RFD Issue 10 Winter 1976

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6 Goat Dairy Ted 8 Factory work Richard Dierks 9 Toad Suck Bill Morton 11 Landon’s Response Landon Poetry: Sampaku Ralph Moreno Raving «10 Aaron Shurin Poetry: Untitled Wi11iam J Riley Moth-mare Dave Sunseri Conference Moon over Miami Sandy Lowe Bread and Roses Jai Elliott Michael’s Critique Michael Ford Men Half Women Richard Weinraub It just happened one day Len Hearing the silent voices of other creatures Allan Behind Bars Prisoner section Really, Mother!

David under Waterfall Candor Light on Water Candor Photo Candor Poetry: Letter Christopher Garten Dodo the cat gives himself to the universe and later writes poems Bruce Boone I have set myself among the grass Kenneth Craig Bland Food: Bulgur Chuck Beckwith Tofu Carl Clothing Simplicity John Steczynski Contact Letters Info

OR TX FL OR CA CA CA CA CA OR OR OR OR OR

N210 COLLECTIVE Chenille, Steve, Michael, Candor, Landon, Samuel, Sean.

PRODUCTION: Chenille, Samuel, Steve, Michael, Landon, Jai Copy Typing-person Jai GRAPHICS:

OR OR OR

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Landon 6, 26, 38 Gerard Brender a Brandis 3, 28, 41 John Steczynski 5, 39, 40 Samuel 8, 9 Michael Ford 12, 26 Allan 15, 23, 24, 25 Len 21 Dimitri os 47

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PHOTOS

WI OR

Ted 7 Bill Morton 10 Allan 20 Candor 13, 14, 17, 32, 33, 34, 36, Af>

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ME

OR Ontario ME OR OR OR OR CA

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RFD is published four times a year by RFD 4525 Lower Wolf Creek Road, Wolf Creek, Oreoon 97497. Second Class Post paid at Wolf Creek Or 97497. © R F D 1976. RFD is a non-profit corporation. Donations tax deductable.

SUBS: $4 per year 2nd class. $6 first class, S5 Canada and other countries, S8 institutions, $15 sustaining, free to prisoners, Bookstore discount 32' (40<t)-

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Dear People!

Tears come when I read RFD; at last, fel­ low humans who want to embrace life, them­ selves, each other.

I live in the city, I have almost all of my present life, but my heart is definitely in the country. The few times I have gone out of the city since I recently started to sit quietly with my­ self daily, I began to cry...coming in contact with the enormous amount of pain and self-denial which my past and present lifestyle entails.

I am a brother being, praying for all of us in the big boat of existence, reaching out...trying to be...I'm afraid...fearful... but filled with love. Anyone who comes to Chicago, call and/or stop by!

1 kiss you all!

Tsvi Goodman 3337 N. Ha Is ted Chicago, IL., 60657 (312) 549 0901 In the Fall issue we published an inter­ change between ONB and me about butch and fem and farm work. It was my suspicion from the get go that ONB was really into some sort of exploitative sex trip, that all the talk about farm work was a dodge. Then, Michael from NYC wrote us this angry, hurt letter.

Chenille Dear RFD, I wanted to bring this to your attention because it strongly affected me.

My lover and I wanted to move out of the city, so we wrote ONB and received a few pages of information. They requested an auto­ biography which we sent that was both very honest and lengthy. Their reply was that since he and I were lovers, they would be ex­ cluded from getting to know us, which means they wanted to sleep with us. They stated that those who were accepted had to sleep with others who were accepted into ONB. They requested that those who reply must be into sodomy and nothing else...

They also said in their ad that they would accept people from the ages of 18 to 30. When my lover and I wrote that he was 23 they said he was too fuckin' old!

This is very accurate.

I do have some malice towards ONB, but this letter is all truth. I am just too angry now to make much sense.

Michael R. Wolcott 500 West 110 St., #4D NYC, NY, 10025

Dear RFD Readers, We are a community/tribe of lesbian fem­ inists and children who live in the country.

We are seperatists because we believe that

seperatism is essential to bringing about revolution against sexism in America at this time. The children who are living with us need to experience positive images of male energy. This is especially important to boy children who live in a community of all women who are les­ bian seperatists.

Our children need your support. We need your support for our children.

Sisters of the Cres­ cent Moon Kiwa Sisters, Owl Sisters Rt. 2, Box 5-B, Days Creek, OR, 97429 RFD, In the Summer '76 issue there were some poems by a man named Bill Taormino. I thought they were very good poems (in fact, many of my friends thought they were among the best of the poetry to appear in RFD), and I would like to let him know that he has an audience.

Thank You, Richard Linker 1000 Ohio Lawrence, KS, 66044 Dear RFD, Congratulations on your No. 9, which arrived today. I especially liked your ex­ change of letters on the subject of being butch or masculine.

