Honestly, do you think that JW's really like going to 3 or 4day assemblies?

by JH 69 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  trevor

  I just thought I would add my meagre contribution to the tail of this thread.

  Towards the end of my days as a Watchtower slave, my wife and I became very bored with the District assemblies and the four day grind we had endured for years. They took place in Twickenham London UK in the dated rugby stadium.

  We would work right up to the weekend then drive up early on Saturday morning and stay in a nice hotel, with reserved parking, for just the Saturday night. We would leave the stadium at lunch times and eat out in a good pub or restaurant. The cost was more than covered by not taking the Thursday and Friday off.

  We never told anyone we missed the weekdays. They assumed we were there all the time and it took a lot of the discomfort out of these ’festivals of booths.’ In time we realized that we were just playing at being Witnesses and had outgrown the childish setup.
• 

  zagor

  Well I suppose for those that usually don't know what to do with their time (read retired) this is a great excuse to get out. OR for teens to sniff around looking for a good ass, hm, (sorry cough), assembly attendant.
  
  To everyone else in between the greatest part of the program is lunch break, if it wasn’t for that they would definitely feel really lost and exhausted.
• 

  LouBelle

  
  I didnt' particularly enjoy assemblies - we had to lugg so much stuff around if my mother & gran wanted to sit on the grass & granny HAD to sit on the grass. I'd disappear to get my seats in the stadium, but you first had to walk up a never end round about ( you were NOT allowed to use the lifts - they were for old people - so I used to offer to help the older ones) Once you reached the top of the round about you then had to walk up MILES & MILES of stairs to get a seat in the shade otherwise you'd cook - you must know south african durban heat is hot and humid in summer - you CAN'T breathe. I used to sit quite high up so I could have a view of the ocean & I'd sit and gaze at it - not much going in.

  There was a time when I just got my first car - it was a legend car but old and in need of fixing. When it rained it would rain through the roof - and this one year it just freaking poured like the floodgates of heaven had been opened, I was soaked by the time I got to the stadium - dropped the grannies off, my friend & myself told them we'd meet them in the same spot afterwards & went home, changed into our jarmies. But then my uncle Elder sent the troops to collect us - I was PISSED off & told them I did't want to go - they just about dressed us and took us......

  But I also have some fun memories - I remember my mother & gran sitting on the lawn with their umbrella low low low to protect them from the rain - they weren't moving an inch - they were the only 2 on the lawn - I couldn't stop laughing in the stands - the more I was told to keep quiet the more I laughed - walking down the steps I couldn't contain myself and just burst out laughing - but tried to cover up as choking...
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  XBEHERE

  As a youth I didnt mind the district conventions for the reasons stated already: looking at all the hotties, showing off privileges, etc. As I got older, married, I began to find them a burden though I still tried to pay attention and "get something" out if it.

  Now... they are a total f*****g waste of time!!!!!!!!! If I had a revolver with 1 bullet I think eventually I'd be playing Russian Roulette for sure. I cant wait to go next month and "fake" my way thru yet another one.....hopefully this will be my last.
• 

  JH

  I remember going to the 4 day district assembly in Montreal's olympic stadium in July. The subway passed right underneith the stadium, so every day of the assembly, when I got bored, I got up from my seat, left the stadium and took the subway and visited the city for a few hours, then came back at the end of the day to say Amen.
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  TheListener

  As a young person I loved the DCs. It was a time for something different, a break in the weekly routine. I got to see friends from farway halls. I got to hear exciting talks about the new system and how soon it would be. It made me feel, if even for a moment, that the end truly was near and that I wouldn't have to worry about school or work or whatever problems I was facing at that time.

  As I grew older I found that if I listened very intently I could get some great spiritual information. I felt that each assembly or convention was better than the last.

  For the last couple of years I have dreaded the convention. I would love to sit in the hotel room and watch tv or enjoy sightseeing in a different city for the weekend while the family does their thing. That won't work for this year, but perhaps by next.
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  Crumpet

  I enjoyed the assemblies for teh same reasons as others have mentioned - it was easy to lose my parents for the two hour lunch hour in the huge stadiums and seek out friends from other halls, parading around in my new clothes and eyeing up the lads. However I can see that going as a "married with kids" would not be as much fun - in fact the reverse.

  I also liked the dramas and the experiences and the weirdy american accents when we had GB members come over to give talks. I liked the food - in the days when it was cooked by your PO in a booth - smells of fried onions and burgers wafting over.

  I loved getting out of my little town to go to a city even though we were too poor to stay over and would travel to and from every single day. I liked the hush as the new publications got released. I liked people watching - seeing how other families dressed and what the kids were doodling in their notebooks instead of taking notes. I liked hearing so many tens of thousands singing together. I liked seeing my dad's eyes well up with emotion - as counsel was received. I liked being with mum and sisters during the sessions. i enjoyed seeing how many toilet trips I could get away with.

  And I especially liked walking by the River Trent where the apostates would congregate at Nottingham DC's and trying not to look at their billboards or listen to them, but itching to do just that!

