by RULES & REGULATIONS 75 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Growing up as a kid in the Borg the motivating incentives to surviving each day of the convention was....
A meal in a restaurant
& a refreshing night on the waterslides & the pool.
There,,,, that was incentive to surviving each day of the assembly..
You had that,,,,,,to look forward to!!!
(It doesn’t matter but I just noticed I said last convention I attended was 2020. Where did I get that. It was 2000, stopped everything summer of 2001.)
Beth Sarim, you had it good. For us, it was getting up early so we could get to the KH where the bus was waiting to drive us 1-2 hrs to the convention hall. No restaurant for us! My mom would make an insane amount of food and bring it in these big containers. She liked getting praise for her cooking, so she made enough for a LOT of people to stop by and taste.
Then, after the final prayer, the long walk to the parking lot to get on the bus (which was hopefully not late) and the 1-2 hour drive back to the KH and then the walk home. It was a long day. And then we would repeat it three more times. What the hell was wrong with us?
TonusOH:
I had a similar experience as yours. This was considered our summer vacation.
Our congregation was assigned Milwaukee County Stadium for our 1975 four day summer convention. Our congregation was 90 miles away from Milwaukee, located on the north side of Chicago.
Some congregation members stayed at Milwaukee hotels for the four day convention. Since my parents and some congregation members were either too cheap/ or didn't have the means to pay for hotels and meals, they decided to charter a bus to Milwaukee for the four days. The chartered bus picked us up at 7.a.m. every morning at our Chicago Kingdom Hall. It was a 2 hour drive to Milwaukee. The starting time for the 4 day Assembly was at 9:45 a.m. .
Since the bus arrived around 9 a.m. each morning in Milwaukee, all seats that were shaded/partly shaded or had a cover from the blazing sun in the middle of July were all taken. We had no choice but to sit on the outfield seats ( which were in full sun, all day long). Imagine sitting in the blazing sun all day long with a jacket/ tie or mothers having to take care of small children in the oppressive heat. Talk about sunstroke!
The convention meetings ended around 5 p.m. We would get back on the chartered bus around 6 p.m. and drove back to Chicago for another 2 hour drive. It would be around 8:30 p.m. each night that we would arrive back home. We ate dinner around 8:30 p.m., went to bed, and did the same routine for the next 3 days.
It will be the best convention ever! And the last!
But not with me 😅
Gorby
They wouldn't even pause the convention if a terrible storm was blowing through! I remember my dad saying that one time bro. Knorr got blown off the stage!😂 And those 4-5 day conversations until 9pm, that was our family vacation!😥
Our Cong. rented a bus for the convention. Newly married we got two seats on the bus. We got to the KH early in the morning I drove in the parking lot and found a school bus!. Im 6 ft 3 in. tall cant fit in this bus seat and no bathroom. We got back into the car and drove there. What a joke. We gave our bus seats to someone else.
The CONNventions;;
Some of its nostalgic in a way.
The cheap soft drinks in a can. The frozen orange juice. Frozen pudding,,,,ham hoagie,,,,,
,,,,,these small perks made the 3 or even 4 day boasting sessions a 'lil more bearable.
When I was just waking up, mid-2007, I decided not to go to the three day bum-number and bore fest.
My wife was happy, she had hated them for years. So the 2006 one was our last.
We left,for good, a few months later.
So, for 17 years I have been convinced I would not survive a three day J.W Convention/Assembly !
I do not know how PIMOS do it, attend the whole thing. Even back then, many PIMOS used to only turn up for the weekend days, or just the Sunday. One guy, quite a character, used to turn up for a while some days, and then disappear. He always went and did his Work first ! he had a Cleaning Company.
One lovely girl told me years later, she always used to go down the local cafe, have a coffee, and a smoke. Then go for a walk, each day.
When we missed that first one NOBODY NOTICED ! They just assumed we were there ! We had many of our JW family, and also members of our Congregation present there of course.
Maybe something for PIMOS to think about !
stan livedeath said:
last one i attended was at the old Wembley stadium London UK in about 1969. It rained the whole time. Utterly miserable pointless waste of a few days.
Wow, that's a blast from the past. It was a 6 or 8 day convention if I remember correctly.
I remember on the third day, maybe, everyone was crowding into the stadium to shelter from the rain when a Brother came on the back of a truck ploughing through the crowd, yelling through a speaker for everyone to go out of the stadium as it was not safe. So I did, and went home. I didn't go back until the last day. That convention is remembered for all the wrong reasons. Then, stupidly, I went to the same convention in Germany. Peace on Earth was the theme I think. On the last day, almost exactly at the same time as the final words of the speaker, the heavens opened and we all got soaked to the skin. We looked like a bunch of refugees when we got to the train station. Ah.. the good old days...
