Freepeace sent me some photos of our old neighborhood. I haven't yet asked him when they were taken, but from the clothing and hair styles, I would guess early-mid 1960's.
This is a picture of the KH I attended as a lad. What a dump! Freepeace's father (who was the Cong. Overseer back then), my father and I helped build that hall. We worked many weekends building it. It has a window in front, too! I can honestly say I very much enjoyed the hard work carrying mortar for the bricks, nailing studs and all the other stuff I did over the months we worked on it. The sisters and their daughters always served us up a sumptuous feast for lunch, too. That KH just seemed much bigger and much nicer back then. Notice the stunning architecture, the artistic use of many angles on the structure to subtely capture and disperse rays of sunlight, the grand entrance and the magestic roof. Just like Solomon's temple, this KH was a grand witness and monument to Jehovah's glory and praise! Well, then again, maybe not.
Looks like someone is practicing for a Bible drama. That little kid sure looks like Freepeace to me! That's my late father on the left: long before the cult sapped his life away.
The mother-from-hell is on the left. Mine.
This is an interesting shot. Note the dub stats on the platform. Gotta have stats! Then we have Harpo Marx on the far right of the platform. And what's that kid in the foreground on the left doing wearing a checkered shirt, anyway? Where's his cheap suit? "Here I am Send Me" was the year's text according to the banner on the beam. "There I Was, You Sent Me, and Now I'm Screwed" is what all those dubs in the audience must be thinking these 40 years later.
What would DubLand be without the good ol' "Babylon the Grape?" I can only guess that this little drama is illustrating how dubbies help those in Da Grape to get out of the "prison" they're in by preaching the "Good News" to them. Once they receive that "Good News", they slide through those prison bars and head straight into Cultdom. What they do not mention is that one can easily walk out of the "prison" of Da Grape into DubLand. But once in DubLand, they are not just in a prison any longer, but in a nearly inescapable fortress. On Devil's Island. In the middle of an ocean. Without any boats. And lots of man-eating sharks in the water, too.
Nice beehive hairdo on the sister, eh?
I had some good memories of that congregation, though. Dub life was was not so drab back in the early 1960's. We used to actually have some FUN back then.
Farkel
"I didn't mean what I meant."