Taking a brief break from my 'Deceptive JW Elders' series, I thought about conventions and recalled the annual exhortation from the congregation Service Meetings and the Kingdom Ministry about not saving seats.
In the early 1970s, my wife was pregnant with our second child. We were attending the Disctrict Convention at the Oakland, California Coliseum where the Oakland Raiders and Oakland A's teams play. The stadium hold about 70,000 give or take 5,000 with extra seats on the field.
During the summer in the Bay Area, sitting all day in the sun listening to speakers you can barely understand due to planes flying overhead, poor sound system, and crying babies, becomes a tortureous event. My wife could not handle the heat. So, I would arrive early before the gates opened, and like 5,000 others, had blankets and book bags so I could save some seats in the shade. To get this privilege of being let in early, I would always volunteer to work in one of the departments.
One morning, while waiting right at a gate (chain-linked sliding fence) there were about 400 or 500 hundred behind me. A Brother from Security Dept. arrived at the gate from the inside as they did at about 10 other gates around the stadium. He then demanded that we all quiet down so he could deliver an important message before unlocking the gate.
He told us that the day before, at one of the gates, when they let the JWs in, they stampeded through, and a little 5 year old girl fell. She was trampled by the crowd of 500 running through to save seats. When I heard this I felt like crap. No, I did not trample the girl, but I felt ashamed that JWs, as a professed good people, could be so careless and uncaring. So, I made my decision to walk slowly in compliance with the Brother's exhortation, and trust Jehovah to help me find a seat in the shade for my pregnant wife.
Just as he unlocked the gate, the crowd pressed through in a rush, and several brothers brushed passed me to run to the shaded seating section. One brother jumped over another brother bent down to get his books to save seats, and he landed in a shaded row and yelled, "I stake my claim on this entire row!" gawd!
It all happened so fast, that the only shaded seats I could see were at the far end of the row the brother claimed. I wlked calmly over and placed a blanket across 3 seats. One for me, my wife, and our oldest child. The brother ran over and demanded that I move because he had claimed the row.
I was young and in good physical shape, and held a typical high testosterone attitude as do many younger men in their early 20s. I told him that the two rows he was saving violated the 'immediate family' rule about saving seats. I said that each row has 25 or so seats and that saving 50 seats was unthinkable. He started in about being a worker in a department, and was assisting several other workers and their families.
I stood my ground and noted the exhortation from the brother at the gate about running to seats. I reminded him that he ran and jumped over a brother to land in the rows and 'stake his claim'. I also reminded him that my wife was pregnant and could not take the heat. he still insisted I had to move. I said no, and I am staying here unless you and some army try to move me. He backed off and we got the seats. It was the only day I was able to get a shaded seat.
I am not sure if I necessarily did the right thing. I do not resent the efforts of the brother who made his claim on 50 seats. What I do question is why the Society scheduled such large conventions that lasted all day and roasted the JWs. Why could they not find another way to disseminate their 'truth' without such a painful exercise. Even then, I wondered if all this was done for shear publicity, but I dared not reveal my concerns lest I appear ungrateful for the loving spiritual provisions as the table of the Society. - Amazing