I have just written on the Scottish thread about camping at the Edinburgh assemblies. Nightmare! We were one of the poor families in the congregation, the six of us had to make do with the old scout tent that was not waterproof and had old wood supports. In a terrible storm one night the whole thing came down and the pole trapped my head against the underlay. When we got out we were soaking wet and cold. The toilets were awful and everthing can be summed up as smelly and cold. I do remember having a girl crush on an italian tourist that was using the bathrooms and had a lovely Purdy style haircut in deep chestnut colour. I was besotted by her, I was in old shoes with cardboard in, they got threw out of the tent during the night because someone said they stank. I felt so shabby next to this exotic creature. Well I grew up into a pretty good looking woman myself, but I still remember that feeling at the camping site.
chicken little
JoinedPosts by chicken little
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Camping for conventions
by EmptyInside inoutlaw's post about convention food reminded me of my family's experiences camping for the conventions.
fortunately, they did this before i came along.
but, it seems the whole congregation stayed at one campground.
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chicken little
Memories flooding back here. I have an unfinished love affair with Scotland. My father was stationed at Durness, way up north during World War II, he loved the area and anything scottish. He actually taught himself to play the chanter and moved on to the highland pipes in his 40s. He joined the Teeside Caladonian Pipeband and we went to many events with him. He had a heart attack while playing in one of the border towns and that put a stop to the highland pipes...he built his own northumbrian pipe with the bellows afterwards.
I love Oldshoremore and Kinlochbervie...anybody been there? The most fantastic scenery you can imagine. Still hope to go back one day...I live in Scandanavia now. We were assigned to Edinburgh conventions for many years even though we lived in the north of England. I loved going to Murrayfield Rugby grounds because we got to go to dance in the gardens on an evening. The scots are lovely people, the Jws are strict there...calvinists really. I have memories of rain, wind and floods at the camping site we used for the convention. One evening the whole tent came down on our heads, we were soaked through. Those were the days.
I still get emotional if I hear the pipes played. We were in Sweden in the summer and the Gothenburg Pipeband were playing...tears were rolling down my cheeks. My kids just laugh, they haven't experienced the stuff I have (thank goodness!). Some one on the whisky thread mentioned first footing, my father used to play in the New Year and was all dressed in his regalia and the whole street would follow him around while he went to each door. (Wierd because we were not allowed to do it really as witnesses, but my Dad was never really IN, he did his own thing, we tried to keep away, but secretly I loved to watch and see him).
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Which is your favourite single malt Scotch Whisky, and why?
by lifelong humanist inas a true scot, i'm deeply passionate about most things scottish, any possibly one of our small nation's most successful export is my main favourite - our single malt whisky heritage.. i'm writing this while savouring a 12 year old highland park - distilled in the orkney islands, the most northerly distillery in scotland.
it is one of my favourites - it was my late father's favourite tipple.
yet, only 500m from my house is scotlands oldest legal whisky distillery - glenturret, in crieff.
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chicken little
Just logged on and saw your thread...I love single malts and have a really strange place for getting them. In Nice in France where I have a studio, there is a little exclusive whisky shop called Maclagan's finest scotch whiskies and most of his malts are from the Islay and small distilleries. I love peaty malts but my husband is not so keen. I was recommended to try Bruichladdich 12 year old...it is one of the only malts from Islay that is very lightly peated. It was just what my husband likes and I take a wee nip now and again. I enjoy Dalwhinnie 15years and Balvenie 14 year aged in rum casks...yummy! Macallan elegancia 12 is enjoyable too. Getting thirsty here. Oh I was given two lovely tasting glasses from my whisky guy in Nice, they are curved in at the top, very nice to sniff from.
Cheers, skål.
Chicken little
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...Good Food at Assemblys.....What Happened?..
by OUTLAW inin a time before many of you were born... assemblys had a great food... i left before the food started getting bad... .
i am totally amazed at reading... how food at assemblys got worse and worse... until finally food was`nt served at all... .
back in the day... food at assemblys was pretty dam good... there was quality cooking back then... jehovah`s witness`s actually looked forward to meals at assemblys... .
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chicken little
The whole thing took so much time and so many were missing out on the important spiritual food that it was done away with. (I loved the soup on the last day at around nine on the evening). We worked for days preparing the cakes at the bakery owned by a brother, then we had to finish them off at the convention site...we had great fun and felt important doing this work. Loved to get up during the talks with my overall over my arm and head out to the food section. It was an escape. Now nobody escapes...except the attendants.
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Elders? do the rest of us know what they know..?
by angel eyes inwhat things about elders do only elders know and the rest of us dont?
i never knew they had a hand book till i came on here.
unsure why they dont mention it because surely its not meant to be a secret?.
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chicken little
My response does not have to do with pedophiles, but it is to show the limitations of elders and their inability to get to the truth of matters. I recently found an old friend on fbook, I was not sure if she was still a jw so I was cautious. Turns out she was disfellowshipped some years ago and was very happy to find me again. When I heard her story and the things she had gone through with her ex husband I was once again convinced that there is no holy spirit directing these men. When she told the elders at her jc that her husband was having an affair with her best friend, the wife of another elder, she was not believed. Her husband and the sister denied it. She was divorced from him and six months later the ex married her best friend. Neither of these were disfellowshipped.
