Hardships and Assemblies (page 4)

Sunspot

Used to have to go to open air assemblies at ball stadiums or fairgrounds. We'd find a place in the shade, then the sun would move around and soon had to sit in the hot sun. We put up our umbrellas to get a little shade. Imagine this with small babies!

Bonnie_Clyde....I remember those days all too well! The noses that looked and felt like potato chips because of days of sunburn, not to mention all that went with this sunbathing-with-our-Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes on that we endured.

I was shocked when I read of them covering the mirrors . .I never saw that at the assemblies I was at.

Woofer...oddly enough---they didn't do that at all conventions in the US! I wonder how they decided which ones to pull this stunt at---and WHY?

I thought us Old School JW`s had it bad..It got worse??..You guys were seriously abused...

Outlaw....didn't we see here not too very long ago, where the "brothers-in-charge-of-stuff" were making unmistakable suggestions over the amount of toilet paper the attending JWs were "allowed" to use? Knowing the WTS---it only gets "better" and better....as the end grows nearer...

Emma

Camping with a five week old baby and two very young children because we couldn't afford to pay for a hotel. Cooking every morning and night and packing a lunch for everyone. Washing diapers at the one washing machine in the campground. (My mother washed diapers in a tub of a rooming house when my sister was little and woke up to roaches crawling all over in the middle of the night. This was also one of the eight-day assemblies in Yankee Stadium.) Not to mention making sure all the clothes were clean to pack and cleaning the entire house before leaving. I never got much out of an assembly once I had kids; maybe that's why I "fell away." lol

Sunspot

DON'T YOU ALL KNOW THAT WAS DONE TO BUILD UP YOUR ENDURANCE, LONG SUFFERING, PATIENCE.......................?

Not really, Warlock---But if you hum a few notes ....maybe it will come back to me...

How about ENDLESS FILTHY CONCRETE STADIUM STEPS IN HIGH HEELS?

Yup! BabaYaga---Been there:sang THAT one for thirty years!

Sunspot

The seats at the Tacoma Dome were nightmarish, all those stairs with a 18 mo. old was scary and NOT ONE person offered to help with him. I was obviously alone with him and got no greetings, no hello's and only one person spoke to me. Said I should take my little boy and sit down because I had been walking around so much. Uh huh, so I took my baby and we went to my car, I sat us down and I drove away.

WOW, JWdaughter! No wonder you weren't "impressed" with the assembly! THINK of all those "well-oiled dishes" you didn't sample! I wish I had only been as smart as you!

144001

These can hardly be described as "hardships". Balsam can say these were hardships, some others with other family/ personal problems can say these were hardships, but for most able bodied humans (which I assume most here are) - 3 or 4 days (ok the week long ones if you were around then) with the relatively minor inconveniences described above are not hardships. I accept that there is a finacial burden on going to assemblies - my family included - but having to climb a few stairs to get a seat is hardly a big deal.

Hardship is being a young child, and being forced to sit for 8 + hours per day, 5 days of the week, at Dodger Stadium in July's 100 degree weather, listening to endless, monotonous garbage. Ah, I do remember the days, and how I hated each and every minute I was forced to attend those abusive conventions. If this is "god's organization," why would god appoint people that are so stupid as to not possess even a basic understanding of the needs of a child? Or maybe they knew but just didn't care? Whatever the answers to those questions, I remember all too well the multitude of children being beaten in the back of the stands at Dodger Stadium because they couldn't bear the grueling conditions imposed on them by the sadistic freaks that control the Watchtower.

Turn on the news or visit a cancer ward. You'll see hardship there.

Sad events on the news and cancer are not, in most cases (not including smoking) preventable by the victims of such news and/or cancer. Unlike such events, being a Jehovah's Witness is voluntary, at least for parents, so I fail to see any validity whatsoever in the analogy above. Rather, this analogy illustrates a rather desperate effort to deflect attention from the miserable conditions Jehovah's Witnesses and their children are subjected to. What will the apologists try next?