Good luck and best wishes: Boyd, Straight To Hell Magazine Box 982 Radio City Station NYC, NY., 10019

The pebbles containing mica and sunreflecting crystals, the spicy sand which held the brook, the Sweetwater which took its time curling thru the meadow...we were all friends. The trees were my friends, too, the maples with their cool green shadows and the pines which I climbed and shared with redwing blackbirds. The tree outside my bed­ room window...on summernights, he and I watched thunderstorms and moon together. My family lived in a 150 year old white clap­ board house in Maine...the kind of home you find throughout New England's hills. We had no electricity. We did have a pump in the kitchen, a big ole mama woodstove, and an outhouse down by the barn. I had only one sister then, but I don't remember playing with her much. I ran barefoot thru the fields, climbed trees and stonewalls, col­ lected bluejay feathers to wear in my hair, and skinnydipped with polliwogs down at the pond. My granddad called me "Huck".

Now I live in the city and I am as hap­ py as a bear in honey. When I rejected the idea that gayness is wrong, I also rejected the puritan idea that cities are bad. Now I am a city boy with country ways. Now I am fascinated by people I did not have in my

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sparsely-populated childhood. I need both the city and the country. To prevent lop­ sidedness, I spend time with my family and longtime friends who still live in the country of northern New England.

I have heard many rural newcomers con­ demn city living; I have met persons in Cal­ ifornia who say nothing east of Colorado is of interest to them; and Northerners who look down their liberal noses at the South.

I have encountered plenty of gay people and gay bar managements who jabbed at my right to have heterosexual friends. Narrowminded­ ness can strike out from the "hippest" pla­ ces.

To my RFD brothers: I think we all should take care to pull up the weeds of bitterness and narrowmindedness, for their blossoms will be those of misunderstanding, alienation, and suffering. Otherwise, we may end up with a crop failure.

May you all have an enjoyable winter.

Love, Jamie Rein 147 West Concord Street Boston, MA, 02118 Dear RFD, The written contributions are getting better. "Bussie, the Home on Wheels" and the "Straightest One in the Class" were well done.

I grew up on a farm and am presently living and going to school in an extension of Middle Earth called Lawrence, Kansas (the Hobbitts keep to themselves but you see one now and then if you're observant), but I can't wait to get back to the real world.

The country is a nice place to visit, etc., and I always will, but the city pace is my lifeblood. I subscribe to RFD because of its sincerity, informality, and good poli­ tics (we won't mention the human-exploita­ tive national publications, but they know who they are).

I applaud the rural-at-heart faggots who carve out their homes in the country.

But my mind insists upon juxtaposing their letters with those from the prisoners whose only mail is RFD. Breaks my heart.

Please use the enclosed contribution for those who need but can't afford.

With you in spirit for freedom for all people, Dave Jacobson 809 Ohio Lawrence, KS, 66044

Dear RFD, Being on the collective of this bookshop I see and read most of the world's gay print and of all those, yours is the one I feel a strong rap­ port with, the only one I look forward to.

It's not just because I was brought up in a semi-rural suburb of Melbourne (though love of trees is love of trees wherever you are), hut also due to the fact that the lifestyle is just not what I want. My picture of Par­

adise (besides being able to write legibly) doesn't consist of never ending circles of pricks lazily pushing their way out of the fog of a steam bath. I guess it's because 3 am as close to being...it's just that...fuck, I like the sun and moon, the hills and moun­ tains and dope and time to sit down and clean the duck shit off my feet. A lot of the ar­ tistic and philosophic attitudes of gay peo­ ple in amerika seem to be symptomatic expres­ sions of overcrowding. Until I read RFD I was probably the world's No. 1 amerikaphobe; I didn't really think there was much more to amerika than big, dirty cities, big dusty wild wests, and big brash multi-national bus­ inessmen. Well, now I know there are some really beautiful people and places I could love. lots of love, Quentin, Dr. Duncan Bookshop 140B King William Road Hyde Park, S.A., 5061 Australia Dear RFD Readers: I came from my home in a city to the creekland, to help type up and lay out RFD #10. I came to work on the magazine and to gain relief from the confusion of city life.

I walked into a collective of intensly struggling country faggots who are working in a revolutionary way, day by day...contin­ uously working on themselves, each other, and the process that that demands. The work is dealing with issues of class background & privilege, sexism/sex roles & repression, collectivism & visions...essentially radical tribalism. The methods or tools used as pro­ cess include passing the rattle in a circle (whoever holds the rattle speaks, and thus has the space to get clear without interrup­ tion), and an overall constant level of hon­ esty, clarity, openess, & directness. I see it as faggot magick...buiIding the foundation of a much broader struggle. (The revolution has to go on in the inside, as well as the outside.)

