I remember at Tomboy's the neighborhood store, seeing my first hippie. Told my mom what pretty hair the girl in front of us had and then HE turned around. It was glorious hair. If I had that nice of hair, I would have let it go down nearly to my waist, too! Long, wavy, blonde/sunstreaked. I still remember that guy:)
At the tail end, I remember (don't laugh) Disco. we did "the hustle" at a (JW girls) sleepover and got a scolding. I remember that big assembly that we took the bus to at the Kingdome. I am pretty sure I drove the bus driver batty putting on the string to make it stop all day. I didn't know that is what the string was for. I was like 8. First public bus rides that week. LOOONG ride into Seattle. At a later convention/assembly, we saw Michael Jackson and entourage. Celebrities get really sweet parking, btw.
I remember the end was near. The time I went street witnessing in Seattle. I remember working at the brand new assembly hall in Puyallup, putting out pies. . . It was later that the assemblies had frozen pudding. Back in those days, I think some people actually BROUGHT food, like homemade pies. Am I totally mis_remembering this? Or did we make them there?
I remember being afraid of the "violators will be prosecuted" signs for tresspassers. Remember how we were all going to be persecuted? I suspected that it was because we were always tresspassing. I was like 7 or 8-my vocabulary was still evolving and that word was POTENT for me in those days.
I remember counting up the generations, comparing the names in the bible to the years they lived, the dates we were given. I thought the problem was in my math skills. I was very gullible.
I remember getting reproved for wearing a t-shirt that said KZOK rocks--or something like that. I wouldn't have been except that the friend I went shopping with and who bought a matching one (hey, we were like 13) was the daughter or an elder. I truly think her mom is the one that started the issue, though. She was a self anointed prince? Anyway, she was too good to be a very friendly person. Self righteous folks are a PITB, another subject. She was just kind of cold.
I remember all the birthdays that went by after I was 6 when birthdays stopped. Christmas petered out at 8 but the joy of those things left by age 5 when we were guilted out about celebrating at all. You'd have to ask my mom about that disparity.
I remember being the stupid, annoying JW that couldn't just say thank you if someone offered me a holiday greeting. I had to do the diatribe. No wonder I am socially challenged to this day.
I remember worrying about needing blood. Wondering if my dad would get it because he wasn't a JW. Worry that he would (and die in a fiery armageddon) or that he wouldn't (and die when I was 9). We had accidents, he had appedicitis and peritonitis so this was a real worry in my early life. My brother stopped going to meetings when he just got so naughty that my mom gave up on him. He was ALWAYS falling down steep hills, getting run over by cars, riding his bike 50 miles to our campspot in holiday traffic (yeah, parents let him do that, crazy, huh?)
I remember being glad to miss meetings while worrying that the end would come while I stayed home and went camping or watched "Happy Days" and "Laverne and Shirley". I remember hating it when our sunday meetings were at night, because that cut out roller skating and I'd be less likely to get out of the meeting because we might be home from camping (or an outing) in time to go to the evening meeting.
I remember going to the library for every birthday party or holiday party. Back then, ALL of them were CELEBRATED with candy, cupcakes, happy birthday songs. . . needless to say, I made friends with the librarian and the one good thing from all that is that I love reading and books. So, there's that! I still have an inordinate fondness for the kind of icing on top of a birthday cake to this day. Just because I can eat it, I do-too much.
I grew up in the 70's and I remember the days leading up to '75. I remember the months before and the months after. I remember 1976 coming, and then we were celebrating the bi-centennial and I remember being SO mad. I think then that I knew we had been lied to, but I was like 9. What did I know? I remember when I was 11 writing a loooooong letter to my future self about what the world would be like in the year 2000. I cringe. I still believed something, obviously. I didn't imagine that I would be 30 something and having my 3rd child, married for 10 years and going to a Southern Baptist Church. That was NOT in my 1976 aspirations.
I remember the JC when I was assaulted. Yep. I remember the JC after I told my pioneer study conductor what I wondered about, what I knew and how I felt. I remember being DA'd when I wasn't even baptized. I didn't understand that then (or now)
I remember the Sonics won whatever the big prize for Basketball was. I watched, but I don't think they even belong to Seattle anymore. The Kingdome has been razed to the ground. The elder/anointed ones daughter was DF'd after marrying a navy man. I heard later that she re-instated. I hope she left again. My big crush of the time is now in 'landscaping' and a big shot in a little congregation in the sticks. His dad is the one elder that revealed his truth about 1975 expectations right around 1980. That really opened me up to learning more about the org than they wanted to admit. His admitting it to all of us resulted in his relocation to the above mentioned sticks where his son still lives.I am sure he suffered for that bit of honesty. If he is on this site, I can only say Thanks Bob! I left right after all that in 1981 or so? Most of my JW memories are as stuck in the 70s as polyester and El Camino's.
M.
