I walked out of the k'hall in the spring of 75 with my new wife after our marriage ceremony never to return. In those days my wife was not a baptised witness but she was having a bible study with an elder. We began to not answer the door when he called and never returned to the hall. Now by this time I had (I thought) cleansed my mind of watchtower, but began to have a form of mental breakdown not quite understanding why, it did not affect my day to day living but something was not quite right with me. I remember at this time a jw friend of mine (after a few beers) standing in the middle of the city street shouting "I can't believe this (the city buildings etc'),is all going to come crashing down soon! Yes I got over my 75 mental torment despite not believing anything would happen and went on to a better life,but let no one be,under any illusion the 75 time had profound effects thanks to,the idiocy of the hierarchy of the jw organisation.
1975—Were You Affected By What 1975 Was Supposed to Bring?
by minimus 73 Replies latest jw friends
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minimus
They count on the sheeple to follow direction. No independence is allowed. The. Smart Witnesses got the cue right away and never returned
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William Penwell
I like many on here lived through those years and yes the hype was there but if you talk to J Dubs now they have a revisionist view as to what happened or didn't happen. That was the last straw for me.
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William Penwell
Of course the quote was "Stay Alive until 75!"
I remember and elderly brother, kind man that everyone in the congregation loved. He was dying of cancer in 1974 and he would say "if only I can hold out till 1975, then I will be in the new system and cured of my sickness." Poor man died in 1975 still holding onto hat hope.
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William Penwell
Twenty years from now it will be little more than a legend, with only a few octogenarian JWs who lived through it, and who listens to old people? The myth of "brothers running ahead" will be cemented in place.
What I have now read was CT Russell also said that 1914 would be the end of the system but when it came and went without any indecent, the society did their revisionist BS. I recall in the 60's and 70's how some of the old Bible Students that fell away after 1914 were looked at as apostates because they remembered the false prophecies. We were told then not to believe these people because they are all lies. Now what I know, they were not lies but more of the societies revisionist of what the society said then.
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William Penwell
One of my good friends decided to not take a free scholarship because 1975 was around the corner and he decided to Pioneer and make sure that people knew the end was at hand. Everyone that I knew of that knew him would plead with him to please take advantage of his football skills and get out of the religion and and live a prosperous life. He would laugh at them until about 1980. Definitely didn’t look like the end was that imminent after all. Last I heard he was a milkman and suffers from major illnesses and he doesn’t have a pot to pee in.
This is one thing I regret. I love to play ice hockey and would have loved to pursue my dreams of playing professional hockey. We were not allowed to pursue our dreams so I did not follow up on that. Maybe I was not good enough to play professional hockey but I will always wonder if I could have.
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Designer Stubble
Big time. After the untimely death of my father in 1969, my mother was lured by the resurrection hope and was told she would see her husband again within years. She was baptized within two years and shortely thereafter sold our house, we waved goodbye to the statue of liberty, to serve in another country. Well, nearly 50 years has passed...
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dugout
1975????? HA HA went right over my head. Why?? As a full blooded 19 yr old baptized at 17.Chasing those beautiful sisters who wanted some before armagedon came was a good time for me. But............!!!!!!! I do remember this: A group of us were walking to school one early morning in 1968 11 and 12yearolds. About five us stood on a corner reading from a society book, I think it was that freedom from sons of god book or whatever. WE all started to calculate how old we would be in 1975 when the end would come. some 18, 19.20. So sad. Now we were scared little children. 1975 HA ha went right over my head
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mann377
1975............Oh how I remember. I was at Bethel at the time, Watchtower Farm as a press operator and in charge of printing the Awake magazine at the time. Had been for 3 years. I'll never forget the time I was given the work order to print 10,000 extra copies of a particular Awake to fill an order from a congregation in Texas. Yikes! I thought these people are all in. To this day I wonder what happened to all the mag's in this order. Must have been real embarrassing having to dispose all the mags later.
Although I keep my mouth shut, I get sick when I hear dubs talk about how the WTBS never encouraged the brothers 1975 was it. The people don't know I was operating the press '73-'76 and proof read the mags over and over as the press was running. I know what was said and written!!!
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days of future passed
Since I felt doomed to die at Armageddon since I was around 7 or 8, I was always fearful in general and depressed. When they announced 1975 as something big going to happen, I started contemplating on how to commit suicide. I'd rather kill myself than have God destroy me because I was bad.. So I was 17 when the keynote talk was given at Kezar stadium on a sunday. I remember the build up. Almost 6,000 years since Adam created. Then he named the animals. How long did it take? Not long since there wasn't as many varieties. How long after that was Eve created? We don't know but, not long. How long till they were cast out, not long (because of course, Eve didn't get pregnant)
So brothers and sisters, maybe a few months, weeks, we don't know, but soon etc. about the coming year of 1975 things will happen. Where will you be etc, what will you be doing? The whole stadium was silent. I left my seat to go to the bathroom. Which was just my way of finding a place I could sob silently at my upcoming death. I must have looked terrible with snot running down and red eyes and nose. But I guess I was also good at hiding it by keeping my head down. My older sister didn't notice a thing she said.
Sadly, I still remained a prisoner of this religion most of my life believing it was a "truth" even if it destroyed me.