The work going on here at the creekland clearly pointed out to me that many assump­ tions of country living are idealistic and ig­ norant of the real situation. The tools used here are valuable & usable for folks anywhere to discover who we are, what we need & want, and how to start constructing a sensitive, personal basis of struggle.

From here we can create the reality of revolution. From here we take control of our lives. ..ending the oppression & repression within and around us...now. I see work be­ ing done here that is working for a new humanity clearly, with constant analysis. It can and will hap­ pen everywhere once people discover that it works in everyone's best interest. But the word has to get out: we are seed. Together we pull the sunrise. Love & support in struggle: jai d.-elliott/mao house 2193!j Alder Street Eugene, OR, 97405

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RFO is a collective of 8 gay Wolf Creek men. RFD is becoming one of the primary means of »ur economic survival. It is also an im­ portant channel for our emotional growth.

RF'j , along with other gay liberation organiz­ ations, is a member of Gay Community Social Services (GCSS), a northwest non-profit corp­ oration. The magazine pays us, the staff, for RFO expenses such as gas and rent. That now amounts to $200 a month collectively. We are struggling and learning how to work coopera­ tively, seriously, consistently and with humor.

As is clear on our legal ownership statement (below) the government does not have a space on its forms for collective pub­ lishing and editing. It is sometimes hard for us to learn how to share both the shit work and the power. There are certainly few models in american society for co-operation, especi­ ally among men.

It is important to us that RFD mature and become a window on our gay rural visions and realities. To do this takes an immense amount of work. We are also very busy garden­ ing, gathering wood, canning, and farming. We do not have the leisure or the privilege to do RFD as a hobby. We need dollars. We must make land payments and buy chicken wire. We also need an occasional movie and sometimes a candy bar.

This is the third issue of RFD we have all worked on together. It has not always been easy.

Five of us live at the RFD address, the farm we call creekland. Three of us live up higher in the mountains on Lilac Ridge.

There's 9 miles between us. That can make it hard to get together for work.

Since the Labor Day conference on fag­ gots and class struggle, we have been dealing a lot with the differences in our class back­ grounds, in how we control what we own and in our sex role identities (fern or butch, sissy or stiff: straight identified faggot).

Cups have been broken, tears have been shed. RFD mail piles up; layout for this nr, STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP. MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION1 j.... Sept 29.1976 <*•'■! j 4S2S lower Wolf Creek iw’V w o H Creel seme

OR 97497

George JalBert 4525 Lower Wolf Creek Rd., Wolf Creek

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winter issue moves as slow as the blind creekland cat, michael.

But through all this we are developing a great trust in us. We are becoming more confident, more self-critical and more ten­ der with our selves. We are also getting the work done!

We are all young (if those of us in our thirties can be considered young), white, men. Almost all of us grew up outside of the large cities. But all of us have been nur­ tured by the cultural/political gay male circles in the large cities. Though some of us come from the working class, most of us come from the middle class.

Most of us call ourselves faggots. The original meaning of faggot is "a bundle of twigs or sticks used as kindling". In the mid­ dle ages the church used us gay men as kind­ ling, or faggots, to burn witches. Witches were usually wise herbal healers, all strong women, often lesbians. Witches and faggots were enemies of the church because we were often country dwellers, lovers of the nat­ ural world and the communal good, rather than private greed. We were an obstacle to the developement of merchdntalism, which be­ came capitalism.

We are proud of our past. We are proud of being identified so closely with strong women.

Society uses faggot precisely to put us down for this woman-identified past, this womanishness. The image of a faggot is the image of the most oppressed member of gay male society, the limp wrist, the quick lisp and the moving hips, the womanish man.

Though all of us are not sissy-men, we will no longer be ashamed of woman-identified men or the woman-identified man in all of us.

We also use 'faggot' to transform that word, to make it powerful for us rather than a weapon used against us. It has become a positive image. We have turned society's put-down into a magical, sisterly brother­ hood.

However, we understand that we are very privileged. We in Wolf Creek exist surround­ ed by a large nurturing gay men's community and a lesbian community. We have ties to a large circle of friends in the city. Most often we are free of the oppression of work­ ing daily for the rich straight man. We do not have landlords. Obviously, this is not every rural gay man's reality. We want RFD to connect with a wider audience.

Certainly one way to do this is to ad­ vertise RFD as a country journal for gay men, rather than a magazine just for a small circle of country faggots.

We will use both "gay men" and "faggots" in the magazine to describe ourselves. We ask men to remember that gay means both men and women. If you are refering to men only, please say gay men.

This will be window-dressing if the con­ tents remain the same. Your submissions are the contents! We can not widen the scope and appeal of RFD without your help. Please share your life with us all.

