I was almost always the Watchtower reader in our congo. I almost fell asleep a few times, causing brothers in the front row to clear throats or drop their Bibles to get my attention.
One sister, Julie could cross one eye, so she was always trying to get me to crack up.
I gave talk number 5 a lot, since someone every week didn't show up. That meant that I used most of the ministry school putting my talk together.
I hated talk number 1 on ministry school.
I liked our service meetings. We had a bunch of real goofy guys who were always thinking up ways to liven up the demonstrations. We had a pretty cool congo that loved to laugh and boy we had some lulus. One I remember, we had different people read the experiences from around the world in the accent of that country. Man that was funny.
I liked the public talks in the old days when there was a lot of flexibility and you got some good speakers. Toward the end, they had just turned into manuscripts that were read. Basically the public meeting was 2 watchtower studies that were read. One just didn't include audience participation.
I also liked the book study. I always ended up reading there too. Book studies in people's homes made me tense because I always had a nervous stomach. For a while I got a terrible upset stomach every Tuesday. We finally traced it down to the fact that my mother had started putting onions in her country fried steak. I cannot eat grilled onions til this day.
I could not sit still at conventions so spent most of the time looking for my friends wandering the halls or looking for good looking guys to follow around. I volunteered as an attendant a lot. The most hated of all volunteers. Is that seat taken? Well I'm sorry but this fat lady with her kid need those seats so pick up those old mags. Man did I get dirty looks. Being an attendant I also got to help with the baptism. My most favorite time since I got to go into the men's dressing room. One of the few times in my sheltered life that I got to see undressed men. So that was always fun.
Yeah, the meetings were boring, but you had to make the best of it.
I used to try and guess which section of the audience would be called on next. Kept track of who answered most questions. Made designs out of the ceiling tiles, counted the ceiling tiles. Played anagrams with the yearly text. Tried to guess which letter appeared most in a paragraph (almost always e). At assemblies, tried to guess which section would have someone leave for the bathroom next. Use binoculars to stare at cute guys.
My mom always brought loads of lifesavers, all flavors, for us to suck on so we would not fall asleep. I would always end up biting into mine causing much consternation from my father.
My father used to twist my ear hard for misbehaving during the meetings. I only got taken outside a few times, mainly when younger, 3 or 4, which is when we were in Pensacola. I remember one time I was making faces back and forth with another boy across the way from us. Dad caught me and whoosh, out we went. Pants down bending over car seat getting whacked. Mostly it was just embarrassing to have to be brought back in, in front of everyone, always staring at who was interrupted the spiritual feast, probably out of boredom.
Did I answer the question?