i shall now retreat into flashback land of twickenham pre-proper toliets, oil drums, wooden planks and womens
undercarriages being suspended over urinal channeled floors.
Haysbridge, Twickenham, Crystal palace, Dorking, Camber Sands....
by ScoobySnax 34 Replies latest jw friends
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hillary_step
E'Man,
I wonder if this last post of yours will help Celtic to identify your gender correctly?
I think the problem is that once he batted his eyelids the blood obscured his vision.
BTW, I've cut myself off from all those folk who think you are Roy Orbison in hiding.
Actually, did you notice those close up pictures of Mars? One of the rocks looked very much like Roy Orbison sitting on Elvis Presley balanced on Liberace.
HS
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hillary_step
undercarriages being suspended over urinal channeled floors.
Never endanger your undercarriage....
HS
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dorayakii
Crystal Palace had always been my all time favourite DC venue, but the earliest convention i have a vague recollection of was the 1988 "Divine Justice" Convention at Twickenham, i must've been 5 years old at the time. The smell of the cooked meals, the little brown food tickets which were so precious i was never allowed to hold, the costume dramas with those strange american accents... I had been to Dorking, but the memories are very vague.
The first assembly which i actually remember sitting up and listening was the 1990 "Pure Language" Convention at Crystal Palace, when i was about to turn 7. I saw the flamingos at Crystal Palace zoo at lunch time, tried in vain to look for them all the other years, lol.
The 1993 " Divine Teaching"Convention at Crystal Palace. The giant Bible used as a stage. Seeing the scoreboard used to announce the name of the talk and the speaker. Seeing my cousins for the only time each year. Fighting with them for the binoculars to look at the drama. The last ever time we would smell the scent of the convention food drifting across the stadium. The last time we ever had a 4 day convention. The last time we had 2 dramas at one assembly. 1994 "Godly Fear"... age of 11. Crystal Palace. The last time tea, coffee and biscuits were served at a convention. Mum really annoyed throughout the assembly because of having to wake up early to prepare the sandwiches. Jotted down on my programme all the names of the brothers who gave the talks. Ticked off, on my programme, how many talks to go till the end. Filling in all the p's, o's, q's b's and d's on my programme... Sat in Block 29 Row N Seat 7 on the Friday, and Block 28 Row R Seat 21 on the Saturday. (All marked on my programme) An attendance of 10,997 on the friday and 12, 802 on the saturday... was too tired on the sunday to take notes. Darkness coming over the stadium just at the very time the brother was giving a talk and mentioned the sun moon darkening... and thunder and lightning striking at the very moment he says dramatically that the stars fell from heaven...
1996 "Meesengers of Godly Peace" First assembly at the London Arena. Upset at having left Crystal Palace after all these years. First day, no air-con, second day freezing cold... third day, just right.
1998 " God's Way of Life" International Convention at Twickers... 44, 262 peak attendance... Watching the deaf, signing brothers and sisters "sing"... *beautiful*... Having to wait until the different languages had finished their prayer before we could clap. Different worldwide costumes, african, oriental, indian...
1999 "God's Prophetic Word"... It being announced that there was a new prophetic book, the first one released in over 20 years... Recieving the "Daniel's Prophecy" book and reading it in 3 hours, before i even got home. The Esau and Jacob drama, with the brother playing Esau wearing two strips of huge black carpet on his arms to demonstrate his hairiness.
2000 "Doers of God's Word"... Getting boring coloured badge and programme for the first time in my memory, and hoping they wouldn't stay monochromic (they did)... Recieving the "Isaiah's Prophecy" book, volume 1 and starting to read it but not understanding a word. Ended up not readin it till the book group. Hearing for the first time a loosened up version of the Kingdom Melodies... Volume 9. Irish music, jazz, waltz, lullaby...
2001 "Enseignants de la Parole de Dieu" Convention in Paris (Teachers of God's Word)... 100,000 brothers and sisters in one place. Funky, french style hired toilet cabins with a hole in the middle of the floor and no seperation for males and females. Thousands of Japanese delegates waving their red handkerchiefs to say goodbye.
After that i haven't really had anything notable happen apart from a friend being photographed at the Cardiff Convention last year 2004, and her pic appearing in the local newspaper...
