With the JW congregations about to be informed that the ubiquitous Awake! magazine is to be issued just once a month from January 2006, now is an apt time for interested parties to share brief memories and/or impressions about the bi-monthly Awake! magazines, whether poignant, hard-hitting or humorous. Here are a few of yy memories to kick things off:
- I remember as a 6 year-old browsing through a copy of the Awake! at my grandparents and reading the scripture on the cover that said something like, "Now is the hour for you to be awake...". This puzzled me because to my young concrete thinking mind how could I read that if I wasn't awake? My patient JW grandmother explained to me that it meant being spirtually awake... Now I was even more confused.
- Another memory: As a 15 year old, I read an article in the Awake! on different shoe-polishing methods and, accompanied by the visiting Circuit Overseer, presented this article to a puzzled householder who slammed the door in my face. I subsequently asked the CO if the Great Tribulation struck right now, would that householder be held accountable because I never got a chance to preach the goodnews but I did spout off a few intriguing facts about shoe polishing. The unsmiling reply I got was, whenever we visit people, Jehovah sees what's in their hearts and that based on the slammed door it was clear that the householder would be destroyed. Quite a consequence for rejecting a magazine offer on shoe polishing.
- Letters to the Editor. This was a relatively late introduction in the magazine's history and seemed to provide a perfect forum for airing reader's concerns. However, as we know, for every critical letter, there was a perfectly orchestrated "appreciative" letter from another reader which never failed to show up the bad attitude of the writer of the critical letter. Occasionally, the editor allowed that a mistake may hah been made; but, from memory, these were minor admissions.
- Who can forget the bold and confident assertion about 1914 on the insider front cover? Who can forget how it suddenly disappeared?
Your turn. Your memories and impressions of the Awake! please.