During the 70s and early 80s, the rules were more lax, and it was easier to organise things to do as a group, often with ones from other congs visiting too. The cong I was in at the time used to go roller-skating every Saturday night. But then the articles about "debasing music" came out (remember those?) and the elders decided a "mature Christian" shouldn't roller-skate to "debasing" music
During the late 90s, a young sister I knew was good at organising social events. She would organise for groups of us to go to the movies, restaurants, parties etc. But she eventually got sick of the elders sticking their nose in every time. They would want to know who's organising it, who were going, who would be responsible for the group (99.9% were over 18 for crying out loud), etc etc etc.
Whilst the elders thought they were trying to keep the congregation clean, they ended up doing the opposite. Because activities with fellow cong members were becoming impossible to organise without the elders' interference, everyone went out and made their own entertainment. Some, who were "weak in the Truth", ended up hanging out with non-Witnesses, and thus left the JWs. For those still in, friendships within the cong withered, because we weren't seeing each other as much on a social basis. So in the end, everyone (from an original group of 20) drifted apart, from each other, and for many of us, from the Organisation.
