yes, really into Sabbath day being kept, Jewish diets, kind of like another SDA, with Armstrong instead of Ellen White!
Armstrong combined SDA, Mormon and JW teachings, along with his own ideas. He called himself the Last Prophet, not immediately but eventually.
Yes, growing up, I was taught not to eat unclean meats and fish; including not only pork, but also catfish and shellfish.
No Christmas, and no singing Christmas songs in school, either. We kept the Feast of Tabernacles instead. Also the Seven Days of Unleavened Bread. And others. Thanksgiving and Fourth of July were allowed. Not any Catholic holidays.
When I was three years old, an aunt tells me I was saying over and over, "If you don't go to church on the Sabbath, you'll burn in the Lake of Fireeeee!!!" Thankfully, I have no memory of this.
My father and mother left the church when I was in first grade. Most people left. There are still small splinter groups remaining.
My father butted heads with church hierarchy. He said to Rod Meredith, Armstrong's second-in-command, "Rod, you are not the head of the church, Christ is!" Meredith responded by calling my father a liberal and an anarchist. Actually, my father would learn later that he is really a Libertarian.
My parents were very young when they were sucked in. They listened to Armstrong on the radio, and my mother was invited to a Bible study group in high school. They both decided to go to Ambassador College in California, which is where they met.
It's hard for people to understand why anybody falls for it, but if you read the literature, you will see that Armstrong was a persuasive writer. He used to write advertising copy.
Also Armstrong was playing off the turmoil of the sixties to try to point to evidence of the Last Days.