I think I mentally checked out after 1975. My family had moved to where the need was greater (West Coast to Midwest). We had sold our house and most of what we owned and went to serve out the few years before Armageddon. Floyd Kite, Angelo Manera and others made very direct comments about 1975 as did the WTBTS. We were living off the proceeds of the home sale for the most part. The upside was we met a long of great people. After 1975 (I was in high school) I vowed never to trust the Society again. I met my then wife in the Midwest and we did the JW thing for several years. I served several positions, PO, Sub-CO, rooming guy at conventions and advised WT Treasury and all of the sorts of the things that we were supposed to do. My spouse was a believer and our daughter got baptized but she, like me, realized it was not the "truth". Since I never trusted the advice of the Society completely I made sure that all of us went to University. I did this while working and wife and daughter both went full time after I had finished and daughter was old enough. It set us up for our eventual exit. We also did other pretty lame rebellious things like Thanksgiving and New Years celebrations. We also did low-key birthdays celebrations. During our life, like others, we saw all sorts of injustice. From child abuse issues, to judicial committees being drunk on power, the devaluation of women in the organization (like crazy Ted J telling women to stay with abusive mates). The generation change, blood issues and other doctrines were all factors. But after our daughter didn't want to live the half-in-life anymore and moved to Europe to finish college my then wife decided to explore things a bit on her own. In her exploration, and with some prodding from our daughter and me, she quickly realized that the religion was not only a sham but also harmful in its teachings and left immediately. I respect her a great deal for the quick decision, I was somewhat happy being in and doing my own thing while having a fun group of people to hang out with. When she decided to not go to meetings any longer I wrote a letter resigning my positions and we never looked back. A wonderful scholar named Leolaia was very instrumental in solidifying our decision. We are both married to other individuals - wicked worldly people, haha - and are all very happy with life and where we are at. I stop by this site from time to time to check in on what is going on with the JWs and the latest scandals. I love where we are. I do not mean to make the exit sound easy. It was emotional at times and only a handful of our past "friends" stay in touch. But it was the best decision of our lives.