-the RFD collective

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i «ere 1t u r ^ r s . our theme for this winter issue: Country survival, fie didn't rei ceive exact! an abundance of material on this subject, so as a result we've only managed to come up with 3 articles. We present these 3 pieces as examples of how some country aay men have gone about creating a means of economic survival for themselves. This section rep­ resents several different approaches to that end.

We feel that a lot of folks didn't submit material to us because they survive through hustling and makeshift. These are alternative means that are not real stable, and which are not viewed as viable means of support by society. Thus it is hard for folks to expose themselves in this manner.

Many of us on the staff felt uncomfortable with the Toad Suck Farm article. It is clear to us that Bill’s experience in Florida is not typical of most country gay men. Very few of us are worth a quarter of a million dollars. We are critical of economic solutions to sur­ vival where one man makes a lot of money off of the labor of a number of others. Certainly Bill isn't sitting on his veranda sipping mint julips; yet in his own fashion he supports the oppressive employer-anployee relationship basic to our capitalist society.

We hope you enjoy this section, our first attempt at using a theme in RFD. We plan to continue having a theme in further issues, (see information page) Please help us alonq by submitting material on future themes.

-- -A---- ... n^~m~-V— nr

DAIRY

GOAT In the back of our minds, I guess, has been the idea of a goat dairy ever since get­ ting our first goat about ten years ago. How­ ever we never really seriously discussed the idea until about three years ago -./hen we were trying to think of ways to become less depen­ dent on outside jobs. For a couple of years we toyed with the dream from time to time, trying to imagine what it would be like, how it would enhance or change the farm we lived on since 1966 and how it would change our job needs, our lives. It wasn’t until July of last year when some really incredible changes occured that the dairy began to become a re­ ality.

First of all, Dick and I had been rais­ ing dairy goat breeding stock for a couple of years and in June of '75 went to California to look at a new herd sire to buy. Upon ar­ riving home we both became very ill and Dan, an acquaintance of a very short time, came out to the farm to take care of us. Then...as if by magic, we all three felt that we had

come together with some very strong and pos­ itive energy and love. And that is when Dick and Dan and I joined together in a great (if unexpected) relationship.

So...filled with dreams and joy of being together we were able to start work on the dairy. Three people it seems have alot more energy than two or one.

Actual construction started in January 76 and after doing all but a few minor things ourselves, the facilities were completed, the inspections and tests finished, and on June 4th we made our first delivery of "FRESH AND SWEET" OREGON BRAND DAIRY GOAT MILK. The construction process was Iona and demanding; physically, financially, psycho­ logically, but also a growing and building thing for us to experience together. The long hours of hammering, wiring, plumbing, sand­ wiched in between our so-called "regular" jobs seemed endless. Banks and lending insti­ tutions wouldn't touch a goat dairy; "because we just have never loaned money for that sort of thing before" they all said, "but after you've been in business a while be sure to give us a call then if you need money."

Greedy bastards. Anyway, with our pockets empty we borrowed from friends and family to complete the frightfully expensive construc:ion. Co-incidently, all the main landmarks of construction fell on holidays, birthdays,

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or special days* That gave us lots of encour­ agement that we were indeed doing the right thing and that it would all work out in the end.

I would like to mention something here that was a surprise and a disappointment to us during this whole period, Many friends helped from time to time with construction and moral support. And we were thankful for that. However many of our friends, most of whom have been characterized as "hip faggot defined politically vocal critics of the sys­ tem", seemed very threatened by us actually doing something about fashioning ourselves a new and more relevant lifestyle, both in our three-person relationship and the "cap­ italist" dairy. It was sad for us to lose those valued friendships and frustrating to have to deal with the negative energy pro­ duced in the process. Anyway, I guess that growth combines both joy and sadness and we have made many new and equally valuable friendships in the process.

With the start of selling milk came a whole new set of problems. The major one has been getting quart bottles. We bottle our milk in returnable glass only. Any other method is either wasteful and/or scary. In plastic, milk actually exchanges ions with the container! ICKY. There are only two manu­ facturers of glass quart milk bottles with 55mm tops (to fit our bottling machine) in the country. And they can make more money making billions of soda pop bottles than they can making a few thousand milk bottles. So we wait and search for used bottles. Occasional­ ly the glass companies will run an order and we get some, but it is erratic. In the mean­ time, folks buying our milk from the stores pay a 50C deposit per bottle and still don't return them. We have signs out in the stores asking for bottles back and that seems to be helping. But our average return since June has been between 10% and 20%. Gallon and half gallon bottles haven't been the problem that quarts have. At one point we were down to 4 cases (48 quarts). All of which were full and in the van for delivery when a car ran a red light and smashed into us breaking all the bottles. It was only by luck that two days later we discovered 34 dozen quarts available at a defunct dairy 200 miles from here. So, off we went on a merry adventure to get them.