At Crystal Palace you could always eat your lunch outside as a picnic on the grass or on benches next to the animal preserve, but at Twickenham you were confined to your seat, because there was nowhere else to go... and there were never any funny birds on the central green at Twickenham.
I got baptized at Hayesbridge, got lots of memories there too... the mad rush for food and seats at lunch times... If it was a sunny day, a more relaxed attitude to lunch time on the green outside. As a kid walking up to the baptismal pool and trying to climb up. One year i found a spider and a dung beetle in the pool, ewww...
They are now in the process of renovating Hayesbridge (aka "Godstone" or "Surrey Assembly Hall") after more than 20 years... It used to be a boarding school you know?... They only started the renovation last month... all the spotted red and white seats and the red carpet on the lower walls are going to be gone by the next SAD, to be replaced by cool blue... Next time you go there it will be a completely different hall...
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stevenyc
Cardiff in the seventies.
Twickenham, a couple of times in the seventies, but mostly the eighties.
steve
PS, How about bows road???
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Aude_Sapere
July 1978 - I went to Twickenham. It was COLD.
and then it was ok and then COLD again...!!
I remember giant Biblical diaramas lined up along a wall somewhere onsite.
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ozziepost
I used to go to Twickenham frequently in my youth, it was the only chance we got of meeting some different gals!
Beat ya to it!
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truthseeker
Dorking (early 80s), Brighton Dome (80s), Brighton Center, Southampton, Fratton (once), Twickenham, Haysbridge
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wobble
Being born in,in the early 1950's, I go back to pre-historic times !
I can remember an assembly held in Maidstone !
I walked down Union Street with sandwich boards on advertising the Suday PT,(I was about 8yrs old)
It was when the Prime Minister ,Harald McMillan had just made the claim that Brits had never had it so good,and the District Servant of the time,a well known wag called John Blaney said from the platform "Youv'e never been Had so good!"
Come someone make me feel good and go further back than that!
Love
Wobble
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sweet pea
Ahhhhhh, fond memories....
Haysbridge - lovely warm, intimate atmosphere but the afternoons after lunch were always tricky - trying everything you could to stay awake. The change in decor (to that resembling a Barclays Bank conference centre) helped enormously although due to the dryness of talks by that time, the end result was the same. The other good thing about Haysbridge was that you didn't need your binoculars to spot everyone you wanted to see in the audience. It started to go downhill as soon as they stopped the food service and everytime you ate in the canteens, it always seemed a tad weird that all that equipment was standing there redundant.
Twickenham - dusty, dirty, crowded, pain in the neck to drive to, but the best bit was we were married without kids and treated ourselves to a bargain break in a posh hotel while we there to make the whole thing bearable and feel like a holiday. Although having to be up at the crack of dawn was no holiday (needless to say we were late on many occasions, yes the sign of a rebellious spirit as they're all probably saying now!). Those little brown food tokens definitely brought back fond memories. Sitting in the sun and getting burnt, climbing the million and one steps in high heels because you didn't have children and weren't an old age pensioner so you were resigned to sitting in the gods. The highlight was a streaker on the pitch one year......those ministerial servants never felt so important in their life as that moment when all ten wrestled with the streaker and escorted him off the field.
Crystal Palace - where I was baptised in 1987. Nice and near to home and almost as intimate as Haysbridge. Good memories of walking round during and after and the sessions catching up with old friends and admiring the talent (although not as much there as Twickenham). The Zoo and gardens were a nice place to hang out in your free time.
Dorking - best thing about Dorking was definitely the donuts, ice cream and bacon butties and my friends were in charge of them all which was cool at the time. The atmosphere was special, the fact that the seats were 'cinema' type seats made you kind of feel you were being 'entertained'.
Camber - conventions holiday style - great fun staying in chalets even though the weather was pretty miserable most of the time - that's what happens I guess when you always have your circuit assemblies in April and November! I remember being a waitress at lunchtime and enjoyed every minute of it. One night we all traipsed in to watch 'The Photodrama of Creation', not the most fun I've ever had at the movies! I was too young to be part of the 'set' that were infamous for leaving the compound, going out to pubs and coming home past curfew time but I knew some of the ones that were and they were my heroes.
Those were the days.