Until I was a teenager, we too were forced to remain and eat the food so "lovingly provided." I remember the fruit bags, soggy egg sandwiches, cheese or apple danishes ( my personal favorite), frozen OJ, shasta cola, dry lunch sandwiches. I to have a faint memory of ice cream when I was quite young. Then I fondly remember the blessed day that I became a teenager of means and started leaving to buy lunch elsewhere - by the time I did that they were down to a skeleton menu and ran out of food most of the time anyways. Then they stopped providing any food, and schlepping a cooler along on the 2 1/2 hr trip to the assembly hall, waiting another 5 hrs to eat and hoping that you had sufficient ice packed in there to keep your food cool enough to keep the food poisoning at bay became the norm.
Assembly Food
by El Kabong 50 Replies latest jw friends
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Jourles
Or how about why we couldn't use the previous year's 10c food tickets at the next year's assembly? What's the difference? You already paid for them! Only the color was different.
I worked the hoagie line in the bowels of Jack Murphy Stadium for many years. I was the stacker and racker. To have worked hoagies that long, our congregation must have been assigned to that duty each year. Honestly, I loved the hoagies. I thought they were the best thing on the menu!
The apple danishes were not too bad. The OJ was ALWAYS frozen. Had to drink it with a spoon. The Shasta sodas were ugggh. But it washed down the bean burritos which were also kickass. At our circuit assemblies in Escondido, we had an ice cream machine. That was sweet. I got to work that a couple years. I thought it was always fun working the food areas. It kept me from the program most of the time. Unless they set up the speakers and blared them loudly enough for the hearing-impared to listen too!
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gitasatsangha
Joureles.. dayum you brought back some meories. I never could figure out the frozen OJ.
I liked the Cheese danishes in the morning. The pizza was "consumable" when they had it. Burritos were good but I only remember having them one year. As always there were shastas. And cups of pudding, chocolate or vanilla.
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El Kabong
Why was it that you were looked down upon for going elswhere to get food. I had a so called brother chastise me for getting a couple of hot dogs from a vendor outside the Vet (ugh!!!) in Philly. He actually told me that there was plenty of food left inside the stadium. I asked him how long he was standing there and if he could kindly point out what stands had food left cause i've been to about 10 already that were out of food. I guess I just wasn't looking hard enough.
4 Dogs Please....Mustard, Kraut, and Onions. (2 for me, 1 for my wife, and 1 for my daughter).
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ozziepost
Or how about why we couldn't use the previous year's 10c food tickets at the next year's assembly? What's the difference? You already paid for them! Only the color was different.
That's right!!! I'd forgotten all about that. Thanks for the memories, Jourles.
Ain't freedom from all that great?
Cheers, Ozzie
Freedom means not having to wear a tie.
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gumby
All I know is I don't think I can think of a place where so many men and women had stomach cramps and the shits, with long smelly lines headed into the toilet as I have at a dub assembly.
Gumby
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Francois
I was watching the money being counted in the back room once, and there on the table lie a United States Silver Dollar, a real one. One of the elders in my congregation - who was the president of the bank - stuck his hand in his pocket and whipped out one of those totally useless government IOUs that is money only because we've all gottes together and said, Yup, that's a dollar alright. Well, this elder knowing exactly what he was doing tossed this worthless piece of paper onto the counting table and picked up the solid silver dollar and pocketed it.
I think the silver dollar was worth quite a bit back then. Don't remember what, but it was lots more than a dollar, and he knew it. I viewed what he did as a an example of common thievery. I was staring at him right in the face, and the fact that his turned red told me he knew exactly what he was doing.
Ah, elders, they never change.
francois
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El Kabong
Francois: Wow. Thats quite a story. But somehow, it just doesn't surprise me.
The person who donated the silver dollar probably figured it was better off in Jehovah's hands. If that person only knew that some thieving elder in a back room would actually "exchange" it for a regular buck.
Did the elder put it back?
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Reborn2002
I do not know what the quality of the food was like elsewhere in the world (albeit judging by the uniformity of the JW cult I would wager it was more of the same) but here it was AWFUL.
The nasty sandwiches, the Swiss-Miss pudding, the warm Shasta sodas....
Ahh the memories...
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more2C
I remember growing up in Upstate NY, we had a Oriental family that sold hand-made Chinese food in a booth inside the assembly. MMMMM! They only allowed them to sell the food for a couple of times. People were buying more Chinese food and not buying enough of the food that the Society was providing.
Leave it to the Society to stop something that we actually enjoyed.
more2C