I clearly remember all the hype and anticipation surrounding 1975. I was a college student at the University of Alabama when I started studying with the Witnesses in November 1974. When "the critical year 1975", as the WTS called it, began anticipation was rising every day, especially at that summer's district conventions and even more so when Rosh Hoshanah, the Jewish New Year, approached in September. The 1 October 1975 issue of The Watchtower had articles that talked about the end of 6,000 years of human history and how significant that milestone should be.
But even after 1975 passed and many had left the organization, most hung on, believing that the additional time marked the period between the creation of Adam and Eve. Many of us believed that Armageddon would surely strike before the 1970s ran out. So we kept the flame burning and our hopes going. Then came "The Great Apostasy", or as I should now say, "The Great Purge" at Bethel and the focus of the organization shifted from waiting for Armageddon to cleansing the organization.
The majority of present-day Witnesses was born in or baptized into the organization long after 1975 had disappeared from the WTS's rearview mirror. So they never heard about all the hype and have assumed that no specific year other than 1914 has ever been targeted by the organization. But as Don Cameron, author of Captives of a Concept, put it so well, if these people had ever looked into the history of Jehovah's Witnesses, they would have ceased studying with them and broken all ties. As one "fader" told me two years ago, "I wish I had never heard of this religion." He's not the only one to feel that way.
Quendi