Remember the assembly hall at Grantville, Pennsylvania?

WingCommander

I know I sure do! When I was a child in the early 80's, I remember about twice a year being packed up into the family JDUB-Mobile and taking about an hour trip up to the Grantville, PA assembly hall. I think it was built in the late 60's, or early 70's. It is still there and still being used. Anyone else go there?

Back in the 80's, circuit assemblies lasted like 4 days. It was hell for a small child. They at least have a piano there, so the songs where at least somewhat entertaining. I'd have to say the worst part about this assembly hall was the carpeting. Just an awful bright orange, with some kind of weird Persian pattern on it. It was like being at some freaky circus, and because it was so bright it kept you awake. One of the things I did sometimes was stare at it for a long time, and soon it would start to swirl and hypnotize me. Wonder if that was a deliberate effect of laying that carpeting in the first place? Hmmmm. You couldn't go to the bathroom and even get a moment’s piece while taking a leak, as they had speakers right in the bathrooms. I guess they were ahead of the times, as I hear new assembly halls are being constructed with speakers and LCD tv's right in the bathrooms now. Resistance is futile!

The best part - the mid-day lunch break of course. With a rush of excitement everyone would file into the cafeteria for food. The items most commonly available were: Subs, sandwiches, burritos, salad, grapes, bananas, oranges, soup, SHASTA, OJ, pudding cups, and danishes. Man, that stuff was all good! Except for the Shasta; that stuff was nasty! In the early 80's I think they had more hot food, as there was an actual kitchen there, but don't remember as my parents never bought that. Alot of times we packed our own food and went out to the car to eat it. It was like cattle being led through a shute to the slaughter! lol. Of course the mid-day break was always the time for groups of us younger ones to wonder around the entire assembly hall and look for chicks and check out people's cars outside. (When it wasn't freezing cold out) There was always a sigh when that part of the day was coming to a close. Of course back then, assemblies lasted from about 9:00 am to 6:00 pm in the evening. I remember my family leaving there exhausted, and of course it was all due to the gorging upon of spiritual food! Funny though how half of the stuff we "took in from the holy spirit," is now "Old Light." In hindsight, it makes those long hours a complete waste of my youth. How sad. One of the worst parts, was when we came back from lunch break, the announcements were always made about how “short the donations were coming up this year,” right down to the dollar amount given. Here my family was bringing our own food half the time to cut costs, and then be given a guilt trip about how we weren’t giving enough. I think it pissed most of the janitorial non-business owner family types off – like mine! Many times my mentally unstable father would return home half depressed not feeling good enough for God because he couldn’t give enough; even though he had just given 4 days of his and his family’s time to the Org.

I must say they have a pretty cool baptismal pool at Grantville. It's not like at a District Convention where they set up an above ground swimming pool, nope, only the best for south central Pennsylvania Dubs! Grantville has a literal "pool" with 2 doors at each end. Also, the wall is landscaped like it would be from a jungle scene; rocks, frogs, plant life, and even cascading water and sound effects! Around the pool is an iron fence to keep onlookers from diving in! I remember that "fence" well as it always had a certain metallic smell, much like iron, all the time. All in all, pretty cool baptismal pool by any Christian standards. Very photogenic. All of my family were baptized there in the early 80's, with the exception of myself.

I have to admit that I haven't been to Grantville since about 1998 or so, and I don't miss it one bit. Some of the renovations they did in the mid-90's include new carpeting (Yeah!) and new movie theater styled seating. The last time I was there, only about 4 kids were baptized, and of course they had grown up in JW land just like me! I thought that was pretty sad for a circuit that used to have 1500 in attendance. Oh wait.....in the late 90's that figure had shrunk down to about 800-900. What growth! I stopped going when I no longer saw anyone that I knew from growing up attending, and all of the older ones my parents studied with had died. It was depressing. We weren't even supposed to be 20, and the older ones my parents knew weren't supposed to have died, but there I was standing among people I didn't know, and people that probably didn't know or want to remember the 1914 cry of, "The generation that saw the events of 1914 will not die!" That was always the rallying cry, the ray of hope, the promise that I would not even finish school before the Great Tribulation and Armageddon arrived. But there I was 19-20 in 1998. I just couldn’t believe it. And in 1995 we were just asked to forget everything we were previously taught.

