by RULES & REGULATIONS 75 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I think what gets most PIMIs through it is the sense that they are making a real sacrifice, putting themselves through the effort to get there. They feel like it is worth it, for the chance to be with other JWs and to find people they have not seen for a year or more. And they are adding to their 'treasure in heaven' by showing Jehovah that they are devoted.
Plus, they get to gossip about anyone who didn't make it, and feel superior to them.
The KW gossip validates them. The gossip validates them when they see how others are failing & falling short.
Grew up attending Murrayfield, Edinburgh - then it moved to McDiarmid Park Perth and finally we were assigned an indoor arena at Newcastle. I got through them by volunteering for buffet distribution which meant working through all the sessions. When they scrapped food service it was agony. I couldn't stay in my seat at my last convention around 95. The praise of the GB was offensive. A member of the GB was present and he actually used the phrase 'at lunchtime I walked among you all...' I walked out. After calming down I went back in and whispered to my wife that I wanted to go home - she was very very delighted. We never went back.
Look at that face! Me and my mom at the 1958 convention in New York. She took a train, alone with me from Los Angeles to NYC. Followed the signs for the Rooming Department and we got a room in a hotel, and my first time in an elevator. She had never been to NYC. Amazing. Look at those benches...no backs!
It's what everybody did. Can't imagine anything like that today.
Dagney, we must be about the same age. I was drug to that convention with my parents and grandparents although I only recall it from photos. I think that is the time frame when JW's were at their peak. Those events were impressive. I don't think any (OK almost none) JW would show up for convention in a hellishly hot venue like that today.
Of course, one radio/TV personality supposedly said that JW's came to town with the 10 Commandments and a $10 bill and did not break either of them.
A member of the GB was present and he actually used the phrase 'at lunchtime I walked among you all...'
I remember all the Bethel speakers from New York would sit in air-conditioned lounges and had attendants walk them to the covered podium with an umbrella, while we lowlifes would sit in the blazing sun in the middle of July, suffering heat stroke.
For many years, we attended Hawthorne Race Track in Cicero, Illinois. It was a race track for horses. They had horse stalls nearby that smelled from horse manure all day long. Nothing like being outdoors, in the middle of July, in a suit and tie, smelling horse manure all day long.
"" the jws come to town with the 10 commandments & a 10 dollar bill & dont break any of them"".
I heard this back in the 1990s,,,thought hilarious.
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Oh Dagney! Are you cute or what? Somewhere I have a picture of my mother and 6yo me at the same "Devine Will" International convention. It was the ONLY one held that year in the entire US.
My father was the Assistant Cafeteria Servant to Nickolas Kovalak at the Polo Grounds which held the slightly smaller group than Yankee Stadium. (over 250,000 total) No wonder I remember being terrified of becoming separated from my mother and smothered by the enormous crowds.
My parents and I had to arrive 2 weeks early so Dad and Kovalak could direct the set up preparations to feed hundreds of thousands of people! Dad had to arrive Each day before they served breakfast and stay very late into each night-8 days. He was in the cafeteria area the whole time, never sat with us and never heard a word of the program. So over a 6,000 mile drive and a 3 week stay to work 15+hrs a day for free.
He bought clip on backs for the bleachers and a couple of umbrellas but No cooler or water. And don't get me started about the line to the ladies room with the size of that crowd. I still remember almost wetting my pants.
...Assistant Cafeteria Servant to Nickolas Kovalak
Ahhh...Uncle Nick!!! He was our CO, (prob lots of people's CO) for a good long while in Long Beach. He was better than most, avuncular...kind of sweet.
Pretty brutal schedule for your dad and you guys. I don't remember much about the convention for some reason. But I do remember things about the hotel and the room.
Rules and Regulations, I was at those Cicero race track conventions, too. I got my first kiss there. (Very chaste).
