Remember when?

[Tortuga]

ID cards, Parking tickets, Meal tickets..

 

Those were the days...😁

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Someone earlier mentioned "Food Tickets".  From the 1970s to the 1990s we used thin cardboard "tear-off" tickets sold in strips of $1.00 or a package of $10.00
Over the years we quit putting a face value on them....
  For those not familiar with the tickets, they were about 1 1/2 inches wide and 5 1/2 - 6 inches long

Downunder we called the 'Food Tickets' = "Script"
That way the food departments didn't have to worry about securing the cash and getting robbed. This resulted in less stress for the Audit & Attendants Departments.
We started with a 'Dollar Value' on items - and as mentioned - paid for food in 10cent increments.
To simplify (and allow for inflation) the value was removed, and it was just expressed in quantity of tickets.
We used to keep old ones for the next year, but the Society caught on, and started changing the colour each year.

Old (Downunder) Tone

[steeringwheel]

      Wow, these are all 'Great Memories'. My mother was baptized in 1938, father in 1942. I still have my mother's testimony card. My dad spoke of driving a 'sound car'. I was born in 1953, baptized 1968, pioneered in Ohio 1971-1973; so I remember many of these times mentioned.

      Pre-1961, I remember my dad trying to figure out which of the 6 volumes of Bible, that he might need to put in bookbag for meeting. I also remember going along with my dad to help set up at farms for tent assemblies. He was a carpenter, so he did a lot in building the stage, outhouses, kitchens, etc.  I remember personally using wire brushes to scrub concrete horse trough for baptisms; setting up wooden chairs and doing a lot of carrying. Also used dad's stake-bed truck to haul refrigerators & stoves for cooking. This all would take most of week before assembly.  I remember wearing sandwich sign in march thru towns advertising for assembly public talk (early 60's). The assemblies would end late about 8-9 pm. for Friday & Saturday. It would be dark, when going to find your room in strange town.

     I remember when all brothers on stage had to wear 'white' shirts. If visiting speaker came without one, it would be supplied. I remember about 1970 buying my dad his first blue, then yellow 'dress' shirts. He traveled to build kingdom halls, with not many helpers back then. Some halls still in use.

    In early years, our cong. in Ohio sometimes had Sunday meeting & picnic in park. I have couple photos probably taken early 40's.

     I remember if householder didn't have the 10 cents for magazines, we could trade for food; sometimes dozen eggs. I remember once taking a brother back when we finished territory to pick up a duck the lady killed & cleaned for him.

   When I pioneered back then, if we didn't have enough bible studies, etc. we would get personal letter from Society. 100 hours to regular pioneer, (in Ohio, in the snow). Back then we thought, that 'if' we ever got to one million witnesses, that would be it.

    Yes, we 'all' will have 'many' good memories to discuss in 'Paradise'.

 

[Qapla]

We used to trade for "coke bottles*" since they had a 10¢ "deposit" and we could turn them in to a grocery store and get the money. (* they could be any brand soda)

 

I remember when it took months (sometimes years) to build a KH because it was done by the local Congregation if-and-when they had the money or could get a loan. If they could get a loan from the Branch it had very low interest ... but all Congregations did not qualify for this type of loan and would have to seek a commercial loan.

 

When the "quick build" style of building Halls started we went to one of the early ones on the east side of the country. There would be hundreds of people on the site. At 7 AM on Saturday morning the start signal would be given and the first nail(s) would be hit (at this point in time, the QB Halls were all wood-frame, not block) and the "first wall" would be timed to see how fast it went up. At around 3:00 PM Sunday afternoon the first meeting would be held in the newly completed KH. Many who were there for the 7 AM start would still be there for the first meeting. We often worked several trades those two days.

 

 

[Old]

32 minutes ago, Qapla said:

We used to trade for "coke bottles*" since they had a 10¢ "deposit" and we could turn them in to a grocery store and get the money. (* they could be any brand soda)

 

 

What state were you living at that time, Michigan is the only state that came close?

 

Michigan (10¢ non-refillable, 10¢ refillable)—Michigan Beverage Container Act of 1976.

 

Oregon went to 10 cents a year or so ago.

[Qapla]

Back in the 1960's up until they stopped - Florida used to have a deposit on glass soda bottles - this practice was discontinued at some point when plastic bottles became popular, even before the last glass soda bottles were still being sold.

 

As a side note - my memory could be faulty ... I think the deposit was 10¢ although it could have been 5¢ - however, there was a deposit and that was the reason we would trade for bottles.

 

In the early 60's taking the bottles in to get the money was easy. Pretty much all the grocery stores (including Mom-and-Pop stores) were more than happy to exchange cash for the empty bottles regardless the condition of the bottle as long as they weren't broken. Then they started requiring the bottles to be "clean" (many were covered with dirt). Later still, they only wanted to take the bottles if they had been bought in that store.

 

Currently there is no deposit on soda bottles in Florida - although there may be pending bills up for consideration.

 

 

[Old]

The only reason I questioned the 10 cent was I felt I was getting ripped off outwest here. Our return deposit had been 2 cents and went to 5 cents in the 70s. 

(Edit) Just checked again and find Florida is talking about raising the deposit to 20cents. That should eliminate any bottles piling up along side the highways.

