By: Rick Schmidt

Rick Schmidt — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:24:07 +0000

Hi Gisela,
Thanks for thoughts on communal living. The only first-hand knowledge of communal life happened when I was hitchhiking up the US West Coast in late 1960s and got a ride that brought me to a secret location (near Grant’s Pass, Oregon) of a major commune. They inadvertantly offered me a small plot of land and the logs to cut and Lincoln-log into a small cabin. They said they had a doctor and MFA in busines on the premises, and I saw they had constructed a VERY impressive large log cabin lodge and created an expansive organic garden. The driver told me that there were no jobs per se, just that people only did ‘what their spirit moved them to do.’ They survived with 5 gallon canisters of food — peanut butter, etc. — brought by welfare workers when they had had a hard winter the year before. In other words, they made it up as they went along, and tried to recruit new members when they happened along. Always wondered at the fate of that 30+ member group! Now wondering what a ‘new millennium’ version of that commune would resemble, either in UK or upper West Coast US

By: Gisela Hoyle

Gisela Hoyle — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:10:29 +0000

Have repeately wondered about it – and have several friends, family members and acquaintances who have looked into the possibilities quite extensively. The irony is: initially setting up a commune is prohibitively expensive! Not a reason to give up on the idea, though . . .

Comments on: Black President by Rick Schmidt

By: Rick Schmidt

By: Gisela Hoyle