I spoke with my JW mum yesterday. We had a fairly normal conversation, until I mentioned that I had heard that Milton Henschel had died.
She was quite taken aback, not with the news, but with the fact that I knew about his death, whilst she and her fellow witnesses didn't have a clue.
She then mentioned that many witnesses still used a favourite expression of Milty's, an expression that they first heard back in the 60's at the beginning of the 1975 craze:
"Don't polish the brass on a sinking ship!"
She said that Milton was first hear to use this phrase whilst speaking at a Cardiff, Wales, assembly. It was used in the context of not wasting time on education or a secular career so as to improve the quality of life in a world that would be "sunk" within a matter of years.
Although the irony of his words seemed to have escaped her, it made me realise just how many pet phrases and slogans the witnesses use to imprint their followers.
Englishman.