I was a young teenager in 1975 and I remember Circuit Overseers like Floyd Kite coming around giving really fanatical, exciteable talks telling the congregation that in 1974 that " whether or not we will have another assembly in this system of things or not- we don't know- but Jehovah willing we may be having our next district convention in Paradise next year ! " Crazy statements like those kinds of statements whipped up a frenzy of false anticipation within JW's at that time and made people even MORE excited to go out knocking on doors trying to allegedly " save people's lives ". I was one of those young JW's that got whipped into a frenzy at that time as well because my dad was an elder and way back then I bought into the crap- it's what I was raised with.
I remember as a young 15 year old in one month in my summer vacation getting in 102 hours in service one month and placing 212 magazines in one month. I look back now and I think " what a fanatic nutcase I was ! " But I was caught up in the group hysteria that was sweeping through ALL JW's at that time. And we have WT leaders, overzealous C.O.'s and D.O.'s to thank for it. Before the decade of the 1970's was over I was in my late teens spending time trying to date my JW girlfriend and figure how to be alone in back seats of cars with her more than pioneering or going out in service. Went back to getting 10 hours a month in and got married at 19 years old in 1979 ! LOL.
So the old " hysteria " thing only works so long on so many people . As Barnum said, " you can fool some of the people some of the time, but can't fool all of the people all of the time. " Now we finally have our freedom of mind and THAT is what I treasure