Edited July 19, 2020 by Old

[Qapla]

1 hour ago, Old said:

Just checked again and find Florida is talking about raising the deposit to 20cents

 

That is a new bill up for discussion/debate/passage/denial/whatever - at present there is NO deposit for any refillable bottles in Florida

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Remember when the first verse AND the 3rd verse of a song had a 'lead-in'.

Old (Downunder) Tone

[jwhess]

4 hours ago, Qapla said:

Back in the 1960's up until they stopped - Florida used to have a deposit on glass soda bottles - this practice was discontinued at some point when plastic bottles became popular, even before the last glass soda bottles were still being sold.

 

As a side note - my memory could be faulty ... I think the deposit was 10¢ although it could have been 5¢ - however, there was a deposit and that was the reason we would trade for bottles.

 

In the early 60's taking the bottles in to get the money was easy. Pretty much all the grocery stores (including Mom-and-Pop stores) were more than happy to exchange cash for the empty bottles regardless the condition of the bottle as long as they weren't broken. Then they started requiring the bottles to be "clean" (many were covered with dirt). Later still, they only wanted to take the bottles if they had been bought in that store.

 

Currently there is no deposit on soda bottles in Florida - although there may be pending bills up for consideration.

 

 

When I was a kid, the who;e bottle of Coke (6 1/2 ounces) was only 5 cents total.

[Tortuga]

Is this thread for just theocratic memories? 

[Amygdala]

I remember, I think, the first time we studied the Revelation Climax Book. Glad we studied it in the bookstudy arrangement a few more times after that. Just can't remember how many times we have since then. I believe 2 more times.

[Gary910]

1 hour ago, Maʹher-shalʹal-hash-baz said:

Remember when the first verse AND the 3rd verse of a song had a 'lead-in'.

Old (Downunder) Tone
 

I had completely forgotten about this one.

 

Nice memory.

[Qapla]

I remember one time when we studied one book (I think it was  the "Babylon" book) - we only studied the second half ... it had a "Part 1" and a "Part 2" if I remember correctly

 

 

Yes, I remember the interlude before the last verse in the songs ... played them a few times.

 

Did you know many introductions to the songs were the first half of the first line of music followed by the second half of the last line of music?

Edited July 19, 2020 by Qapla

[tucker]

What a blessing it is now to have the wonderful sound systems that we have in all our Kingdom Halls. Back when, we really had to talk loudly!

[Old]

4 minutes ago, tucker said:

What a blessing it is now to have the wonderful sound systems that we have in all our Kingdom Halls. Back when, we really had to talk loudly!

Yes, even after we got the basic sound system it was years before traveling mics became common. I embarrassed one sister (and myself) when I asked her to speak louder and she said that was as loud as she could speak. She demontrated after the meeting and even her scream was just a squeak. 

[Qapla]

We had the nice "advantage" of having an "electronics guy" in our Hall. He built the system we used. It was a rather efficient tube system (this was before solid state) and we had three mics on the stage - no roving mics back then.

 

Only problem was, when he died in a small plane crash - no one knew how to fix the system he had built. It ended up being replaced with an "Bogen 35W tube amp"

 

 

We used these same amps at our Circuit Assemblies for many years.

[dove]

Does anyone remember when the Assemblies and Conventions only consisted of talk after talk after talk..no video's or visuals..excellent information but hard to stay awake at all times to take it in...

[EccentricM]

15 minutes ago, Dove said:

Does anyone remember when the Assemblies and Conventions only consisted of talk after talk after talk..no video's or visuals..excellent information but hard to stay awake at all times to take it in...

I recall that when I was younger yes. I remember when I was about..  maybe 10, being at one assembly on the front row, and I had taken a chewable travel sickness pill (intended for children), it knocked me out for the entire first half, and it didn't help with it just being purely talks as you say. I couldn't lift my head, and I kept jumping in my sleep because of the microphone echoing when the speakers would raise their voice now and again, lol.

Edited July 20, 2020 by EccentricM

[jwhess]

15 minutes ago, Dove said:

Does anyone remember when the Assemblies and Conventions only consisted of talk after talk after talk..no video's or visuals..excellent information but hard to stay awake at all times to take it in...

The best we could do were demonstrations.  That is why we all loved the costume dramas when they first came out in 1969.

[Tortuga]

I remember working the Sound at the KH when I was barely a teenager. 

[Phyllis]

And they lasted 5 days and evenings!!

following photo taken about 1945 of brother released from detention camp in New Zealand. NZ was the first country to ban the Witnesses ( so the story goes)

My husband is 3 rd from the left in back row.  Got baptised in camp.

[jwhess]

Circuit Assemblies were 3 day long (Friday to Sunday).

 

 

Edited July 20, 2020 by jwhess

[Hinata]

5 minutes ago, jwhess said:

The best we could do were demonstrations.  That is why we all loved the costume dramas when they first came out in 1969.

 

Are you talking about the on stage dramas? Those are something I actually remember. (Probably being the youngest here.) I think these were discontinued around 2013 or earlier. I have a fond memories of them, there are something to it that can not be replaced in the current movies.

 

[EccentricM]

1 minute ago, Hinata said:

 

Are you talking about the on stage dramas? Those are something I actually remember. (Probably being the youngest here.) I think these were discontinued around 2013 or earlier. I have a fond memories of them, there are something to it that can not be replaced in the current movies.

 

We had them on stage, but mostly at conventions on a football field in a stadium in all weathers. There was one time where one of the characters mentioned that Jehovah was about to smite someone down and a pretty intense thunderstorm suddenly started so it was very immersive. 😄