or not.