ah, those englishmen.. attended a concert recently conducted by the noted englishman roger norrington, sir roger that is.
the first half was rather ho hum; good but not simulating.
you know this type of music, mostly strings, a couple of horns and little else.. after the intermission he really got going.
Verdi is unquestionably great. Sir Roger has conducted at La Scala, so I’m sure that Verdi is in his repertoire.
Puccini is hard to beat too.
Sam Beli
I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted. Solomon
ah, those englishmen.. attended a concert recently conducted by the noted englishman roger norrington, sir roger that is.
the first half was rather ho hum; good but not simulating.
you know this type of music, mostly strings, a couple of horns and little else.. after the intermission he really got going.
No Englishmen or lovers of great music here?
a rally against bullying cults.. one thing i remember reading in steve hassans book combating cult mind control is how much cults hate publicity ie having their dirty deeds out in the open.. i was thinking to myself what do people usually do to highlight some concern or make a protest,here in the uk one popular method is to do a march demonstration and hand a petition or something to the prime minister at ten downing street,would it not be great if ex members of jehovahs witnesses and sympathisers and possibly including ex members of other cults could get together and have a large rally in the nations capital,a point of contention could be destructive cults having charitable status or something but including issues like blood shunning,manipulation etc culminating in downing street,other countries could have similar simaltanious rallies in their capitals.it would probrably grab the medias attention.. are there enough of us?.
just a thought,mayby a little over the top!
A well-written book addressing the cult problem, perhaps with a slant on how to keep your kids free from cults could be a vehicle for getting on the talk show circuit. Using the Walker kid as an example might help. He is not a witness, of course, but a victim of cult thinking? His name is in the news, so use it as a launching pad for the cult warning.
Sam Beli
I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted. Solomon
ah, those englishmen.. attended a concert recently conducted by the noted englishman roger norrington, sir roger that is.
the first half was rather ho hum; good but not simulating.
you know this type of music, mostly strings, a couple of horns and little else.. after the intermission he really got going.
Ah, those Englishmen.
Attended a concert recently conducted by the noted Englishman Roger Norrington, Sir Roger that is. The first half was rather ho hum; good but not simulating. You know this type of music, mostly strings, a couple of horns and little else.
After the intermission he really got going. It was devoted entirely to Berlioz’s Symphonic fantastique, Op. 14. For this piece the orchestra grew to twice the pre-intermission size. The bass fiddles grew from 4 to 8; timpani were added – not one set but 2 sets of timpani, plus 2 bass drums, a snare drum and chimes. There were 2 harps, 2 tubas and the usual strings, but twice their previous number. An English horn and a piccolo were also added. The potential was there!
We were not disappointed. From magnificent solos on the English horn to grand runs on the harps to rousing features on the tubas to blaring blasts from the rest of the brass section to eerie sounds of those kettle drums and later there emphatic emphasis during critical moments and finally in the 5th movement where nothing is held back.
At the end of the 4th movement (which surpassed the climax of many symphonies) Sir Roger looked up at the ceiling as if to see if he had raised it a few feet. The audience, which had been politely quiet broke into laughter and began to applaud, even though applause normally is held until the end of the entire symphony.
During some eerie moments in the music (where witches are roaming about) he looked over his shoulder at the audience as if to say “see this is pretty good stuff.” I have never seen such a relaxed and casual conductor of a major symphony during a formal concert. He is now an older gentleman who probably doesn’t care if he offends a few. He made his excellent reputation years ago.
I hope to hear him again. It was a privilege to get briefly acquainted with this mans work (the things one has time for after quitting attendance at those dreadful meeting at the KH.
Sam Beli
I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted. Solomon
folks,.
i was thinking about what is was like growing up as a jw in the 40's and 50's.
some things were easier, some were harder.. easier.
Yes Waiting, I too remember those stories. I was one of those babies born in the Rutherford era. My parents were told that is was to bad that I’d never get to graduate from High School before the big A.
Now my parent’s great grandchild is running around.
folks,.
i was thinking about what is was like growing up as a jw in the 40's and 50's.
some things were easier, some were harder.. easier.
Yes, Joy, I had forgotten about the intermission. I think the original idea was to really make it a Public Talk and then give a break so that the public could leave before the WT study. Later they realized that they were loosing some audience at the break (some publishers were leaving too), so attempted to stop the hemorrhage by eliminating the intermission.
Fire, along with the blood doctrine in that era was a lot of ranting against the UN in those days. The UN immerged out of W.W.II, so in its infancy it came under fire (no pun intended) as a beast in opposition to God’s Kingdom.
Other rantings were against college and against marriage – the old “better to remain single” argument.
There was a lot of expansion under Knorr’s administration and he was delighted to organize the largest assemblies ever held by JWs. At the time (50s) JWs set attendance records at Yankee Stadium. Large assemblies combining Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds were held in 1950, ‘53 and ’58 as I recall. These were 8 days long, running Sunday to Sunday; they ended by 6 PM the last Sunday, so we could drive home afterwards and get in bed by 2 am, then wake up Monday morning refreshed and ready for the week ahead.