  But would I go back? Nah - this list pretty much covers everything I ever liked about being a JW. My list of what I like about my life now is much longer.
• 

  dorayakii

  I hated Circuit Assemblies but i liked District Conventions. At least i THINK i enjoyed them. It's hard to distinguish between my own feelings and the doublethink reaction of those swept up in such "a fine banquet of upbuilding spiritual food delivered at the proper time", (wine on the dregs and oiled dishes with bone marrow, ewwww).
  As a teenager (not so long ago), the only talk i'd take notes on was the one about "young ones", because when the convention was over, my parents used to ask me taxing questions about which talk i found most upbuilding and what specific point i was going to 'gleen' from the program. (I hate that word 'gleeeeen', "Brothers and sisters, what are we going to 'gleeeeen' from this talk?" *shudder*).
  Actually, when i think back honestly, i hated conventions, but not as much as i detested meetings.
  Highlights:
  1. Sitting the whole convention with my binoculars making jokes with my cousins;
  2. Mocking the veracity of the experiences of "young ones" who showed a courageous Joseph-like attitude by rejecting the advances of hoards of gorgeous "members of the opposite sex" (a HUMAN female actually finds YOU attractive? yeah right, you spotty pre-pubescent freak);
  3. Lunchtime - I remember having to use those food tokens to buy those packed lunches at Twickenham and Crystal Palace. (Is that a good thing?!? - oh i'm all confused);
  4. Watching as the weird wild birds who landed on the central green, *sqarked* in protest towards the speaker;
  5. The new release, which i ended up not reading until we did it in the book study. Although, i did read the Daniel's Prophecy book in two days. (At the time i thought it was flawless reasoning);
  6. Waiting patiently for the drama... waiting IMpatiently for the drama... waiting impatiently for the pre-drama talk to end... waiting impatiently for the boring "modern-day" bit of the drama to end... watching my friend come onto the green with a period costume and start speaking with an american accent and gesturing in a disturbingly unnatural fashion... cursing the brother seated in front of me for standing up to take a photo at THE VERY MOMENT the demon is cast out (DAMN, i missed it).
• 

  Balsam

  I went to a convention in 1971 at Dodger Statium, don't remember which summer month it was but it was baking hot. My then husband and I were just studying and attended with a JW couple and their two small children. I saw parents with new born babies out in that blazing sun. Little umbrellas covering the faces and bodies of the little ones. Many got sun burned with temperatures in the 90's every day. I think it was 7 day assembly from early morning to late in the evening. I remember getting up at 5:00 am to get there and get seats and being stuck in the parking lot till after dark trying to get home. My husband collasped the last day from the heat and spent the rest of the day in a nursing station. Lots of people down there suffering from heat stroke. I had to walk the parking lot for over 3 hrs trying to find the car to get him home.

  Also remember seeing men from the Army there observing our feeding lines and the huge droves of witnesses moving through the long lines quickly. Couldn't even sit down had to stand up to eat, then move on. Witnesses are always so proud of their efficent way of feeling the crowds.

  The crazy thing was that we were convinced that Jehovah was testing us and we had passed. That was the mentality taught us and we were so gullible as to believe it. We got baptized in the next few months. So much of the convention is forgotten. I remember they had a big heart and big brain talking to each other back and forth. Only talk I can remember out of all those brain frying days. I know the two little ones of our bible study conductor became exhausted and sickly too.

  The later conventions when they cut back on the time there and shortened the days were a welcome relief, and frankly we were grateful for them not being so long. After we had children though it was so hard. Traveling out of town to motels stuck with three little ones who had nothing to play with all day. A little swimming in the pool did help in the evenings. Most of the time we were so broke that it was hard to scrape the money together to even go. We didn't even have enough to leave a donation. I got where I hated going to the conventions after we had children, it was pure torchure for the children at all of them.

  One time my then JW husband and I traveled from the USA to Nova Scotia around 1974 I think for an international convention. With us traveled our bible studies who had two children for a 4 or 5 day convention plus my sister-in-law who was a teenager. We traveled up and camped on the way from North Carolina. Well the camp ground was down by water in Nova Scotia that we had made reservations at and we realized the danger and didn't stay there and had to hunt another safer spot. We were hit by a terrible rain storm that night that flooded our tent, and the lightening was scary. It rained buckets. We slept in the car and got no sleep the first night. Getting dressed up in the wash house in dresses and slooping around in the mud was something I'll never forget. Off to the Convention where there was no air conditioning and we were so hot we could die. Just big fans at huge windows that totally drowned out the speaker. It was a totally waste of time to go but we went anyway. The camping was fun but the mix of having to go to conventions was stupid. Those people studying too became witnesses for a few years, then faded away. I felt ill tempered, and my then husband just tried to make it into something better than it was. He thought suffering for the Kingdom was a good thing. LOL

  30 years of conventions all from 8 day conventions down to 3 day conventions. All a waste of good time and money. Of course the experience was interesting, but really nothing in a benefital way.
• 

  mad max

  Only one assembly i enjoyed, was when it poured with rain and i was sitting on the grass, under an umbrella with black dustbin packets over the umbrella (so the rain did not pour in) pulled RIGHT DOWN to our face and slept.

  Most i disliked. Remember when I went out on the Friday night, drank a bit tooooo much, had to get up at the break of dawn (and I had just got home) and sit and try and listen without my head nodding, so I got wise that assembly, I took my dark glasses, lots of mints so my mom could not smell my breath and said I was really sick, slept on the blanket with my sisters little kids. ( sooooo glad she had little kids. I could sleep with them, because I was looking after them)

  Apart from that I WILL SAY AGAIN I DISLIKED THEM SO MUCH SO MUCH