So I recently moved back to my really really really small hometown in the South. It was the place that my parents moved to from a major city up North in the early 1970's. When we lived here times were very tough financially and I was always told that the reason we did not attend meetings was due to the fact that we had no car / no gas for the car / could not afford repairs for the years we were there. In total they lived there for 12 I was born there and left when I was 8.
I had one friend that I remembered, but here but he has since moved away. We were best friends and his mother and mine were very very very close for a while then they stopped associating. Well, I decided to look this 70-year-old woman up, and I actually found out she lived just a few miles away. So, I went by and believe it or not she instantly recognized me after 30 years.
IT GETS INTERESTING HERE
After talking about how nice the old town was she asked me about my mom. I told her that I wanted to let her know I no longer was a witness and my mother no longer spoke to me so I wasn't really sure. SHe proceeded to laugh and say, "I am surprised she still is! When did she go back?" I said as far as I know we always were. Then the floodgates opened. I discovered things about my family and the lies they told and still tell.
My mother repeatedly told us that there were a few who believed '75 was the end but the brothers never said that etc... etc...
Well this woman told me that my parents told her the reason the moved away from the city in 1973/4 was because they new the system was ending in 1975 and that they:
A. wanted to serve were there was a greater need in the FINAL MONTHS of this system.
B. Didn't want to be in a big city during the great tribulation because it would be unbearable with children
My jaw hit the floor... I have been lied to for years. But the story just got worse. When my mother arrived she pioneered. Then as the months came and went and so did 1975 my parents were very angry and STOPPED ATTENDING. She even told this woman that she put off having more children because of this prophecy and once she realized it was not going to happen that they decided to have another child... which was me a few years later.
W................................T................................ENTIRE.....................................................................F
They then became inactive and refused to go back. There was also a huge scam that took place with a rather prominent Elder who later became a C.O. and is now a D.O. which I may have to explain later as that story is one our family does still talk about.
Anyway, when my parent's finances got too bad and had to return to their original location after having watched the borg fail in it's predictions, they were forced to go to meetings if they wanted to acquire work with a brother that they knew who would only assist them if they "returned to Jehovah"™.
We shared a bunch of other tidbits and I learned a ton about my parents earlier years that they have totally lied about to all of their children for years. It seems like this magical year of 1975 just will never fade away. It continues to haunt people linked to this deceptive organization.