Oh boy I remember this assembly. My mom became a jw when I was born (I think she had post partum depression really bad). We lived in So Cal when she came in (studied the Let God Be Found True book). We went to the San Pedro Congregation. It was in an old movie theatre that had a ticket box at the entrance. Wed have to clean constantly as Drunks would piss on the entrance walls.
We lived in Seattle. I was almost 12. My mother and I drove from Seattle to LA in my dads 60 VW. Stayed in a motel with a pool (my salvation).
What I remember was being so tired, bored and HOT. The Rose Bowl was in a dip or low site and there was no breeze and it seemed like no oxygen. I remember fainting standing in line for lunch. I remember sitting and literally baking in the stands. Envious of people with umbrellas. Mother and I worked one day in the SnoCone dept. Mother was passing out the grape flavor so fast (People were dying of heat so everyone wanted one) she accidentally let the sno cone fly and hit the brothers white shirt and stained it with grape. I thought he was going to knock her block off. There were a billion yellowjackets there for the grape flavor. I believe we had that old green songbook and there was an orchestra and a choir. The book was written in 4 part harmony. I could NEVER understand one word from the speakers because the reverb was so bad. Yes. That Babylon Book. I stilll think whoever wrote it was on acid. The book study….the accompanying question book. Pure torture. My mom had a sister friend…she was called by her last name Casey. She had died from throat cancer. She had a boatload of kids. She reminded me of a younger Ma Kettle. Her youngest one was a boy named Sherman. Mother decided she would adopt him. Same age as me. He was a real Eddy Haskell. At school he was foul mouthed and a bully. Quite frankly I was scared of him. At the meetings he would stand at the door and welcome people…”Hello Brother…Hello Sister.” And shake hands. We NEVER did that. I got my mom and said go look at what Sherman is doing. She hauled him outside and had a chat. One night she told him to go to bed. He refused and my other brother put him over his shoulder and was carrying him upstairs. He was screaming dirty words and when Steve put him down Sherman said,”if you ever try that again Ill blow a hole in your stomach big enough to stick your head thru.” He was on a bus to So Cal the next day. Whew!
Thank god our hotel room had an old air conditioner. I think we were exhausted for a month after that.
I remember Billy Graham had a convention at the same time and the front page of the newspapers would print which group had the most attendees. Some one said Grahams people just added the next day count to the first day. To make it look like they Had bigger crowds.
Everyday went from like 9am to 9pm. It was gross, crowded, i couldn’t understand the speakers and it was torture. 8 days.