My Escape (page 3)

anewme

Welcome Joel, your heart pain comes through loud and clear in your writing. Thanks for your contribution.

Beep,Beep

Question, your pofile shows you to be 35 years old, so just how well can you remember 1975 or what was said about it ?

Having been a teenager then why don't I remeber things the way you do ? And please no mind control/brainwashing claims.

Doesn't your post sort of violate guideline number 2

Mark

Welcome to the board, Mark.
I also remember, in painful detail, how I got the scars on my arm. The house we lived in had a heating vent on the floor which got very hot. My mother and father were talking about going to the beach, which I thought meant "right now", so I grabbed a blanket (no idea, it made sense at the time) and ran after her while she was putting away laundry. My foot got tangled up and I landed on that heating vent. I stayed there, screaming, until my mother picked me up. She doesn't know how I could remember, since I was only 2 or 3 at the time.
I remember the German Shepherd that attacked me as I played on the sidewalk when I was 6. I remember getting the single stitch in my leg, but - oddly - not the 5 stitches over my right ear.
I remember the little Asian girl who tried to scrape my freckles off with a plastic knife. I'm not sure, but I think it came from a Play-Doh set. She called me "Jello". I don't know how old I was, but it had to have been before school.
I remember thinking I was going to go to school when I was 4, and announcing the fact to everyone who came to the door.
I remember when my favorite TV show was "Zoom".
I remember each of my pets. And the sadness when they died or had to be given away.
I remember, when I was 7, a little girl in the neighborhood who lived with foster parents. She told me what her real father had done to her, and I wish I could forget.
I remember these and many more things. Many of them I can recall only by remembering something else first, but a few will spring unbidden into my mind. Memories I had thought long forgotten. I am haunted by memories.
Yet, I forget what today's date is, my own phone number, or where I put my keys. I don't have eidetic memory, which would be really useful as a writer.
I said nothing in that post that broke the rules. I avoided bringing up certain things that would have invaded someone's privacy. I spoke only the facts as I know them. Your post is an obvious attempt to silence me via chastisement. I can only guess that I must have struck a nerve.
While I _should_ be upset at your calling me a liar and making accusations, I am not. I understand and sympathize. I used to do the same thing to my father.

Beep,Beep

With due respect, I am not calling you a liar. I am challenging your memory. We tend to remember what we want to.

There are those who INSIST that 1975 was taught to be the end. You seem to fall into that group. There are some questions that I have been unable to get a straight answer to concerning this alleged "teaching". Maybe you could be the first who will give me something other than "C.Y.A." thinking.

If 1975 was being taught as "The END", why were plans for District Conventions in 1976 announced at the 1975 ones ? If "The END" was coming in 1975, some go so far as claiming the fall of 1975, why print MILLIONS of magazines for the months of October, November,and December of 1975 ? Why announce when the Memorial would be held in 1976 ? Why build so many new Kingdom Halls from 1973 or abouts right on through ? With in a 200 mile radius of where I grew up 6 new halls were built during the 1974 - 1975 service year, why bother ?

How about it ? Have any ideas ?

Mark

Joel Wideman

That's called covering your ass. Something the Society told Witness youths not to do until 1994.
Now let me ask you. If the Society never said 1975 was the end, then why did so many people believe it at the time? Could it have had anything to do with articles like this:
Watchtower 1966 October 15 pp.628-9 Rejoicing over "God's Sons of Liberty" Spiritual Feast
Only a liberated people can preach a release to captives, conventioners were told in the speech "Preach a Release to the Captives," which thrilled them with its hopeful outlook. "Jehovah, the God of freedom and liberty, has freed his people from Babylonish bondage and has given them a work of liberation to do. That work of liberation and salvation must go on to the finish! To give aid today in this critical time to prospective sons of God," announced President Knorr, "a new book in English, entitled 'Life Everlasting-in Freedom of the Sons of God,' has been published." At all assembly points where it was released, the book was received enthusiastically. Crowds gathered around stands and soon supplies of the book were depleted. Immediately its contents were examined. It did not take the brothers very long to find the chart beginning on page 31, showing that 6,000 years of man's existence end in 1975. Discussion of 1975 overshadowed about everything else. "The new book compels us to realize that Armageddon is, in fact, very close indeed," said a conventioner. Surely it was one of the outstanding blessings to be carried home!

Beep,Beep

So you have no better answer than "C.Y.A." ?

Mark

Beep,Beep

A better question would be, if 1975 was taught to be the "END" and 1975 came and went, why didn't MORE people leave ? Why did so many more STAY?

You are not the first person I've come across who makes this claim. Yet when asked to produce a single clear statement from a Watchtower or other publication that indeed says 1975 is going to be the "END" all have failed. Csn you do any better ?

Mark

Aude_Sapere

With all due respect, beep,beep...

I was extremely active in 1975 and my dad was PO at the time. I have clear recollection of talks with 'strong suggestion' that Sept/Oct 1975 was to be the end.

Somewhere on this site is a link to society literature that highlights the same.

-Aude.

Aude_Sapere

If "The END" was coming in 1975, some go so far as claiming the fall of 1975, why print MILLIONS of magazines for the months of October, November,and December of 1975 ? Why announce when the Memorial would be held in 1976 ? Why build so many new Kingdom Halls from 1973 or abouts right on through ? With in a 200 mile radius of where I grew up 6 new halls were built during the 1974 - 1975 service year, why bother ?

I remember asking those same exact questions. The answer I was given at the time was that we would need them after Armegeddon to maintain theocratic education of ourselves and the myriads that would be brought back to life. The systems in place pre-Armageddon were training for the *real* education work that would follow during the 1000 year reign of Christ.

-Aude.

Beep,Beep

You know what, so was I. And yet I don't remember any such clear talks. Bottom line people read MORE into what was written there was actually there. I travelled to various Kingdom Halls with my father as he gave talks. I never came across anyone who taught or believed that 1975 was going to be "IT". I do not know where this claim came from and as I said earlier I have yet to see a single clear statement to that effect, not one. Wonder why ? I mean if it was plainly taught surely there should be some statement or statements that clearly say that.

Mark

My Escape

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