My mother became a witness when I was five and I believed that every witness followed what was said at the meetings and the instructions given. My naive belief carried on until maybe I was 10? or so.
At the old conventions, volunteers would come early and pack fruit into net bags so that it could be sold at lunch. My mother volunteered us to do it. (don't ask me how she got us there that early) So we put grapes, nectarines, apples and bananas in the bag for maybe an hour and then came time for the doors to open at the venue for seating. I was so excited for this because I had always seen the seats with the extra 3' foot space that ringed the facility but had never been early enough to be able to sit in them. So we stood in a crowd in front of the doors. A brother with a serious face, gave a speech about how we should not run, save seats for others etc. because we would want to be christ like and think of others.
Doors open. Young brothers ran like crazy towards those seats and threw blankets everywhere. I was shocked.
Afterwards, I looked at the "brothers and sisters" who sat in them, piously reading the bible and taking notes. I never looked at those setting in the seats as anything other than hypocrites after that.
The other thing was just maybe 10 years ago when I still attended conventions. We were assigned to clean some interior offices in the venue. In my mind, as JW's you trusted people. (yes naive again) So it was rather shocking to see this rather menacing "brother" standing in the middle of the room with his hands clasped in front of him, staring at us like we were going to rob the bank. Maybe he was a cop for hire I don't know but it added an element that seemed foreign. It was just unsettling to me because it was implying that I was untrustworthy.
What did you run into that revealed all wasn't as it should be? I would imagine a person converted later in life wouldn't see the same things to the degree a born in would, but it would be interesting to hear about it.