Hi Iking here is done at 6:30am and 5:00pm.

About half of the 34 goats we milk now are Toggenburg and the other half a mix of all other breeds. Our purebred show string is still only Toggenburg, but we may go into an­ other breed one of these times. We go to three or four shows a year, primarily to get feedback from the judges and other breeders about our animals and our breeding program.

Also one show we go to is the county fair where the prize money makes it well worth it.

Another reason for showing is the advertising value for kids and breeding stock which is a necessary economic part of running a dairy.

We dislike the competitive nature of some snows and like to point out the information one can get from the judges about the animals.

The dairy itself consists of four rows.

The walls are white ceramic tile and white Harlite, a very hard sheet material used in showers. The floors are concrete, with drains.

Each room has lots of windows for light and view. We took great pains to make the whole place pleasant to be in as we spend lots of time there. All of the equipment is stainless steel. The refrigerated bulk tank (where the milk is kept until it is bottled) is kept at 38 , as is the cooler where the bottled milk is kept. Bottling is done twice a week, Mon­ day and Thursday. Deliveries are made the following mornings to about 15 natural food and health food stores in the area. An alter­ native type natural food distributing company picks up milk once a week for several stores farther away.

Oregon Brand Milk is Grade A Raw. This necessitates endless state tests and inspec­ tions but it is worth it. Pasturization is an excuse for poor management and sanitation and robs the milk of valuable nutrients. Oregon is one of the few states in the country al­ lowing raw milk to be sold.

Management of our herd is based on com­ mon sense. We use natural and organic methods when ever possible. The milking animals get a 14% protein dairy ration plus whole oats, cracked corn and rolled barley. They also get some pelleted comfry, top quality alfalfa hay and good clover hay. All the animals get good grass hay, linseed meal, kelp, salt, mineral mix, brewers yeast, and molasses. The young babies get two quarts of milk a day for three months plus hay and some grain.

The novelty of our operation has aroused lots of interest. For fun we ordered a dozen T-shirts printed with our logo (of ^Goats) and they got so much attention they were near­ ly torn off our bodies. So we started taking orders and selling them. A local TV station came to the farm and taped a wonderful segment for the evening news, which brought lots of attention to the milk in the stores. Also, the local newspaper has indicated interest in do­ ing a feature story on the dairy in the near continued page 41.

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I found that factory work is seldom hard, although it can be pretty boring. Most of the work leaves my head clear, and I can plan things, organize, or just plain think.

I've worked out many problems at work simply because I had time to deal with them. Most of my co-workers are country people. After I had been there a while everyone really open­ ed up to me. Workers look at people as tem­ porary and when you show them you'll be the there a while, they really become more friendly. I now have many friends at work and they know I'm gay, but they like me for what I am.

All of us are sometimes faced with need­ ing more money than our land can give us. I myself had a nice little income coming from my greenhouse. But after a while there were things I needed and I had to have an outside job to get them.

A friend of mine told me of a job at the factory where he works. I needed a job and the money was more than I could have got­ ten elsewhere. I kinda felt that I couldn't fit into the macho trip, though. Well, I got the job easily and after about 2 weeks I really began to like it. Our foreman is pret­ ty liberal and doesn't make us sweat blood.

All in all it's a pretty relaxed atmosphere.

1 found the pay at my factory to be a lot more than anyplace else. At some places wages start low because most employees quit after a few weeks. However, after it becomes clear that you will be there a while, then comes the raises, insurance programs, and other benefits. My employers give me many paid holidays, barbeques, and pretty good conditions at work. They also have it fixed so that I can get up to 10 hours of over­ time a week.

Two of the best things about the job are: I'm able to recycle plenty of things, and I have set up a really good barter sys­ tem. In the past 10 months I've taken home enough scrap lumber to heat my house for 2'z months. I also supply all my m e n d s with scrap vinyl and cloth. I get about four 5gallon buckets a week, and plenty of sawdust.

Also to be found are cardboard and plenty of

nylon thread. Factories throw things away like crazy and don't care if you salvage some of it. Most of my co-workers thought I was crazy to recycle the factories waste, but after a while they got used to it. Some people still can't understand why I would want to put sawdust and cardboard into my garden. I would suggest waiting about 2 months before you start all your salvaging.

In that way everyone can get used to you.

Since you're working with so many peo­ ple you can set up a pretty good bartering system. There are four ladies that buy eggs anytime I can get them. With only 20 hens I can't feed everybody. The ladies also buy any extra produce 1 have. I had a truckload of extra tomatoes this year, which I had growing directly in compost. I trade eggs for clay flower pots, plants for egg car­ tons, home canned goods for chickens, and anything else I need I can usually trade for.

