freddo

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Posts by freddo

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  107

  Remember when assemblies were fun?

  by Aphrodite in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just remembered when i was a kid and we would go to the assembly, it was fun because we got to buy new clothes and put extra effort into looking good.

  when we would get there you could save your seats and even save some for your friends, then go off looking for them.. i used to love our circuit assembly because of the food.

  it was at the assembly hall and there was a big kitchen, some of my favourite brothers worked in that kitchen, sometimes i was allowed to go in and help.

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  freddo

  Before they built the Bristol Assembly Hall and when I was living in Somerset we used to have circuit assemblies at Pontin's Brean Holiday Camp. As a late teenager this was fun. Some of us would go in an old car that one of us owned - another group would ride their motorbikes and we would share a chalet which was hilarious. It was always a windswept November or February too.

  Program

  Friday night - bag a bunkbed feed the electricity meter with 10p coins, turn on the two-bar fire and go over to the main hall (which still had posters up from the Worldly entertainment) for entertainment where the brothers were allowed to serve tea and cakes and put on bible based skits and plays from 8pm to 10pm. Skive out early at about 9.30 and walk out of the camp to the "Beachcomber pub" and knock back a few pints of Bass bitter until closing time and play "Space Invaders" at 20p a go.

  Saturday - big fry up breakfast, put on checked jacket, massive shirt collar and tie knot and turn-up flared brown trousers, hair as long as we dared with centre parting of wavy hair with massive shoes that looked like lifeboats and go and grab some seats while checking out the girlies in their platform shoes and tight fitting outfits. (Think Farrah Fawcett styles)

  Sessions - where we would pass notes to one another and get told off by the zealous attendants all the way through.

  Saturday evening back over the pub - limit ourselves to 5 pints (don't want to get a bad name for Jah!) - playing darts or cards or just chatting.

  Saturday evening run the gauntlet of the gatehouse security who would shut the gate at 11pm unless you could sweet talk your way in.

  (Baptism - wow some of those girls wore the skimpiest of bikini's before the great T shirt clampdown that came later.)

  Sunday morning - up late grab a coffee and skate into the sessions. We had David Algar as DO who would wear jeans to walk about the place after the sessions - who gave brilliant talks then.

  Sunday lunchtime - last chance to get phone numbers of the sisters.

  Sunday tea time - drive home with a David Bowie tape blaring out of the massive speakers in our Vauxhall Viva or Ford Cortina.

  I loved those assemblies. Some of my mates from back then are out and some are in and I'm in the middle.
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  9

  Have you noticed ? the GB's purposeful Tone while speaking??

  by freewilly01 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  after being absent for years from the borgorg i really noticed the purposeful fake tone of the voices of the gb.

  i was just surfing cults and cult leaders and found an interesting link with the gb and cult leaders...... in the satirist:.

  the article was:.

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  freddo

  Very funny RebeccaChi! As long as they don't bring it in a glass container eh?
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  310

  Mill Hill Disfellowshippings

  by BorgHater in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a few months ago there was a thread about a couple of elders at the mill hill bethel being disfellowshipped because they disagreed with some wt doctrine (i can't recall exactly what it was) and that several other betheliteswere under 'investigation'.

  i haven't heard anything since, does anyone know anything more about this?.

  borghater xx.

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  freddo

  MMXIV - welcome to you and others. May I call you 2014? It's easier to type!

  A question to those with contacts in London Bethel - is it business as usual down there as they get new suckers in to do the work of Spain branch or are they circling the wagons to fight the "apostate hordes"?

  My tenuous link with London bethel (a relative who has a close friend there) wonders how I know about the apostasy problem as it is supposed to be being kept quiet.
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  42

  Life On Hold: The CO Visit Week

  by sacolton in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  did anyone have to cancel a vacation trip because it was on co visit week?

  i still don't get why the co visit was as if god himself was in town.

  is it kinda like if the pope were to visit with catholics?.

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  freddo

  Some good some bad.

  One I knew as the "Simony" CO among a few of us. One guy in our hall was well off materially but wore it on his sleeve so much that it grated on the congo and although he made MS the elders genuinely felt "love of money" was a problem. He was desperate to be an elder.

  Anyway the CO stays with him a couple of times, gets taken to posh restaurants and gets the green handshakes and really pushes the body to appoint him. A few elders wanted their names on record not to appoint but with the CO's pressure and an 8 to 2 vote it went through.

