It's 98 degrees, put on your suit and go to Yankee Stadium

by IronGland 51 Replies latest jw friends

  • IronGland
    IronGland

    Anyone ever do that? Anyone go to that convention in NY back in the 50's? Remember when they lasted until 8pm? In the summer? With a suit on? Drinking warm Shasta? And Mystery meat sandwiches in the heat? Good times.

  • Emma
    Emma

    I remember those long assemblies. Think about taking babies with cloth diapers!

  • Carol
    Carol

    I remember in the early 60's the 8 day assemblies that, as you said lasted 'til 8 and 9 p.m. Do you remember a bar across the street from yankee stadium, under the elevated tracks? I can't remember the name of it....but they served the pest Pastrami on Rye sandwiches I have ever tasted in my life and the coldest rootbeer (I was only in my early teens and couldn't drink the real stuff like all the adults did)? The brother and sister that brought my mom and the rest of us into "the truth" used to take us there....come to think of it...we'd often leave a little early...and hold booths for some of the others!

    I can remember dressing up....I'm talking stockings, heels and hat....every day of the assembly....often times that is where the young sister presented their summer wardrobe!

    You're right those were the days!

  • luna2
    luna2

    I heard about those. I also heard about my great aunts going to a week-long convention in Chicago many, many, many years ago. My father remembered talk of them taking breaks during the program, hosting "teas" in their hotel rooms and things. That would make more sense to me as I cannot conceive of spending all day and part of the evening, in the heat, dressed up, at some stadium or ball park trying to listen to talks without taking some time out. Did they have extra long lunch and dinner breaks back in the day? Maybe they had their teas or socials or whatever they were during the normal time off for meals?

    I can't imagine doing something like this for a week....I can remember being at the end of my rope after our 4-day conventions. Blech.

  • blondie
    blondie

    Fortunately for our area, we had AC from the mid-60's onward. We avoided venues without AC going to DCs outside the assigned area.

    Health reason, you know.

  • Rubyvixen
    Rubyvixen

    1950's?

    I remember that vividly from the late 1980's, early 1990's!

    I remember those stupid little battery powered fans everyone had, warm shastas and those infernal breaded chicken sandwiches and danishes! ugh. I hear they did away with the food service though in recent times? Funny how the food and the battery powered fans and terrible feedback from the microphones in Yankee Stadium and awful sundresses and dramas are what I remember most.

    Sometimes my family went away for the convention, Connecticut, Rhode Island and the only thing I remember about that was that I was so happy the convention centers were indoors and I could go swimming afterwards in the hotel pool (modestly and quietly of course so as to show everyone how fabulous we were...haha).

  • Carol
    Carol

    Luna, we had two hour lunch and dinner breaks.....we had large tents set up as kitchens and breakfast, lunch and dinner were served to the brothers and sisters....but volunteers. I can remember seeing the army there to see how we served so many people full "hot" meals in such a short period of time. It was interesting....for many it was their vacation for the year. At yankee stadium (I've also attended in Boston and Philadelphia) we had a full orchestra to play the kingdom songs.....I was baptised at one of the New York - Yankee Stadium Conventions in '64...they took us to a beach outside of the city in busses. If your aunts didn't use the meal breaks for the tea parties, they may have had them during the time set aside for field service/street witnessing. There was always one or two mornings set aside for that. We' be given territory and walk up and down the sidewalks handing out invitations to the Sunday public talk!

    I had more fun at Yankee Stadium at the Beetles Concert!

  • Sassy
    Sassy

    Here I thought we were going to talk about the Yankees!!

  • minimus
    minimus

    I did it. Was Shasta around in the 50's? It's been around for over 100 years!

  • Englishman
    Englishman

    I was there!

    12 years old, baptised at Orchard Beach. New York was bloody hot back then in 1958. Took us 10 days to get back to England, the unusually warm summer had melted some of the polar ice cap and the Atlantic was full of icebergs, so we sailed far south then back up again.

    Englishman.

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