by ScottyRex 34 Replies latest jw experiences
Ooo, remember all of those, Dorking was lovely, surrounded by beautiful parks and greenery, with a donut and Ice Cream kiosk as well, with a KFC situated 100 yards away where all the Negro and Coloured brethren would go for lunch as they refused to eat the "whitey" food served there.
Was baptized at Hays Bridge, a horrible out of town place that lost all of the charm of a Ass'embly Hall.
Oh the days!.
Dorking - early memories as a kid going there, bored out my mind...
Southampton - 2 or 3 times for D.C. - volunteered for cleaning duty. Huge platforms. Anyone remember the rush to grab the plants and flowers after the last day was over?
Portsmouth/Fratton football ground
Twickers - always had to walk miles (well it felt like it) from where we parked the car to the stadium
Hayesbridge - volunteered here a few times with gardening & maintenance. Remember one time when the sisters made shepherds pie for the volunteers. I did cleaning duty a few times, I just couldn't sit there and hear that garbage.
The last few times I went to Hayes I went by coach. We would meet in the Kingdom Hall parking lot and the coach would pick us up from there. Took about 2 hours to get to the assembly hall.
It seems you were never allowed to walk on the grass - only once did we ever have a picnic lunch on the grass
The simplified food arrangment went from hot meals, to biscuits, tea & coffee, to tea & coffee to finally NOTHING at Hayesbridge.
I remember how proud I was at being appointed an attendant, great excuse to walk around.
Went to Brighton a few times - not bad, you could buy donuts in the venue and go for a walk along the seafront, have a pint.
I heard Hayesbridge used to be a reform school for boys.
T/S, t'was true, a Borstal in fact.
My husband worked on Haysbridge, the former naughty boys school. I went with our little boy on weekends to help kick out old window frames and try to chip off old linolium off the floors.
I never liked it as an assembly hall. Remember being told to appoach by different roads so as not to irritate the neighbours? We did mystery tours every time and it took ages to get there.
My husband used to do the baptism dunking in our circuit (SE London), had some laughs with it though. I remember a poor jamacian brother getting his afro caught in the overflow pipe and my husband couldn't see it. The poor brother tried to come back up and my hubby was pushing him down. From the audience it looked like he was drowning the poor guy, he looked so panic stricken.
I remember at Dorking being told not to buy food from outside...support the theocratic mush. Half our circuit went down with tummy troubles after an assembly once.
Worked on the book covers and pens at Twickers, we had our own little booth outside the arena with a speaker and deckchairs. Never actually got to be inside the stadium as we were not allowed to leave the booth. We had our own little way of drumming up business, bit like East Street market in Southwark.....come on Bros and Sis's, 10 for a pound, going cheap today....Fun! We did get to see all the cruisers going around the grounds all day, dressed to kill and after fresh meat!
Just remembered the doughnut making at Edinburgh Conventions, we all had to close our eyes for the prayer and everyone was crying when it finished because of the fat from the doughnut fryer! Had to laugh, we looked so funny. Remember black forest gataux? Best thing ever at a convention.
scary thing is chicken little, that it was possibly your husband who baptised me!
Twickingham and Haysbridge, yes!
Who were those people that used to picket outside Twickingham anyway? Were they ex-members, or from another religion? I was told not to even look at them, so I didn't.
Just to clarify... They dint build any excelators at HB they were at twickers... HUGE things....
My dad had helped on the building and refirb at HB... He loved telling about his experiences, especially as one brother drove up in a really plush sports car....
Porche or something and then drove it through the mud as if it were nothing to him...
My dad was always so proud at this, kept him strong for a long time...
Oh, my dad was one of the car park attendants at the refirb...