Does anyone else remember going there? Share your experiences! Mail me - maybe we brushed elbows while pushing to get to lunch years ago!

- Wing Commander

Cindi_67

Hi:

I have to tell you. You brought back many memories, back when the food was hot at assemblies and conventions. You must have felt that the assemblies were very boring. I say that because you said that Circuit Assemblies lasted 3 and 4 days back in the 80's. I am sorry to correct you, but I was raised in the Org. and I do remember the District Conventions lasting 4 entire days, but the Circuit Assemblies have always been 2 days. At least since I can remember.

Anyways, very funny your story about the carpet made that way on purpose, to hypnotize. It must have been an ugly carpet.

Great story, though.

mandivided

Wow!!! Does that bring back the memories.......I went there from the time I was born until I was 21. Remember the old orange and brown theme before they rennovated? Or how about the little toy frog that was in the baptismal pool that had the water fall? I remember having to get up early and drive down 81 ( I was from the Scranton area) and it was ALWAYS foggy for some reason. I was baptized there too actually when I was 16 or 17.

garybuss

I only lived in Dakota and I quit assemblies as a believer in 1974. At that time and before, our circuit assemblies were 3 days. We'd have to get there on Thursday to set up the traveling circus in some National Guard Armory.

We never got out till late Sunday night because we had to tear down the traveling circus, pack the converted painted green, school bus with a billion miles on it, and clean the National Guard Armory.

Beep,Beep

It's still there. Colors have changed and the inside waterfall is gone though. Too bad about that as it was always a pleasant sound in the background.

Beep,Beep

"The best part - the mid-day lunch break of course. With a rush of excitement everyone would file into the cafeteria for food. The items most commonly available were: Subs, sandwiches, burritos, salad, grapes, bananas, oranges, soup, SHASTA, OJ, pudding cups, and danishes. Man, that stuff was all good! Except for the Shasta; that stuff was nasty! In the early 80's I think they had more hot food, as there was an actual kitchen there"

I remember that kitchen well. Real food, real meals were availible besides the 'fast food' line.

Oh I was there, making pizza.

LtCmd.Lore

I most certainly do remember it, in fact I will be going there in two days!!!

Pretty sure we're talking about the same place:

The carpet isn't orange anymore but it's still kind of wierd. They still have the piano there, but they don't use it anymore, they removed the waterfall backdrop from the pool, now it's just white with mirrors for a ceiling. They installed a camera and projector system, so now they pull down a huge screen on stage, and play live video from the baptismal pool for the people in the auditorium. They have carpets on the walls for some reason, and two big signs on the right and left of the stage in a carved out frame, with little spike things sticking out of them, on the left is the years text and on the right is the assembly theme. Ummmm, that's pretty much all I can think of.

By any slim chance will anyone here be going there this Saturday?

LtCmd.Lore,

moomanchu

I remember it all too well. Best part was if you stayed at the Holiday Inn off of 78.

My wife was baptised there I was dunked at Buckingham.

I think it was built in the late 70s.

parakeet

I went there a few times in the late 1970s, not long after it was built. Don't have many good memories about it though.

moshe

JW's used to pride themselves on their food at the assemblies- like real fried chicken and mashed potatoes. I left just as the sandwiches arrived- subs, hoagies, cubans, etc. For example, if you went to an assemly in New Orleans, you got food just like the locals enjoyed. I think that whole generation of JW's who knew how to make home cooked meals for a crowd is now dead.

I heard one of my old assembly halls was remodeled to make the auditorium smaller. All those empty seats was sending a negative message about the JW organization. After a few assemblies the JW's probably forgot about the 500 seats that were removed.

Remember the assembly hall at Grantville, Pennsylvania?

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