This week I received a friend request from...my friends ex husband warning me that his ex was disfellowshipped and very apostate to the truth, did I know this? I wrote back to him saying how amazing it is what you do NOT get disfellowshipped for these days. I would say that shagging your wife's best friend and then lying about it would be high on the list to get you kicked out. I then told him I was out of this high control organization and free to choose my own friends and he would not be one of them.
Afterwards I thought again how ridiculous it is to think that elders are impartial and guided by holy spirit.
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Were you ever counseled for being too friendly at meetings?
by Wasanelder Once ini had a brother approach me once to tell me i was too friendly.
i had the habit of greeting everyone i could in the time provided before the meeting.
it was done sincerely and with personal interest.
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chicken little
I remember when the book study conductors were told not to use first names during the study, even though we were in our own home. My husband was the conductor and he never got the hang of calling me sister......I remember the reasoning was that it was inappropriate and to personal to use first names.
We had a brother who liked to hug, he was a very kind man and he was deeply hurt when told not to hug as it could be viewed wrongly. I still laugh when I remember the congregation I was sent to pioneer in when I was 18 years old. I was a country hick from up north, we all hugged and cheek kissed. The look of horror on the faces of the metropolitan bros and sisters was so funny. You would think I had shot them. They stretched out their limp hand and told me that was how it was done in their congregation. I guess I had some spunk in those days because I carried on doing it until they got used to me. One sister bless her said she would permit me to Peck her cheek...haha.
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Did You Start "Losing It" As A Witness?
by minimus inwere you emotionally or mentally unbalanced at any time while you were a jehovah's witness?.
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chicken little
I lost the plot for about seven years....I was a zombie in that period. I took everything so seriously and found my self almost paranoid. I can still even to this day remember people I called on in the service going back 30 years. I would have guilt trips over not getting back to them and being blood guilty.
My family suffered during this time. Conventions were torture, I spent much of the time in the rest rooms or in the car outside. I couldn't sit through the meetings I was afraid I would shout out something outrageous, my husband would walk me around the block to calm me down. I was so stressed out and suicidal, I felt life was a mess and I was of no use to anyone. Medicine helped. Then listening to the voice inside telling me there had to be another way to live than this.
I know of many who are just like I was.
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Saturday Mornings
by zarco inthen: get up grumpy, shower, go to starbucks, leave magazine to start time, drive to kingdom hall, hope to be able to work with friends in service so we can do just a few doors and then calls and an early lunch.. .
now: get up when i wake up, make coffee, read the boards, read the wsj and sf chronicle, wait for wife to wake up, take dog on a walk and decide what fun things to do in the bay area this weekend.. i love my weekends now!.
zarco.
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chicken little
Here comes the confession. While in I would feel ill on a Saturday, the thought of the service, then rush home quick lunch, out the door for the meeting, get home at 6ish shattered. Then be expected to be on service next day.. wife of elder so supposed to set example. Many times I would be so sick on a Saturday, yet still bug my husband to go, for appearances sake. I ALWAYS had a guilty conscience...never felt happy even when I was doing alot.
Now we love our weekends, brunch with friends, time with the family and around the home. We go away to our summerhouse quite often without feeling we are materialistic hedonists. Life is good!
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Learning the "Truth" Is not true is like...................
by foolsparadise inafter 33 years of being mind controlled at 5 meetings a week, field service meetings, special day assembly, curcuit assembly,district assembly, finding out "the truth" is just a big hoax is like getting punched in the stomach-uppercut in the jaw-being kicked in the balls from behind and then having the rug ripped out from under you and smashing your head on the ground.
what was it like for everyone else?.
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chicken little
Years of depression while in the org. Feeling that life was to be fought through. Always a feeling that I was not listening to something inside of me. When I did listen to that voice, then the floodgates opened. I started to use my intelligence and there was no going back. Went to a meeting one evening after the floodgates had opened and could not get my legs to work, I sat rooted to the car seat holding on to the steering wheel for dear life. That did it....body caught up with the mind...no way back. Went home and never looked back since. Feel at times an utter fool for believing what I did. Have learnt to forgive myself, as the witnesses so rightly say...nobody is perfect!! Haha.
All the best to you.....enjoy your life!!
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Rehab has been very interesting, but ended nightmarishly....
by oompa inhi guys...oompa here.
was i in rehab for alcohol addiction or jwd addiction!?!?
!......no computers or cellphones allowed so i have been awol awhile..... ya, i finally made my self sick enough on booze to realize i was really sick and tired of being sick and tired....so checked myself into rehab without any planning at all and while wife was out of town on a family retreat...it was a a very desperate moment in my life, and i was extremely physically and emotionally sick....i was so desperate i took zero time to reseach where to go, but called an old school friend who said rehab had saved his life and he made the calls and actually took me and helped me check in to the place he went to 5 years ago.
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chicken little
Welcome back Oompa,
You took a very difficult step to go to the re-hab. That still stands as a great accomplishment in itself. Many of these help institutions are desperate for cash and that may push them to oversell themselves. Very hurtful and unkind to use these methods on people that are so vunerable. Write a formal complaint to there head office.
Keep up the hard work and your AA attendance, we exjws are very sensitive to the "religious" imput in the meetings, but I would be like you and re-define the words to suit the way my beliefs stand.
Well done old chap, keep working hard. Don't give up, life is good at its core....you can live your life without the booze and enjoy it even more.
Hugs
Chicken little