My family attended the 1953 New York International Convention in Yankee Stadium. We got there by traveling in our 1941 Chevrolet 2-door sedan (on its third engine). Fortunately my father was a Chevy dealer mechanic so he was able to keep it running during our 5 day trip from southern California to New York City. There were 5 of us in the car, including my sister who sang "How much is that doggie in the window?" almost constantly the entire trip.
What I remember most (besides my sister's singing) was the fact that my mom and dad spoke about Armageddon being just around the corner. They both expected to hear Brother Knorr make a big announcement during the main talk on the last day of the 8-freaking day convention in the summer heat in Yankee Stadium.
We became a very active JW family upon our return and that's pretty much it. I was 10 years old.
Five years later we drove to New York again for the 1958 International Convention. This time we went in our 1955 Chevy sedan with a real V-8 engine. But no air conditioning. At least we had four doors and roll down windows in the back seat. That was the car that my father announced would be our last one before Armageddon came.
Oh boy! We just knew that this time we were really going to get the word. In fact, it was either Brother Knorr or maybe Fred Franz who made a point that we would never again be able to meet in one city because our growth had exploded and Armageddon was so very, very close. When we got back home my parents began making plans to move "where the need was greater" - which they did right after the 1963 Convention.
By then I began to make my move away from the organization - although I was still active, on the public speaker rotation, and was serving as a Book Study Conductor. I let a university scholarship opportunity get away from me and instead was working menial jobs. My parents frequently pressured me to bring my wife and kids and come join them in central Nebraska, hoping that if I would join them in the pioneer service there that I would get my head straight and become a more active JW. Almost every phone call during that era was laced with their suggestions that Armageddon was just a year or two away. And this was before the 1975 debacle.
Each time that I was able to talk to or visit my parents, I was reminded that I needed to repent and get back into the organization because Armageddon was "literally just months away."
So here we are, 40 years after the 1975 failed prophecy - and the Watchtower (and rank and file JWs as well) are still pushing the idea that Armageddon is just over the proverbial hill. And yet everything the Watchtower does goes in the opposite direction. New building and expansion plans? The old windowless Kingdom Halls that would provide protection for the JWs during the beginning of Armageddon are now being replaced by building with thin walls and massive amounts of glass???
But reason is not involved in anything that JWs believe. The Watchtower can change its teachings, its policies, and its financial dealings 180 degrees - and the JWs will just follow along as if they had hooks in their jaws. I know because my own family was like that and some of them still are. Sadly, I guess, for them Armageddon did not come in their generation as they had been promised.
JV
