Old Goat - I heard the same exact thing during both the 1953 and 1958 International Conventions. We were told that if we were children that we would soon see the end of this system of things by the time we reached maturity (21? 35? 40? 50? 65?) I am now over 70 and the end is not in sight. Did Knorr, Fred Franz, Hayden Covington and the other leaders of the Watchtower lie to us? Or did they just not know any more than the rest of us ignorant fools?
After I attended the 1960 or '61 district convention at Candlestick Park in San Francisco I asked my father if I could go to college at University of California at Riverside. With the exception of a single "F" grade due to a misunderstanding and an unbending teacher, I had managed straight A's in every one of my high school classes. So I had a grade point average of 3.5 or such. My problem was that I had not taken any college prep courses. And yet I had scholarship offers from at least 4 different sources. My father was quite sure that going to University would be a waste of my time as "Armageddon is just a few years away." But trade school was OK if I wanted to pursue that path. So I managed a small scholarship grant from the local newspaper to go to the local community college and took college freshman courses in Journalism and Graphic Arts (print shop). Not quite what I hoped for, and yet a chance to get started on my college education.
It was not Armageddon that brought my college education to an early end, but rather my father getting ill first, and then he and my mother deciding to move to "where the need was greater" in Nebraska "before Armageddon came." So I lost my room and board, my support system, and had to get a job to support myself. My father told me that he was sad that I would not be able to finish my college year, but that this was Jehovah's way of telling me that I needed to get my priorities straight and plan on a career at Bethel or as a missionary. He never gave up on the idea that Armageddon was just a few years away.
And yet it was another 8-10 years later that the 1975 prophecy was being touted. Again my father tried to lure me back into the organization, begging me to repent of my sins and commit myself to Jehovah's work. As he put it - I was just going through growing pains and searching for my path - but if I would go back to full time service and re-commit myself to Jehovah's work all would be fine. After all - Armageddon was just a few years away. He finally gave up sometime after 1985 when my mother passed away.
My parents stayed faithful to their end of life, and yet none of us kids really stayed in at all. I have one sibling and her family that are technically in, but they are far from being "successful" JWs for many reasons. They just continue on because that's how they wasted their entire lives so far, so why change now?
Sadly - I think those who are still in from my generation simply feel that "it is too late" for them to change. They may not personally agree with a single thing the Watchtower teaches, they may be completely bored out of their heads when they go to meetings, and they may cheat every way they can to get in their monthly minimum hours, but they do that because they feel they are too far down the road to turn around now. They have been brainwashed and brain dead far too long to try to change.
It's really so sad to see so many lives either destroyed or denigrated to meanlngless routine. I know that I am not alone in this view. I'm sure that many of you reading this thread can totally relate to what I am trying to say. Wasted lives. Wasted effort. Lost wages. Lost chances. Lost friends. Lost lives...
To the Watchtower - thank you very much...
JV