We also loan tools to each other and help each other when possible. We also keep our ears open for things others need, or might need.

All in all, factory work has been a pretty good way to set myself up. I've estab­ lished a good library, stocked the green­ house with new plants, paid off my car, and got a little money saved. But most of all, now I have 10 acres of leased land that has a low enough rent so I can pay it easily.

I've slowly set myself up to support myself really well with my crafts and land. So, now I'm planning on leaving my job, or at least cut myself down to part-time.

Try the factory job, it could help you a great deal. As long as you try to make it, it just might help your homestead dreams come true.

Richard Dierks Rt. 1, Box 501 Bolton, TX, 76513

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UCK

F akm \(

Lois and Hank are in the field Plan1 planting Dracaena marginata stock into the1 ground .V^ /s Mario, my recently returned lover, ■, is out on X u / delivery of Schefflera, Ti plants,, Hibiscus, H i bi sc us ,\ Vi and Philodendron to two local customers. Mr. Baker, a local customer in Coral Springs cal­ led this morning to tell me that he would be down to make good the two checks that he gave me which bounced. Jo Anne came by to tell me that the 60 foot house trailer I purchased from her would be ready to move onto the property by the end of the week. Steve, Va1orie, and their two children are out cleaning off the piece of land where the trailor will be parked. They are anxious to move into the trailer in exchange for chores. It is Monday morning at Toad Suck Farm, Inc. Early this morning, before the help arrived, I took a walk through the nursery. The rhythmic flut­ ter of the bamboo leaves, and the lazy creak of the 60 foot stems told me that the still, humid, hot night was over and that the sea breeze had begun for the day. It will culmin­ ate this afternoon in a thunder shower, and the dank stillness will begin again. Already it is mid-October. The rainy season is draw­ ing to a close and again this year there is no hurricane to inundate me with its torren­ tial rains.

My little 10 acre swamp at the moment has a water table 6 inches below the surface of the ground, thougli I border a major drain­ age canal. I feel that the coming year will provide me with enough supply to put in drain tiles so that the water table can be lowered to about three and a half feet. I have waited five years for the opportunity, losing sight of my goals sometimes, due to the immense amount of energy required to run a wholesale tropical plant outfit. When you're up to your ass in alligators, it is hard to remem­ ber that the original objective was to drain the swamp. (The last sentence is a local folk saying.

What a contrast this place is from five years ago when I sat on the front door steps and declared myself a nurseryman. I had no money ($1,700.00 in savings) and no job, as I had recently resigned a university position as an agricultural research scientist. 1he land that I was occupying was a lease-option arrangement, and onto it I had moved two small wooden cottages which I had purchased

for practically nothing at a site on the beach which was slated for high-rise condo­ miniums. There were no plants to sell, no customers, not even plants growing which eventually might be sold. The land was covered with pines and palmettos, vines and tangle.

Part of it was under water, covered with 12 foot high marsh mallows, and saw grass which can be cut to the bone. Snakes, toads, frogs, and mosquitos abounded in the mire, which gave off a hearty sulforous stench in the heavy evening air. I suppose ignorance was my greatest benefactor, for had I known what I was getting into I might never have found the courage to make the break, nurseries do not merely happen, it takes work, lots of it. It takes money, lots of it. The irrigation sys­ tem on the five acres that I have developed cost $14,000.00 alone.

Today, the palmettos (a scrub palm) have been pushed out from under the pines.

The marsh has been filled and the land level­ ed with a slight contour for surface drain­ age. There are better than 150,000 plants growing on regular beds in pots. The two cot­ tages are connected with a 40 x 22 foot square screened porch sporting two Bahama paddle fans for outdoor living, especially in the winter when the humidity is lower, and the temperatures more agreeable. I have two pickups, a tractor, two house trailers, a storage shed, thirty chickens, twenty-five geese, three dogs, eleven cats, the 10 acres in my name with a healthy mortgage payment, and customers.

I ship tropical foliage plants for indoor use as far west as Texas, as far north as Toronto, and as far east as Long Island, and manage to do a fair amount nf business here locally (Palm Beach-Ft. Lauderdale-Miami area). My net worth is more than 200 times the $1,700.00 that I started out with in 1971. Spendable income is low, and profits marginal, but I live off the in­ come of the land. There are better than a dozen governmental agencies with their hands in my pockets. I have income tax, social sec­ urity tax, licence, agricultural bonding,

9

plant inspection by the State of Florida, and the United States Department of Agriculture, workman’s compensation insurance and customer liability insurance required by law, Occupa* tional Safety and Hazards Act (OSHA) people, rubberstamps for this and that, all of which cost me several thousand dollars a year.

I am billed as a conservation nursery.