  Three years later he was removed for "showy display of ones means of life" by the body with the blessing of the next CO! Go figure.
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  36

  Sisters told they strictly can't wear slacks to Meetings to keep them submissive! Why?

  by Witness 007 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  yes slacks and pants on women are evil.....the first step to wanting to be elders or even worse lesbians!

  so the watchtower in it's wisdom put a strict bad on women wearing pants at meetings, even in siberia or alaska where it is freezing cold....i qoute the governing body who said: "we need to show these sisters who wears the pants in our congregations...literally.".

  in the 70's when it was all the rage, my mum tried wearing slacks to the hall....."go and get changed" said the sister who studied with her.

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  freddo

  Nice catch bluesbrother! I'm gonna have fun with that next time it snows! Good God! When I look back at the seventies when I came in I realise what a controlling bunch of idiots they are becoming!
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  2

  The biggest freak you ever knew in the jws?

  by bulgogiboy in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i find hearing about super freak jws quite entertaining, so if anyone has any interesting stories about the most mental jws they had/have in their congregation then please share!

  the biggest freak i had in my cong was a guy who could literally read your mind.

  i'm not kidding, i mean he appeared to have a profound psychic ability.

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  freddo

  Nope - can't beat that bulgogiboy!
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  65

  Is Britain on the brink of financial armageddon?

  by Hopscotch in

  1. social
  2. current

  saw this article on line in yesterday's daily mail.

  it's a bit of a worry to say the least.. .

  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231563/is-britain-brink-financial-armageddon.html.

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  freddo

  The Daily Mail and the Daily Express - better known as the Daily Wail and the Daily Excess. They really are a load of tripe. They are no better than the "redtops" and simply thinly disguise their nonsense with a very thin veneer of respectability.
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  55

  New BOE letter on inactive ones

  by JWFreak in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  again..please do not ask for a pdf scan as the only copies i have are the interbranch electronic copies from the us branch to our local branch.. .

  november 3, 2009 .

  to all bodies of elders .

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  freddo

  OK - as an ex elder I always ask why. Why did the GB feel the need to send this updated version of "following up" inactives.

  They didn't make a huge fuss about losing people when the figures were steadily rising with no additional manipulation from them. This didn't change until after the generation change/millenium when they were slowing down and stagnating in numbers especially in the west.

  Then it was go out and reactivate, allow 15 mins reporting, tacitly encourage low age publishers, double counting of study time with husband and wife, reduce the meeting load etc. Which has kept the small increase going and encouraged the less committed to stay.

  Now the internet and all it's little demon websites and social networks is waking up people as to how to stay in, keep under the radar and/or fade without blowing their cover.

  So now a subtle change IMO - if the elders go out on an inactive call and John75 or Christine95 or Ed"Overlap" or Jane "Blinkin' light" let slip that "false prophecy" has eroded their faith in the FDS then instead of going back with "they ain't interested chaps try again next year or let 'em drift" - they go back with "they ain't interested but let's check with the service desk" and the SD will hint that they need to go back and check again with the golden Q. of "do you believe the org is Jah's one true and only never to be removed spiritual feeder elevated above the angels (including JC) so help me God? err Ted?"

  And then it's bye bye fry fry time of the; they've DA'd by their actions and so God's clean (barf) org is kept that way. And the elders "know the drill" next time. This is all about apostasy (TM) and keeping a lid on it as it bubbles away more and more in every circuit and branch office in the western world.

  This is an organisation that lets the likes of Michael Porter the Paedo stay in and hangs out to dry decent people who question the dictats on doctrine (Paulapollos?)!

  Sorry if that turned into a UK rant.

  Freddo
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  15

  Daily Mail UK Newspaper article The knock at the door that turned my parents into brainwashed fanatics - and nearly cost my life

  by Latte in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thursday, feb 11 2010 daily mail uk.

  the knock at the door that turned my parents into brainwashed fanatics - and nearly cost my life.

  read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1250078/the-knock-door-turned-parents-brainwashed-fanatics--nearly-cost-life.html#ixzz0feux4vdf.

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  freddo

  Does anyone know if this goes into the newsprint edition?
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  16

  why did all the jws hate cliff richard so much?

  by looloo in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i couldnt understand why they hated him so much and they all seemed to hate him !

  i hope hank marvin got on with him as i heard he was a jw elder ..

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  freddo

  I saw an interview by Piers Morgan of Cliff Richard last night - and he came across as a thoroughly decent man. If I am as fit as he is at 70 then I shall be very pleased indeed!