How Many Went On A Bethel Tour And Didn't Think It Sucked?

by minimus 32 Replies latest jw friends

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  Mulan

  
  I went on the tour in 1958 when I was 12 and loved it. I really wanted to go live there and made it a goal for my future. Other desires got in the way of that one, like getting married and having babies, a better future for me.

  I took our 13 year old son on the tour, when Dave was doing temporary construction in Brooklyn. My cousin lived near the farm, and we went to see them, and he had arranged for a special tour for us...........wanting our young son to like it so much he would want to go there. Fortunately, he hated it and never wanted to go back, although he was baptized and a good little dub, with a future in the WTS. He stayed with it for about a year after we began to fade, but eventually walked out for good.

  I was still in awe of it, and since I was a pioneer, we got lots of perks. We also knew someone kind of high up there, and he gave us a private tour behind the scenes, where we saw books in a closet that shocked me. (Ray Franz books, Playboy magazines, etc.) We were told that they subscribe to everything so they know what people are reading, and to keep up.

  I too was a little dismayed at the constant reminder to put money in the boxes, that were placed everywhere.
• 

  Bumble Bee

  I went on the NY tour twice. The first time was with my parents, cousins, aunt/uncle etc. The best parts were the shopping and site seeing in between the bethel tours.

  Sunday morning we went to a champagne brunch, where they kept your glass full, all the time. There were quite a few sisters that were a little "tipsy"~ they got up and started playing the piano and singing!! LOL It was soooo funny. Seeing the city was the big thing for me, a girl from a farm. I remember going up the World Trade Centre, and that there were more people that worked in those two towers than in the city I lived in at the time! We also stopped at the UN and went inside, but there were those on the bus that wouldn't set foot in the building because of what they thought it stood for.

  The second tour was two years later, I was a little older and went with some girlfriends, no family. That was waaaayyy more fun. Walking to the liquor store and stocking up the hotel room, drinking and partying with some brothers we met there.

  Funny thing is, I don't really remember much about the presses, rooms etc! Wonder why?

  BB
• 

  Momofmany

  A few "friends" drove me up there to reinforce how Jehovah provides. All it left me with is a feeling of sorrow. To work all week, and after all that, get $19/wk. Yea, you get room and board, but heck, after I pay my bills, I have more than $19. I hated when we ate. I really did. I kept being told what an honor it was to be as so-n-so's table. (I didn't know him, or why it was an honor, and I can't remember his name) Then I felt bad, because they are only allowed to invite X amount of people a year to eat with them. I looked at those tall buildings, and think, these people are working for a company that would never make it in the real world. Not for that pay. It was so sad to go there. And the one hotel that they bought and restored. All those people donating their time and expertise, for what? So god could own it? God can own anything he wants, he wouldn't ask people to give up time, money, etc, so that the society could own a historic building.

  It was just sad. Guess the trip didn't have the effect they thought it would.
• 

  InquiryMan

  I’ve been to HQ as well as touring 11 branch offices. The German was the best, far more modern and up to date than HQ, which I found a bit "old-fashioned". The French and Italian were slightly more disorganized than the German and Austrian counterpart. (Interesting sidenote: I had visited the old as well as the new Austrian Branch. In the old branch they had some really ugly, brown curtains in the reception area. In the new bethel I discovered them in a closet re-used for some storage things.. So they at least re-cycle things. The best reception ever was at the Greek bethel, where I was treated with lunch and white wine! The boys played outside, and most men did not wear ties. It was the most relaxed, the German was the strictest...
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  littlerockguy

  I went a couple of times. Actually would go there and visit a friend who was a bethelite and stay with some other nearby friends. First time I went I saw pretty much everything and after that I didn't tour everything again. Saw pretty much everything. The educational center in Patterson was being worked on at that time.
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  95stormfront

  I too was a little dismayed at the constant reminder to put money in the boxes, that were placed everywhere.

  Now this is something that even my JW relatives never mentioned in their trip to Bethel last year.
• 

  Soledad

  Of course it sucked.

  The first time I was 9 years old and went to the farms at Walkill. It was mad hot and I fell into a pool of cow shit.

  The second time I was 16 and went to the Brooklyn printing presses. The only highlight of the day was when we went to a diner on Clark Street and ate burgers.

  What a boring childhood I had.
• 

  LongHairGal

  I don't mean to make you all gag but years ago when I went on my first Bethel tour and WT farm tour I was impressed.
  
  I went on a third Bethel one some years later and I still liked it even though I was less impressed (partly because I was older and more jaded and also because of the stepford-wife older sister who I went with). She apparently knew somebody there to give us a tour. She sat there in the lobby expecting the prince himself to come out and whisk her away on a magic carpet. Because we got there rather late I said to her "..... let's get going" and we couldn't wait for so-and-so. Other sisters in the lobby were rolling their eyeballs because it was obvious she was in fantasy-land.
  
  Some weeks after that I found out that she had designs on this much younger brother who was just being polite and humoring her.
• 

  fleaman uk

  Ive been to 3

  London a few times.The last time i had to laugh as the Guide was a Friend of mine and i knew him as a total pisshead.

  Brooklyn.Hated it..hated the constant references to 9/11 and how Elders did this,CO,s did that etc...no mention of ordinary drones doing anything to help (as im sure they must have done)let alone any remotest sympathy to the local Population.Also the level of painted on smiles as we went round was so very obvious.Ive never seen a more bored looking bunch after I had mislaid my Camera,retraced my steps and ,Boy did those People look so differant after the tour had passed through!

  South African Bethel.Sorry but the deeply ingrained racism was evident in the way black bros did all the cleaning and the generally shit Jobs.Also ,friday night at recreation time the segregation was obvious.Whites stuck together,coloureds likewise and the same with the Blacks. I stayed there a week (mate was posted there.i was visiting.)and came away thoroughly disenchanted.
• 

  DannyBloem

  My first bethel tour (in our branche) made me loose all interest in going to bethel myself.

  Especially after a brother I knew told me that they learn you how to brush your teeth properly. That was all I needed to hear.

  Anyway after that I visited maybe 10 different branche bethels. Some were nice, and in some I encountered real nice people. But also a lot of dumb-a$$es.

  Danny