I cooperate with the county conservation d e partment in the preservation of as many of my trees as possible, and the replanting of more to replace those which fell to the ax and land clearing.

I manage to live here and make a living, while leaving room for two coveys of quail, a fox den, squirrel, various and numerous tropical birds, and an opossum or two. Rabbits are so numerous as to be pests now that the rattlesnake popula­ tion is down to mere hysteria, and no real threat. Mario was bitten last week by a red rat snake, an arboreal variety which was perched in the fronds of an Areca palm he was picking the pine needles out of for de­ livery. He kept it around the house for a couple of days until he decided that mice were just too hard to catch. He let it go, swearing that the little critter looked hun­ gry.

1 don't know by what yardstick one might measure my business a success. I certainly don't drive fancy cars, or have fancy clothes. We do eat better cuts of meat now, and are able to entertain friends more often.

We feed the chickens and geese bought chicken feed instead of stripping the heads off var­ ious wild grasses around the place. I con­ sider the place a success because it provides me with two things: contentment and indepen­ dence.

The choice of this piece of land was the first and most important decision I had to make. I hail from a farm, and I know that some pieces of land are just too far from the market place, or too poor to be used success­ fully. If you plan to go to the country, don't take just any piece of land. Too often novices from the city enflamed with etherial aspects of country living buy cheap, poor land where hardy experienced farmers of a lifetime have failed. My land is in a good

location for shipping, as plant carriers and markets are here. I paid S4,000.00 per acre, not a small amount for a swamp, but then I saw potential in it for my purposes.

For the first three years of my busi­ ness, I could not afford to advertise in the trade journals. When my first crops were ready for selling, I put samples on the back of my pickup truck, put on my best clothes, combed my hair, and went calling on retail nurseries. Bush pushing takes some gall, but after you start to see dollars roll in, and after you know the customers, it becomes easier. Impeccable honesty and sincerity have gone a long way in getting me my yankee customers. My first northern customer came by refera! from a retailer in town. Later I started running ads in a trade journal. I joined a wholesale growers association whose objectives are the acquisition of new cus­ tomers. Last week I was out hawking my wares to retailers. I send out price lists to cus­ tomers. I work at selling. I work at col­ lecting money. I work at making valid choic­ es which are sound. I also work at being positive in my attitudes, and believing that I will succeed. There have been times when being positive required a lot of effort.

Plant diseases, standing water, insects, and ignorance have all taken their toll. Weeds are a major problem in the tropics, what with a 12 month growing period, and 5 months of daily rain in the summer. Last year weeds cost me around $10,000.00 in labor and chem­ icals. I am experimenting with geese as weeders. I have a gaggle of 25 who think I am mother goose (after 38 years I finally made it to mother goose) because I raised them from hatchlings. They can be used in weeding nursery stock as they are selective feeders. At my place, they do not eat Azalea, Schefflera, Ixora, Pittosporum, Podocarpus, Ligustrum, and Jasmine. On the other hand, they just love Palms, Dracaenas, Ti plants, Corn plants (ornamental), Asparagus Fern, and Wandering Jew. The geese have to be con­ fined with the plants they don't eat, and kept out of the others. They eat just about all species of grass and part of the broadleaf weeds. In a way they are like goats, as they have enormous appetites. Geese crap a lot, too. The plan is to turn weeds into goose crap, and achieve a two-fold purpose, that of converting weeds into fertilizer.

The birds are aggressive once they start to mate, and one needs to spend time with them every day when they are young so that they will be more manageable when they are grown.

Already mine have emerged as watchdogs. Re­ cently, two dainty queens showed up at my place, and while I was showing them the farm the geese rounded the bend, and chased them back to their car. At night they make a hell of a noise when intruders show up.

Geese are pretty well defenseless against dogs and foxes. They have to be kept out of natural ponds, and canals, as alli­ gators play bob the apple with them.

They get along well with other fowl, though they have to be fed separately to

10

c.eep aggression down. They lay huge eggs which are richer than hen eggs. White Chin­ ese, the variety that I have, which are smaller than most geese (12 lbs.) and which are the best weeders, as they forage more easily with the smaller weight, lay between 40 and 60 eggs a year if you gather the eggs regularly. God help your soul, however, if you try to gather the eggs after she starts to set. Geese breed for life, and you'll have both the male, and a couple of his mates to contend with. There is an added benefit of goose down. A pillow today costs about $40.00. Only kings and country people could afford a mattress of it. A goose din­ ner is a treat at Thanksgiving or Christmas, if you can hack the carnage. Six to ten geese per acre will keep it clean, if they a are at least 8 weeks old, and the land is clean when you start them out. They are used in mint, onions, cotton, strawberries, pota­ toes, sweet potatoes, hops, grape vineyards, oeets, roses, and orchards. In the field they have to be provided with plenty of water and shade. An excellent source of geese and information is the Heart of Missouri Poultry Farm, P.O.Box 954, Columbia, Missouri, 65201.

