billzfan23 - "...watching parents whaling on their kids - spanking them mercilessly - usually because the parents were so stressed out and wound up by the oppressive nature of the message."
Damn, I'd never even thought of that, but yeah...
Witnesses - Ever Wondered Why You're So Tired After Assemblies/Meetings?
by The Searcher 43 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Vidiot
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Vidiot
sparrowdown - "...Maybe I just had difficulty remaining ladylike for so long LOL"
I'm sure there's something to be said for being unladylike once in a while...
...maybe you missed that.
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SadElder
I always wondered about the indoor air quality of those facilities after being packed for a days long program. The management always kept the AC at a barely tepid temperature to save money, whether it was them or the Crooklyn folks I don't know. Are those facilities HVAC systems made for all day long use or just a few hours?
How many folks get sick after attending 3-5 days all day long jammed in like cattle?
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Juan Viejo2
Fortunately, I missed the 1950 International Assembly but did attend the 1953 and 1958 Internationals in New York. I remember very little about any of the sessions except for Boring Knorr and Herr Franz. Hayden Covington (the Legal Officer of the Borg) always gave a decent talk, focusing mostly on recent legal cases won or in progress by the Society.
Since we spent most of the time at Yankee Stadium in the right field bleachers, we were all cooked (and well-done) after 8 days. The Polo Grounds (1958) was actually a bit more comfortable and had better seats and lots of shade. The problem there was that all of the major speeches were transmitted over from Yankee Stadium, so we just saw an empty stage much of the time. Some of the lesser talks switched between the two locations, so some shorter speeches were given twice or by different speakers the same day.
Eating in the tents in the parking lot that held the kitchens and cafeterias were fun. Also the "apostate wackos" (as my father called them) would meet us as we left the stadiums, waving their picket signs and shoving handouts at us. (To this day that kind of activism still turns my stomach.) Many of them were truly wild-eyed and whacked out and we feared they might do us harm.
My favorite memory of the 1958 conventions was that my father allowed us (my younger brother and I) to bring our baseball gloves and a couple of balls to both Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium. We played catch out in center field early one weekday at the Polo Grounds, right where famed New York Giant Willie Mays made his historic and unbelievable catch in the 1954 World Series.
On Sunday, after lunch and just before the afternoon sessions began (the major "public" talk by N H Knorr and follow up by Fred Franz), right after they opened up the grass outfield for the expected overflow crowds, along with my father we played catch in right-center field. No one bothered us and a few of the other brothers came over and tossed a few balls with us. The orchestra tent was right next to us and we'd hear them cheering us as we'd toss "fungo" balls to each other, emulating real hits. Finally, as they started letting the crowds in the volunteer attendants asked us to stop as we might bonk some innocent bystander in the head and send one of the "anointed" off to an early reward. We had to sit in the outfield for the afternoon sessions in direct sun and a temperature in the high-90s - but it was worth it.
So for us it was not all boring - just 95% of the sessions. One day we drove out to meet up with some friends who were staying at the "tent city" several miles from NYC. That was fun. Giant bullhorn speakers blasted out the talks that were going on back in the stadiums. Most of the folks who stayed in tent city stayed in their trailers, cars, or tents and just snoozed through the sessions or ate picnic lunches. We had fun there.
We could not wait to get out of New York and back home to California. I did enjoy sightseeing with some of the friends. One night we drove all over NYC in a sister's old 1941 Chrysler Imperial limousine. I think there were 10 or 12 of us in that car - all peering out the windows looking at the theaters and lights of the big city.
So, yes - we did have a lot of fun. Just not during the convention talks. Even at age 10 I realized that it was all just boring crap, but I still got baptized the following year and thanks to the 1958 assembly, planned a potential future career as a Gilead missionary or a Bethel volunteer. I came to my senses before either of those paths were taken.
JV