Sam Beli
I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted. Solomon
folks,.
i was thinking about what is was like growing up as a jw in the 40's and 50's.
some things were easier, some were harder.. easier.
Fire, you said: “in the 40s 50s it got slack again…”
I don’t think that is an accurate portrayal of the period. The TM School was added and the Public talk was also added, so the hours spent at meetings went from 3 to 5 per week. Getting guys to give hour-long talks was not easy, many dreaded it – and they were an hour in those days. The outline was so brief that one had to do a ton of research to put one together. Lots of guys spent all of their spare time for many weekends to get one ready. Remember, libraries were less common and the Internet was non existent. Computers were non existent, so everything was written by hand or typed on a manual typewriter (no correcting ribbon in those days either).
Getting all males to join the school was another chore; both the school and the SM were a full hour long, the song and prayer were in addition. My dad was the company servant and we seldom got home much before 11 PM on Friday nights. The Sunday meetings were in the evening! Later, getting them changed to afternoon was very progressive and oh what a relief.
Disfellowshipping was introduced and the first real push on the blood prohibition was begun, if I recall correctly.
One thing that did start to be mentioned less was the prohibition on aluminum.
Sam Beli
I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted. Solomon
folks,.
i was thinking about what is was like growing up as a jw in the 40's and 50's.
some things were easier, some were harder.. easier.
Greetings Oh Supreme One,
Easier:
I agree with many of your observations. I’d modify dating to say that even dating "worldly" folks was not frowned upon, though actually marrying one might not be approved then. My loyal Society parents actually fixed me up in high school with my mother’s worldly hair dresser’s niece. She was a fine girl and I took her to her HS prom.
Didn’t have elders, but did have a ‘Company Servant” plus underlings and there could still be problems. But, you are right; it seemed that there were fewer rules then.
I thought the songs were always dreadful.
I must be older than you are because I remember when there were no public talks. Boy, the good old days!
I also remember the days before there was a TM School and the Service Meeting was by itself. Unfortunately, it was usually on Friday nights in those days. Friday nights at the KH, ugh!
The middle class was much smaller then and many JWs were from the lower middle class or nearly poor.
Yes, disfellowshipping was rather rare
More difficult:
I knew a lot of guys that came out of prison in the 40s. They went there rather than go to W.W.II. Some did pick up trades in prison, or rather in civilian assignments after prison like hospitals.
Weren’t pioneer hours 120 month at one time? With special pioneer hours being 150 or more? In the late 30s and early 40s many regular publishers got 60 hours per month! You know, FS Sunday morning and afternoon and then WT Study Sunday evening. Really, these are the stories I’ve heard my parents tell.
The eight-day conventions most days started at 9 am and ended at 9 PM unless Freddie or another ran overtime. Overtime was common, early happened never.
Organ transplants were unheard of for anyone. Vaccinations were taboo as you say; I remember being afraid of the polio epidemic of those days and when the Salk vaccine was first announced many were understandably overjoyed. I sank in my chair because I knew I would not be allowed to receive it. To this day my very elderly dad will not accept vaccinations for pneumonia or flu even though they are highly recommended to him by his physician.
Blood therapy consisted of many fewer choices then and whole blood was administered much more commonly than today. The WTS blood policy was born then and was based on the common practice of using whole blood. Today many JWs have little idea about just how blood is administered. So, when they say they do not want a blood transfusion they are thinking of whole blood even though whole blood is rarely administered today, at least in the US.
K Halls were much more modest in the 30s – 50s. Often rented old dusty, dingy and smelly places that poor folks could afford to rent. Odd Fellow Halls were a common place to rent; old abandoned mom and pop grocery stores, etc.
Sam Beli
I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted. Solomon
these letters will blow your mind!.
it's hard to beleive that one or two small-minded men in the service dept.
could be responsible for thousands of medical emergencies going bad or even death.
Howdy back Waiting!
Good to “see” you again. Yes, we had a memorable dinner together. If you and your husband are ever in this area again, please let me know. Perhaps we can become better acquainted.
Warm regards,
Sam B.
i recieved this email today.
i certainly shows another perspective.. how would you respond?.
silentlambs .
I’m sure this person is telling the truth about her experience. She said: “AND 5 DIFFERENT BROTHERS FROM BETHEL CALLED AND ENCOURAGED ME AND TOLD ME TO DO WHAT I HAD TO DO AGAINST HIM…”
How many victims get even one call from a brother from Bethel? This statement alone indicates that this is a very unusual case. Many of us know of JWs who have gone through extremely difficult encounters with “brothers” in a congregation, yet no phone calls are initiated from bethel to comfort the victims. Often letters sent to Bethel about the matter are not even answered! So, this person should consider herself very fortunate to have had such attention from Bethel. It is extremely rare in my experience.
Nevertheless, we are all pleased for her that the final outcome was so positive.
Sam Beli
I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted. Solomon
