Ridiculous teenager counselled at Assembly. (page 2)

mouthy

LOL I was at that assembly. Problem was I NEVER clapped at any assembly as I thought it was sad to wake up the babies that were all around us....Many folks" would ask why dont you clap"?& of course would laugh at my answer. as if one person not clapping would alter the fact the babies all woke up.But my conscience would let me do it ...See I was crazy even back then

Alligator Wisdom

Speaking of clapping...

My brothers (siblings) and I would have this challenge with each other at assemblies and conventions. We were not yet teenagers. We would see who would be the last one to "clap" once the majority in the audience had already finished. Imagine sporatic one clap beats after the thunderous applause. Like water dripping from a faucet.

Not only did we get dirty looks from the others sitting near-by, but it got our mother angry enough to pinch a hole through our skin with her long fingernails.

Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously by WTS standards)

Crumpet

My brothers (siblings) and I would have this challenge with each other at assemblies and conventions. We were not yet teenagers. We would see who would be the last one to "clap" once the majority in the audience had already finished. Imagine sporatic one clap beats after the thunderous applause. Like water dripping from a faucet.

Yeah we used to do this too - god the things you would do to pass the time. We also, denied pen and pad because of doodling, would play noughts and crosses, etching the grid and noughts and crosses into our arms and legs with our nails - ouch! It was sooo boring!

mrsjones5

An incident related to clapping happened at the Elland Road asembly about 15 years ago. It was when the Young People Ask book came out and all the youngsters in the ground were asked to sit in the same stand. Me, my brother and my cousin decided it would be funny to try to get everyone to clap after every sentence the speaker said as if we were all really pleased at the new release. It really caught on and every kid in the stand clapped at every pause by the speaker. We really thought we were gonna get into trouble but luckily most people assumed we had been overcome with holy spirit and those who did know we were taking the pi$$ just tutted and said no more.

Oh ho! The clapping game. My siblings and I hugely enjoyed that game at the district assemblies at the Cow Palace back in the late 70's and early 80's. I'm amazed we never got counselled about it.

Josie

dobbie

Mouthy - that was so thoughtful of you!It used to annoy the hell out of me when i'd just got my boy finally peaceful and asleep and all of a sudden everyone would clap loudly and of course he'd wake up, scream the place down and i'd have to take him out again accompanied by dirty looks cos of the noise HE was making!aagh!The last assembly it happened at in Plymouth, i walked out to the car with him and we spent the whole 2 days there listening to the talks on the radio!Much comfier and i could switch the radio off when i had enough and i could eat and drink whenever we wanted!I'm SO glad i don't have to drag my kids along to it anymore!

DanTheMan

Duncan, I was once a nodding, loud-clapping righteous-dub myself. Excellent post!

I never received any personal counsel that I really chafed at, but the 25 paragraph 'BEHAVE AT THE DISTRICT CONVENTION!' Kingdom Ministry articles in the 1990's got to be a bit much.

crazyblondeb

I always got in trouble for "flirting". That included standing too close to a brother (less than 3 feet), or talking too long, (more than 3 minutes)!! The elders and my stepdad made it their mission to spy on me constantly!!

Amazing

Duncan,

Jesus Christ man ... only a tried and true JW could say what you've said. Your level of detail to strive to be recognized is among the most ... interesting ... right up there with buying a larger, hinge-top briefcase to carry a pile of books, etc. to look like an Elder ... yes, like so many others, you were fully infected with the cult virus. I noticed that others too had clapping styles like yours, or they would clap fast like others, and employing a loud popping clap by using the flats of their four fingers fingers sealed into a wall to compress the air the the palm of their other hand. I don't know if this was done by them to get noticed ... perhaps it was to show appreciation. But ... it felt like they were trying to stimulate some slackers to clap a little more themselves.

Well stated Duncan ... I like the open honesty.

Jim Whitney

Duncan

Dear everyone.

thanks for all the replies. The comments about the clapping game brought back memories, too.

In fact with me it was becoming a pioneer, after leaving school, that completely cured me of my self-righteousness. I have written about this here several times.

At seventeen or eighteen, after I'd been pioneering 2 or 3 years, and absorbed the utterly cynical pioneer-culture, that's when I was bored and rebellious at assemblies. We played all those stupid start-the-clap, or be-the-last-one-clapping games, as well as mocking the speaking styles of the brothers.

One game we had that I particularly remember we called called "Watchtower!". It was based on the then-popular BBC tv children's show "Crackerjack!" In that show every week they had a sort-of running gag going whereby every time the host of the show (Leslie Crowther, at the time) said the word Crackerjack, the entire audience would have to shout "Crackerjack!" back.

Same principle, only applied to the word Watchtower. And you had to be reasonably discreet about it, just loud enough for your pioneer-mates to hear. It was a hoot, the word comes up so often.

Oh, the memories!

SirNose586

"Can you please clap properly?" Hah, and I thought I had heard them all. How controlling...

Amusing story.

Ridiculous teenager counselled at Assembly.

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