Our cong was repeatedly told that it was in very poor form to be chewing gum at the hall or, worse, to have candies that had those noisy wrappers on them. Gum had been found under the seats..... "Was it asking too much of the brothers to actually show respect for the banquet being provided by Jehovah at the meetings to forego gum chewing and candies for the measly 2 hours of the meeting?"
Well, candies were pretty much the highlight of the meetings. There was always some sister that had plenty to go around for all in her aisle, noisy wrapper and all! Near the end of my meeting attendance days, I always had a supply in the briefcase - never gum though...