by Jamelle 46 Replies latest jw friends
Best: Probably the Old Monroe NY Assembly Hall. Up in the Mountains. Beautiful Surroundings. I actually enjoyed going up there cause the surroundings were so beautiful and peaceful. I used to love to walk outside, (especially during the program).
The area was beautiful...but the assembly hall looked like an airplane hanger. All tinny looking!
Absolute best is the Convention Center in Panama City, FL. PC is a huge spring break location so there are loads of strip and dance clubs and if the timing is right you can be there at the same time as a million drunken Co-Eds.
The Hall is right next to a marina with tons of sea-gulls. Since Dubs eat lunch in the parking lot you can surrepticiously feed the birds and watch the fun as hundreds descend on the suit wearing Dubs crapping all over them. That is a friggin blast.
You can also "get sick" and have to stay in the hotel. PC has some of the nicest beaches in the world especially when they are filled with the topless Co-Eds mentioned above.
Henrietta NY (Rotten-chester) where I glued more f*cking seatbacks together than you can shake a stick at. My sister and I and several other young 'pioneers' built that shit from the ground up. Volunteer labor. This was in the late 80's. Now I hear Kodak and Xerox have offered over ten million dollars for it.
I helped work on that assembly hall! I grew up in Watkins Glen and did several Kingdum Halls and Assendly Halls.
My favorite was the Clemens center in elmira NY. The building in Albany Ga SSSSUUUUUUCCCCKKKKEDDDDD on the plus side thats where I decided to stop being a witness entirely!
I remember having circuit assemblies in schools! Central Illinois!
The assembly hall in Chicago was at 79th and Ashland--it was an old theater and I believe it was sold in the mid-eighties.
My favorite was jack murphy stadium in san diego. Got seats in the shade under the overhang, and it was about 65 with a slight breeze the whole time. I wore sunglasses and just let myself doze. Good times.
I remember the Janesville, WI assembly hall. That was good because they were still serving hot food when I was there.
The worst ever was one year in Tucson, we got the convention center in between hockey games. They literally covered the ice with temporary wood flooring, so anyone near the floor seats was miserably cold.
In the late 1960's ( I started associating with JW's in 1968 ) and early 1970's......the Circuit Assembly was usually in a rented high school auditorium. In those days, I kind of enjoyed the closeness of the experience here in western PA. Some school auditoriums were better than others. Then our assembly hall was built in 1976. It was fun then too because we had a great kitchen and dining room and lots of good food. And of course, like many others here, I bought into the whole JW lifestyle hook, line and sinker. You all know what has happened since!
As far as the big district conventions go .........my choice for the worst was the Richfield Colluseum near Cleveland, Ohio. It had bleacher seats and the whole place just sucked. I don't think it exists anymore.
Second place for worst was the Laurel Maryland horse race track in 1976. The only thing I found enjoyable there was watching the horses with their trainers through the huge windows in the building.
Third place for worst is the Convocation Center in Cleveland, Ohio where the conventions are still being held since about 1990. The last one I attended was in 1996.
The places I liked the best was the Wheeling, West Virginia Civic Center back in the 1980's and of course the conventions that were in Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh in the 1970's.
HappyDad
WOW! So many of you guys went to the Janesville and Cicero assembly halls!
I loved going to Hawthorne racetrack and watching the horses over at Sportsman's. Also, Hawthorne had an open air section way up top. My friends and I would tell our parents we were sitting with each other, then we'd head up to that section, where hardly anyone else was sitting, and do our own thing, mainly listening to our Walkman's and writing notes back and forth.
Janesville had the neatest landscaping. I used to walk outside and sit by the little waterfall and pool during the sessions. One time, Steve Hammond and I took off during the morning session and drove up and down the country roads. Nobody missed us! I always used to wonder what was behind the main stage. I should have gone exploring before I left for good. Anyone else remember sitting out in the lobby and watching the little kids wipe out on the flagstones after running too fast? Remember when they actually had coat check attendants? They did away with that when they did away with the hot meals, and turned the coat check room into a literature counter, I think. Anyone else remember watching home movies from Poland that "Brother" and "Sister" Bennett brought back?
My favorite was jack murphy stadium in san diego.
Yes, "the Murph" was mellow. I have fond memories of sitting there, looking down at the field, and recreating in my mind an NFL game I'd seen between the San Diego Chargers and the SF 49ers and thinking, "This is hallowed ground" (because Joe Montana had stood there).
I "studied" for so long that the Bennets may have come and gone before I ever got to the KH (I refused to go for the longest time). Who was the CO after Bro Bennet?
I do remember the coat check area...I think that I made it to one CA before the coat check and the hot meals were scrapped. Aaah, memories...I thought it was all so chock full of brotherly love and camaraderie back then. Boy, I was a naive litte dope. lol
The racetrack in Cicero, IL.
Went there for a DA. After arriving and seeing the facilities and saying, "you gotta be shittin' me" I left. There was no way I was going to agonize myself. Probably the worst facilities in the U.S. for DA use.