LongHairGal

Someone once said that Satan attacks us before an assembly and causes difficulty in our lives to try and keep us from going!

Assemblies were always difficult but the worst one I remember was the Philadelphia convention stadium in the 1980s. What misery! Humid temperature that seemed like 100 degrees with people passing out and surly people sitting around me. I remember one miserable sister in particular with her bad vibes. It is terrible when people with an issue try to take it out on people around them.

All in all, I remember nothing except wanting to leave. I got absolutely nothing out of it. I vowed never to do that again.

Yankee Stadium wasn't much better. If you didn't get a seat in the shade you couldn't even function. You would need to hold an umbrella to keep the sun off you and you would need to have a bottle of water in the other hand. So, you couldn't take notes. The Coliseum was pretty bearable except for long bathroom lines and stupid attendants. But last I heard they won't be going there anymore.

LHG

Sunspot

I accept that there is a finacial burden on going to assemblies - my family included - but having to climb a few stairs to get a seat is hardly a big deal.
Turn on the news or visit a cancer ward. You'll see hardship there

You're comparing apples and oranges Jer. Climbing "A few stairs" that turn out to be two levels worth, in high heels, loaded down like a pack mule on a six-month trek.....JUST to have the "privelege" of hearing the same-old same-old rehashed from the past WTS publications....was NOT the high point of MY life....maybe it WAS in yours.

As for the snippy crack about the cancer ward....did that make you feel much better to get this out? If it did.....I'm happy for ya.

If the WTS hamster-wheel existence is okey-dokey with YOU and YOUR family....that's fine. So be it. If sucking up to the WTS and "doing whatever THEY SAY" is for YOU....that's entirely your choice.

This board accommodates ALL opinions and you have yours. If being a skunk at a lawn party appeals to you....again....I'm happy for ya!

But....WHY did you pick out the word "of" when copying my post? Do you have an aversion to the word?

Did you have a problem with "getting along with others" marked on your school report card?

Did it make you feel important to disrupt what we were doing here?

I gotta go and fix dinner.....hope to be back later.

I'll look for your reply Jer.

Annie

edited to add.....

There always has to be one in every crowd......right?

rebel8

Once a dog ran on and shat right in the middle of Southampton Football Club field. It was fantastic!

omg I don't know if I'm laughing so hard my stomach hurts because the dog did this during a pseudo-holy event or if I just learned that "sh--" has a past tense verb.

Leave it to poop to get me laughing every time!

New joke:

Q. Why did the dog's wife get disfellowshipped?

A. Because she refused to give him his marital doo!

alt

Ingenuous

Also the financial difficulties associated with taking time off work and the travel expenses.

Reading this just made me realize - they expect you to take off of work to go to the assembly, yet scrape together money for a room and supplies to bring your own food. Where are their heads?! [Never mind, I already know the answer to that one.]

The "simplification" of bringing meals didn't simplify the lives of the JWs in the least. Having to pack meals for 3 days for adults and children while staying in a hotel room???

And climbing steps is a big deal when you have a "hidden" disability - like bad knees or ankles, or trouble balancing - but don't "qualify" for handicapped seating.

My family had to stop going to the conventions because of my Dad's back. I remember my parents calling me and my sister into their hotel room to tell us we had to miss the rest of the assembly because of Dad's back and this would be probably be our last one. The mood was so somber, you would have thought someone had died. This was after we started going to my aunt & uncle's assembly because ours was the last to move into a stadium with a roof and we couldn't be outside all day because of allergies and asthma. There was a note in one of the pre-convention letters some time ago that the Society was purposely not setting up "clean rooms" for people who suffered from allergies or chemical sensitivities (a special problem at assemblies, as the "friends" like to bathe in perfume/cologne for such "special" occassions - especially on Sunday.)

XJW4EVR

And climbing steps is a big deal when you have a "hidden" disability

How about this one. Having just had a C-section less than two months prior to the Convention at Dodger Stadium, like my ex-wife.

Hardships and Assemblies

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