As an adolescent, I told my college friends that unless they studied the Truth book with me, they'd be killed at Armageddon. I'm now in my 50s....
Comparisons between todays Witnesses and those 40 years ago
by truthseeker 53 Replies latest jw friends
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wha happened?
I never knew any of this. I came in during the late 80's. 1975 was never spoken of. Everything in the publications made it appear as if the truth was seemless and getting clearer. I never thought of what was really behind docternal changes.
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Big Tex
Major conventions lasted 8 days!!....yes, 8 days out of town and if you couldn't afford a hotel, you stayed in a stranger's home! The witnesses in the city where the convention was held went door to door for months in advance of the convention, getting householder's to agree to put a family up for a very small charge!
Then you sat in a big stadium ALL DAY listening to talk after talk after talk and ate there at the convention cafeteria site standing up at make shift wooden tables.
And, again, you never complained! You were doing it for Jehovah.
Oh god, I remember the days. One convention we stayed in a deserted Air Force barracks. I remember when circuit assemblies went until 9 o'clock at night, and then we'd drive home (2-3 hour drive) only to turn around and come back the following morning. You'd get home Sunday night at 10 o'clock and have to get up for school/work the next day.
Yeah we'd have visting Witnesses stay with us, they'd get my room and I'd have to sleep on the couch; last one to bed and first one up.
And then there was kitchen duty, back when they'd cook full meals, whoa what a mess.
Did anyone else have scriptural chains in their Bible? You'd whip out one scripture to combat some objection and you'd have written the next scripture in the margin and so on. That was back when I pioneered in an un-airconditioned car during the hottest summer in Texas history (41 straight days over 100); I ruined a pair of shoes when the street blacktop melted and the tar stuck to my shoes.
And I do not miss anything about those days whatsoever . . . .
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coffee_black
When we went to assemblies when I was a kid, it was always a big event. For assemblies in NY, we always stayed at the Commadore Hotel. We took the train from Boston...and I loved that. My grandmother always made me new pajamas...and my mom made new clothes for me. My uncle Andy usually ran the public relations department at those assemblies. There was an interview in a camping magazine about the tent city... he's the one the magazine interviewed. I remember 1958...but I was only 6 years old...so I remember things like the sno cones..the heat and the crowds and the meals served in huge tents. I remember the smell didn't agree with me. I remember the days were sooooo long.
It was a very different experience back then. My dad was the sound servant at all of the circuit assemblies...so we went early and stayed late... we usually stayed at a hotel to make it less stressful unless it was close by. During lunch breaks my mom always took me and a group of my friends to see the local sights. For example, in Plymouth we went to see the Mayflower (replica) and Plymouth Rock... In New Bedford we went to the Whaling Museum...She would always find something interesting for us... When I hit my teens that stopped... I wanted to stay and check out the guys...and vice versa I usually liked assemblies. I met my boyfriend (an xjw too) at an assembly at the Taunton Race track in the late 60s. During the session back then we escaped and went for a ride. We never got caught...which surprised the heck out of me. Here we are together after all these years. I have to pass by the site of that race track on my way to his house.
But I agree that it was a very different religion back then from what it had become by the time I left in the early 90s.
Coffee