I can't imagine doing THAT in my wildest dreams..... (page 3)

WTWizard

Going to one of those wastefests in lieu of a real vacation is dumb. Imagine being promised going to an amusement park, where you would be camping a week before nearby. Each day, you would have walks around the place. There was an antique shop nearby, and a movie system and swings on the campground. A train tracks is nearby (about 100 meters or so away), so you could see long trains passing by from time to time. They found another playground near the campground, with a slide that made you walk up more than 10 meters (up, not long) and had several corkscrew twists, and then going to the theme park. You get all excited about it--riding the roller coaster and the bumper cars, playing skee ball, and getting to swim in the swimming hole after lunch. And the cookout--an open fire in the fireplace, complete with s'mores and everything that makes these things enjoyable. Then, at the last minute, they decide that they are going to one of those wastefests instead--same amount of time, but you are seated inside for the whole time.

I bet no children would actually want to see this happen, and they would probably be p***ed. Yet, the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger insists on writing up articles that make it look better to go to this wastefest than the above-listed trip (this actually exists--anyone going to Palace Playland in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, might see some or all of the above). Anyone given a choice, and preferring the camping trip with the amusement park to sitting in the a$$embly is pronounced as wicked, vile, and deserving to be destroyed. Even if they secretly would prefer the camp trip, they will be destroyed when Armageddon comes.

I don't think very many children are going to fidget while on the roller coaster, or "Could this ride finish?". I know that, when I went to Palace Playland, I did not want the trip to end--I would have liked nothing more than to have the equivalent of the never-ending prayer (like a never-ending ride) to stretch the event. Yet, when I was at the Grand Boasting Session (only three days, at that), I could not wait to get the f*** out of that dump.

BluesBrother

Incognito's post brought back some memories . I don't know where you are but experiences are a lot like mine.

5 or even 8 day Assembles with sessions until 9 at night..Crummy food on army trays eaten standing up in a big tent. If you were not careful your gravy spilled into your dessert...Then they took the food away and we moaned even more.

In U K it was often chilly at the Assembly but some were like today, roasting. A welcome diversion was the aeroplanes over Twickenham Stadium , We used it all through the redevelopment years when it was a building site.

Washrooms (especially women's) had long line-ups where it would often take 20+ minutes just to get into the room

I used to sympathise with the "sisters" - standing in line for ages to use the loo. It was bad enough for the ones who were fit, and the actual disabled had special arrangements but the ones who were just not well or getting on, they really suffered..

But still they come , again and again ad infinitum..always thrilled by a new book and inspired by a final talk about the nearness of the end.....

Witness 007

Makes you tired just thinking about Meetings and Fiekd Service.

Psychotic Parrot

"all the cute 5 year old girls"

Paedo's looking for material on google will be directed to this site now

geodude

In July 1969 I was 8 years old...we'd been promised a trip to Disneyland after the Assembly at Dodgers Stadium so I was actually looking forward to the 7 hour drive from the SF Bay Area down to LA. Besides the Dramas, (which were always overacted but entertaining) the only things I enjoyed at these mammoth 7 day Borefests were captioning the literature illustrations with stupid comments (e.g.Jesus saying to the Pharisees "I'm right, you're wrong, neener-neener-neener!") and eating as many of the crappy ice-cream treats sold during lunch time as one could stand.

Things started in a spectacular fashion after leaving the empty rental house we were put up at (the JW residents just let us have it, no beds, furniture, or electricity - we slept on blankets and sleeping bags. The gas was on so we at least we had oatmeal in the morning.) We took our frozen bread and bologna sandwiches (we made them in the Bay Area and took them to LA) piled into the car and drove to the stadium. It was the first time I ever saw smog - this yellow cloud hanging over the parking lot obscuring the sun and turning everything a sickly heptatitis color. When clambered out of the car, my eyes immediately started burning - I couldn't keep them open, it was like tear gas. We choked our way in from the parking lot to the stadium, found seats, and then tried to stay awake during the ass-and-mind benumbing drone of several speaker telling us the end was only 6 years away (all of which was denied by the WTBTS in 1975 when nothing actually happened. One of the many times the JW's took a "course-correction" to guide them closer to the truth and plausible deniability.) By the second day, I found that I could squeeze beneath the seats and catch a pretty good nap after counting the gum and archealogical food debris trapped beneath us. Dad, who was an Elder and had some vague duty during the Assembly days, left after the first or second talk to go do his...duty, whatever the hell that was. Probably just walking around with a sign saying "Quiet Please." My brother's and I roamed the parking lot unattended during lunch and found nothing of interest going on at all....

