I clearly remember what happened in 1975.
A small group of us including a middle aged member of the 'anointed'. Tom Banakas (He no longer lives so he won't mind being named). Tom, the anointed, picked up a lost pair of eye glasses on the sidewalk, put them on his face and said "I'm making a spectacle of myself." He was the congregation comedian.
It was 1974 and we were going to a special talk which was being given in a sports stadium in Inglewood, California. It had 18,000+ seating capacity - each one of them filled. Frederick Franz, then vice president of the governing body, was to give the talk.
Franz started by giving his audience an overview of cosmic history from the creation to the millennium. The crown jewel of the talk was the chronology leading to 1975. He explained the whole thing. His conclusion was that the Great Tribulation would begin months or years but not decades after September of 1975. This range in time was due to the uncertainty of the length of the "Adam and Eve gap".
He explained that the longer time periods would mean that Adam was living without Eve for the same duration of years. He then said that Adam was going to be tempted by bestiality for lack of a mate for decades. "Will Jehovah allow Adam to be tempted into bestiality? NOOOOH brothers and sisters Jehovah won't allow that." he said in his sing-song voice.
I clearly remember what happened in 1975.
I was seated in that stadium, overflowing all the way to the floor. All seats filled. I was seated with an old style cassette recorder on my lap. I was wearing tacky polyester pants. I like to tape talks. I wish I knew where I had saved them (They would fetch a small fortune today.).
I clearly remember what happened in 1975.
1974: I was seated in the Kingdom Hall, in my favorite seat on the right side of the hall; mid-week night meeting. The Kingdom Service - or did they call it Kingdom Ministry then? - was being read by brother Ingle of the Valley Plaza congregation (Note: These persons and their close relations are deceased so don't worry.) reading that the end was so close that couples were selling their houses in order to dedicate themselves in the fulltime ministry. That was stated to have been a good thing to do in the "remaining few years".
I was reading from the same leaflet as him. Yes, I clearly remember what happened in 1975 in full detail.
I remember a few years later I was told by an elder who studied with me that I had lost zeal because of 1975. That wasn't true. He was simply imagining it. I was never a 1975 man I was a 1914 guy.
Arrogant Bastards!
