I was at the International Convention at Yankee Stadium in 1969; got baptized there, in fact (well, not at Yankee Stadium, they bussed us across the Bronx to Orchard Beach in standing-room-only buses that took about 2 hours in each direction even though in normal traffic it should take 25 minutes). The convention was supposed to be 8 days, but they could only get the Stadium for 7, so they crammed an extra session into the first two days to make up for it. That's sessions from 9 AM to 9 PM on Monday and Tuesday with the rest of the week only having afternoon and evening sessions - field service (in the Bronx! ) in the mornings, of course.
My friends and I were staying in the Holiday Inn in the Times Square area of Manhattan, which was about a 30 minute subway ride from the stadium. We had no idea whatsoever of the geography of NYC, and the first day we headed back to the hotel, we didn't know how far downtown we needed to go to get there. We didn't want to overshoot our exit, so we got off at 125th Street (those familiar with NYC can gasp now). For those not familiar with NYC, 125th St. is in the heart of Harlem, and that is not an area that two white boys in their late teens wanted to hang around in after dark in 1969. As we were coming out of the subway onto the street, we were impressed at seeing a Kingdom Hall right across the street from the subway stairs. That's as far as we got. We didn't even set a foot on the sidewalk before a policeman approached us and told us that this was NOT the area we wanted to be in and we should just turn around, go back down the stairs and get back on the subway.
The area around the Stadium was dotted with "apostates" handing out literature (mostly various types of Bible Students) and I picked up some interesting information that would serve me well in later years. My friends tried to talk me into throwing the leaflets away, but I actually saved them long enough to read them (perhaps I was a budding apostate from the start?). I actually received several of Roy Goodrich's Back to the Bible Way leaflets, and I wish I still had those, since they are a valuable source of information about the WTS in the 30's and 40's (despite a very angry and bitter tone).
All things considered, I remember that convention as a pleasant experience from my youth, though I suppose that if I had spent the money for that trip on a week at the beach instead, I would probably have as many pleasant memories and might not have spent 30 years in a cult.
