There were so many great stories and memories from the 'fest...the one below meant a lot to me and I wish everyone on this board gets to experience what we did this last weekend. It really helped to cement my feelings against the WT, which were already very strong.
I'll tell you one story that epitomizes the Festival for me: There was this black guy who was staying at the Bradford with his family, his sister had just given birth. He was in a room that had a similar # to one that had a party going on...so several of our true brothers & sisters showed up to par-tee ! They asked
"if this was the JWD party room ?"
"Nope, but there is a good one going on down the hall."
So they went to 424 -- LyinEyes & Wild Turkey's room, I joined them later. By that time, they had been run out of 2 other rooms, because of complaints of smoke and noise by hotel guests, lol. I got there around mid-night and stayed til 4am, whew ! Anyway...this guy knocks on the door and everyone gets quiet...thinking it's the hotel mgt. (they show up later) it's the young man. People ask him if we are being too loud or anything
...
"Nope, I heard the party & just thought I'd come by..."
I remember telling Dede (LyinEyes) how neat that was...him hearing a party and unashamedly coming in to have some fun. We were laughing cause it was so "Un-JW like...!" everyone welcomed him in (about 25), he was very neat and clean-cut, so somebody asks him
"if he was one of "Flowers" relatives?"
"No, don't know a Flower."
Then, being a little paranoid, Someone asks him..."You're not a Jehovah's Witness, are ya'?"
"No ma'am, I'm a Catholic..."
He asks for a drink...somebody else says, "Are you 21?" "OK, we have some wine..." He was officially 'in' with us heathens.
He looks at all of us there and asks
"what are y'all here for ?"
We all start laughing and looking at each other..."Well, Dede says..."we're all X-Jehovah's Witnesses." That confused him -- big time...
"What...?"
Dede says, ya' know those people who knock on your door and bother you about the bible...well...we used to BE those same people.
"So y'all are having a party...cause y'all used to be Witnesses...?"
"Uh-huh ! "
"Do y'all know each other?"
"Well...some of us do, but for most of us, this is the our first time."
"Well, how did y'all know to come here?"
"We met on the Internet."
Someone: "We are from all over...England, California, Minnesota, Louisiana, Texas and even Canada and one guy came from Scotland !" He would have gotten a kick out of Little Toe's 'skirt',er kilt. lol
"Y'all met on the Internet and came all this way...cause y'all are not Witnesses anymore...why would y'all do that ?"
Well, that brought a howl from everyone...someone says,
"Damn, that's a real long story !"
Then he proceeded to get kinda educated about the whole affair. We had an 'Interested' person (pun very much intended) on our hands!
It was a defining moment for me, he had never heard of a thing like he was seeing -- a gathering of happy, exuberent, excited people, who used to belong to a religion. Used to belong ! There is of course, as we all know, no way to really explain ourselves to this young man. He was of course advised what to do the next time a JW's shadow darkens his doorway, lol !
There was a lot more to it of course, but it left me with a sense of 'belonging' to a group of people who are very, very diverse...in race, beliefs, religion and philosophy. Yet -- there we all were...wishing this did not have to end.
Anyway, to the best of my bad memory that was it...Dede, Joannadandy, notyetperfect (she needs to loosen up and take a drink once in a while, lol) and a couple of others, please add to this story if ya' want.
We had a great time...hope to meet everybody someday !