One of those nights Dad took us to Bob's Big Boy for burgers and shakes (at Mom's insistence) and we watched the first moon landing on a store TV. I don't remember if it was live or a replay, but it was pretty cool. The highlight of the trip, because Dad decided we couldn't afford Disneyland and left the last day of the Assembly. Even Mom was disappointed. It was a pattern to be repeated a few more times before we wised up - Dad never ONCE took us on a "vacation" that wasn't either an Assembly or visit with his JW parents. LA was the last time we took that long of a trip, too. I don't recall going anywhere except Richmond, Oakland, or San Francisco after that.

I left the witnesses in 1980 right before my 19th birthday, unbaptized, unrepentant, and free, free, free. I hate the MFs.

Scarred for life

Welcom to the board, geodude. I share your feelings.

Jadeen

Can't imagine wearing a skirt with dress shoes in the middle of winter! Growing up, my family lived out of town so you really didn't want anything to go wrong with the car. But you all know, it's modest to have a skirt on in winter and evil to wear something more sensible like dress pants and boots. Just like it's modest for men to wear three piece suits when it's 90 degrees and 80% humidity out- a polo shirt would be just plain wrong!

lancelink

Cominski park, in Chicago Illinois was MY nightmare.

First, getting two young kids ready early in the morning every day,

second, fighting bumper to bumper traffic going into the city.

Third, finding a seat in the "nosebleed" section, with two young kids, meeting bags, food for lunch, and several bottles of juice/water to help the boys make it thru the day. And getting the frown look from the attendants and other loyal JW's in the section because we were LATE.

fourth, Broiling under the sun, with a tie on !

And then the ride home, horrible traffic, and stopping along the way to get some dinner, we were sooo sunburnt that eating made us sick.

One of my boys threw up in the meeting bag on the way home, and guess what I did?

Went home, cleaned all the books, and bag and got it ready for the next "wonderfully spiritual assembly day"

What possesed my wife and I to do this, now I don't know.

My kids absolutly hate anything to do with the JW's now, and they have no qualms in bringing up the nighmare episodes like the one i just wrote about !

wantingtruth

quote

"You have no idea and need to understand that for some of us, the GREAT TRIBULATION has already occured."

..............................

here you have stated a truth !

this is, in fact, the GT where the great multitude (Rev 7:14-17) is coming out - the oppression done by the MOL to those seeking the Kingdom of God .

wantingtruth

Gregor

I was not quite 6 in 1951 when we drove from Southern California to the 8 day NY Intl. Convention at Yankee Stadium. We could not afford motels or restaurants on the way, (4 adults and 3 children) in an old Ford sedan. We pulled off in the bushes behind billboards, set up cots then roasted and ground raw wheat. We had canned condensed milk to put on it so it could be swallowed. Breakfast was the same, then back in the car for another 500 mi day. One evening we pulled off the highway in the St Louis area near the Mississippi river. Hot, humid and dark, then the mosquitos swarmed. Mom got me and my little sister up on a cot and we stayed under a wool army blanket and slapped the whining mosquitos that buzzed our ears. We got eaten alive.

When we got there we set up tents in the New Jersey bogs "Tent City" where the program was piped in (incomprehensible) from the stadium in NY City. The huge camp was set up in a grid with Bible name streets. It rained everyday and the mud was knee deep for me. Bales of straw were brought in to help keep our sleeping pallets out of the mud. We had plywood cold water latrines with gang showers and the toilets were holes in a long bench over a pit of buzzing flies. Bare bulbs in the ceiling were always swarming with bugs.

Went through the about the same thing again in '53.

I can't imagine doing THAT in my wildest dreams.....

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