I was raised in the JWs in the early 70s, and the only thing I knew about 1975 is what the GB said about it. I only recall people repeating the company line: that the WTS had not made any definitive statements about it, and that some JWs simply misread the info and made their own predictions. I didn't see a single mention of what had actually been said until I was out, some 35 years later.
My mother took the WTS version to heart, even though I am certain that she knew better. But she had joined in the mid-60s, just as the 1975 talk was getting started. I think she was looking for a way out of a life that was not turning out as she had hoped, and so she has clung to that hope for more than 50 years now. She has never stopped reminding me that "the end is near."