by RULES & REGULATIONS 75 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
All those week long conventions with new new new "life saving information". All I can remember is hunger, cold, heat stroke and sunburn....oh...and some multi colored books we were told to destroy years later.
Oh! I do have one fond memory of Disneyland when we attended LA once. :)
I have fond memories of Twickenham, London in the old days … sessions that lasted into the dark evening, there were speakers that could make your hair stand on end ….. and it all seemed so exciting ! ( ok , I was a total believer in those days )
Now it is all bland , like a plate of cold porridge.
Now older age has stopped us attending and thankfully, my wife feels the same and could not go anyway .. She is thankful for Zoom.
We had just finished reading "Crisis of Conscious" and the threads about Menlo Park on this site. It became our last Convention.
Nope, no more Conventions!
The greatest revenge is living a happy & successful life!
I just recall that they were long and boring. The best thing you (a brother) could hope for was to get an "assignment" that required you to be "working" during the sessions. Auditing was good, or being an attendant in the hallways telling others to find their seat. Even better was being a "big shot" in the Chairman's Office or Administration where you got to rub shoulders with all the Bigwigs from Bethel.
It does seem like many former JWs still have that problem with "long & boring" when they make their YouTube videos. I guess it just stays with a person.
Doc
Three days? Not any more, though I am so old I remember 7 and 8 day events. How did we manage that? Traveling back to our accommodation late at night and back again first thing in the morning. As BB above said it was dark when we were trying to read our song books at the end of the day.
As I got into my teens we tended to camp, Edinburgh or Twickenham mostly. Chatting up the girls was the best thing to look forward to. I still play Van Morrison "Brown Eyed Girl" quite regularly. Making love in the green grass, behind the stadium with you, my Brown Eyed Girl. His mother tried to raise him as a witness without any success, He also made a track called "Kingdom Hall".
I think my favourite RC was this year. Watched on download and had the complete transcript downloaded from here!
George
George, I didn’t know about Van Morrison! Yes, I remember the long, boring assemblies and conventions. I’m old enough to remember 7 day ones. As soon as I was old enough, I volunteered so I didn’t have to sit and listen to that 💩.
My last assembly was in 1996 a couple of months after my wife died. Our assemblies (District Conventions) for the Pittsburgh/Western Pennsylvania area were in Cleveland, Ohio at what was called the Convocation Center. I don't know what it is called now.
I was still in somewhat of a fog because of the death of my wife as I drove to Cleveland via the PA and Ohio Turnpikes. Somewhere along the way at a rest stop, I ran into a family from my KH. I was just glad that someone saw me going there. Once I got to the center and the program started, my mind was everywhere but on the boring speakers. Somewhere deep inside, I knew that I couldn't do this much longer.
When the afternoon lunch break came, I went to my car and drove back home. That was it. I did not drive back the other days of the convention. The biggest problem I had was lasting another 4 years before my final cut with JW's. But in that time, I never went to another assembly or convention.
I went to the international convention in 1979. That was five days. After that, I think it was four-day conventions. I don't even remember if they had gone to three-day conventions when I stopped going. My last convention was probably in the late 90s.
Today? Today I wouldn't last a minute, much less a day.
I remember in the 1980s they had 4 - day CONventions beginning with Thursday afternoon.
They even had field service arrangement in the afternoons on either the Thursday or Friday afternoon.
I remember a few perks like the Shasta cola or Sprite. Fruit bags,, potato chips & chocolate pudding which would help take the ""sting"',, out of the long afternoons.
LHG:
What I also hated was the overly long closing prayer.. If people were smart they left before the song and prayer and beat the crowds out of there...
👍👍👍👍
My brother and I used to time the prayers on our Casio watches. The longest one was around 13 minutes at a District/ International assembly in the 1970's.
People were passing out/fainting etc..
We knew we were in for a 'special' when the brother started with:
'Jehovah, why did you bring us here_Was is for the opening item on day one.' and then itemised the WHOLE ASSEMBLY!!!
All assemblies: Total pile of crap, but we tried to find ways to stay alert and stimulated with our headphones, radio comics etc etc!
