Saturday Morning Musings ...

by snowbird 55 Replies latest jw experiences

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  FlyingHighNow

  Conventions cost too much. You burn up. I missed a lot of them due to health. I am glad now that I didn't go to all of them.
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  Berengaria

  Ahhhh Talesin, I only got to work in food service once. I'll never forget "Darcy", an older boy I totally fell for. Our site was Dodger Stadium in LA!!! Ha, if only it had been a World Series instead of an assembly................
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  FlyingHighNow

  My favorite convention city was Macon, GA. I was in a pretty good congregation at the time. Kind, intelligent elders who never df'd anyone. Literally never. So I enjoyed seeing my friends from the congregation there. I was always looking forward to the new releases, dramas and hopefully new light. But the conventions really were more so big ordeals for us. They took a toll, everyone of them.
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  talesin

  B--- Brian ! ahhh,,, he was so dreamy, had a crush on him from age 12 till he told me he was engaged --- Montreal Int'l Convention *sigh*
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  luna2

  I can remember the long drive from where I lived in Illinois to Cicero, where, when I was living in that area, the District Conventions were held each summer. I would have to get up early, early in the mornings, get two sleepy boys ready for a long, hot day of sitting on our rear ends trying to listen to the speakers (depending on where you sat, you could barely hear. The acoustics were terrible). Because I had little money, we only stayed in a hotel once in all the years we went to the DA. It was awful. While it was certainly a shorter drive to the hotel than it was going all the way home each night, the hotel was noisy and we got little sleep, so I decided that I would commute. A two hour drive to and from the convention site each day.

  As the years rolled on, we learned to get there early so we could get inside seats in the airconditioned section of the race track. The box seat areas were the best we could do as the club seating was always snapped up by elders and their families because they got there so early on the first day. I remember there being talks about not saving seats for yourself if you were on some committee that caused you to be at the facility earlier than everybody else, but no one was stupid enough to listen...not when the alternative was sitting in the open air sections where you would sweat the day away in the July heat. I can remember seeing single brothers comfortably ensconsed in those cushy club seats, in the airconditioning, while single mothers, some with babies and toddlers, sat in the heat all day trying to control their crying kids. Gosh, what love! Yes, Jah certainly loved his people...but only if you were male and on a committee.

  I remember the drive home after the long, hot, excruciatingly boring days, in terrible traffic. We would get home at about 7:30 in the evening (if we were able to get out of there quickly), eating a quick sandwich and heading to the public pool for an hour or so to cool off and give the kids a chance to get some exercise and have a little fun. It was an ordeal that I can't believe I put myself and my boys through. All of the crap about pleasing Jehovah. Please. I never, ever got the sense that our suffering pleased the fictional god we gave up so much for. Sometimes I wondered if it was men who were single fathers, if they would go through all of that crap. While I know that there are single fathers out there, there weren't any in the congregations I attended. Somehow its mostly women who are expected to deal with young children while they struggle to get to these stupid events, and then to sit through the horrible, dull day trying to cope with their bored, confined kids who don't understand why they have to wear uncomfortable clothing and sit still for 8 hours a day for 4 long days.
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  snowbird

  I can relate to every point you make, Luna.

  Syl