This fall I have had 12 stalks of ba­ nanas, and enough fresh pineapples. Winter will bring the citrus; summer, mangos and avacados. In December I will plant a few toma­ toes, and perhaps some sweet corn. And we survive. Produce is cheap from the road stands, roosters have to be killed and eaten.

Land taxes will come again. Plants will grow.

Customers will come. In the mornings I will listen to the quaking bamboo, and the rustle of the palms. At night I shall walk peaceful­ ly about my little spread, proud of me and my lifestyle, a part of the Nature that begot me. This land and I are in a partnership. We give and take. We sustain one another. We re­ spect and love mutually, refusing to fear.

Ask me how a faggot survives on the land and I will tell you...by doing it, by having the guts to do it, by hopping in and getting it done. If you are looking for a lover, get him before you move to the sticks. I started here alone, and much of it has been alone. My ar­ rangement in that area is tenuous at best.

But who knows, if I wait ("...to those who wait will come all things..."), someday in through those gates will come Jungle Ji^ decked out in tropic whites, splashing along in his swamp buggy...whence swept off my feet in the wake, we fade blissfully into the quicksand.

-William M. Morton Toad Suck Farm 13029 Morton Way Delray Beach, FL, 33444

L A N D O N 5 '

R E S P O N S E . :

When I read this article I had feel­ ings of resentment and I wanted to either not use the article or through the process of layout show him up. All I could see was the dollar signs and his lack of concern for the people around, except what money they could bring in for him.

I was raised in a working class family and saw my parents work away their lives so one person could get rich off of them. My parents were very giving and were used and their lives sucked out by this type of taker and thrown away once they were too old to bring in a profit. My escape from this was to go to college, working in the summer in factories, all so that I could be one of the privileged and take advantage of my fellow humans. This isn't what I want from the world around me. I didn't forget my parents and the people I was reared with, and how they were used and treated like second class citizens because they were not into using the people around them. I don't want a world with second class citizens. I don't want to use my privileges to enslave people, but to free us from enslavement.

I resent the way Bill deals with the land and things as being cheap. I'm afraid I didn't start with $1700.00. Therefore, I had to buy cheap land, but my home is beautiful.

I can't afford meat, let alone better cuts.

Even though I'm a vegetarian I would like to have fish now and again.

The credits I want from my life aren't that I'm worth 100 times $1700.00. But in so some way I may help humankind move ahead.

Bill and I certainly have a different set of values, and hit on a lot of different poles, and it's hard to say to my soul that he's my gay brother, and I'm not sure if I really want to. But my gay brothers around me say: remember to do it with love. And I say it to you John Doe, I love you. We are all pro­ ducts of our environment. , /

IMJQOrJ

11

SAMPAKU (to P.S.) You mentioned with admiration a man who had his books, his cigarettes and his boy...at one with the hour, its own occupation, unregenerative.

As with food and water, one's eternity in the laying on of his hands and his mouth.

And in his eyes never the white moons of imbalance under lascivious pupils, never the look of failure staring through lust.

from mss: TO ONES UNNAMEO Š R a l p h Moreno, 1972

Raving H 10 A Dialectical View of Father's Impotence or The Withering Away of the State

Now it is YOU who are limp & cannot rise to the occasion queer, isn't it?& & it's MY fault. No more air in the big balloon because I pricked its skin. You wither in the face of my fierce gentleness: "since I found out about you & yr brother sex has become repulsive to me."

Is this anything to write a poem home about?

Dearheart faggotbrothers: We burn painful truth, hot to handle, the plain sight of us - medusa un mans them.

They burn snakes of ash on the very faggots they named!

-Aaron Shurin

12

I am embarrassed in these mornings: smog at dawn is the first high of the day, followed by cigarettes and coffee, followed by alcohol and hula.

Smog at dawn was the first high of the day when I was fourteen and courted boys, older ones for guidance and younger ones for pleasure and caught the bus to school mornings with tonys jims peters pall malls

Moth-mare

testosterone adrenalin.

I dreamed I was a moth At night, sucking light, Banging powdered wings Against your clear pane, Demonic flash flutter, I scatter living dust On your soft sill, silt-covered By hundreds before.

And catch the bus to work these mornings.

-Wi11iam J. Riley

-Dave Sunseri

13

Labor Day weekend saw 140 faggots gathering at the creekland (the RFD address) to explore, demystify, and develop their understanding of class struggle, and to share their experiences as faggots. Thus, a conference on Faggots and Class Struggle broke ground in an intensive and foresighted direction never before examined on the west coast.

The conference was pulled together by the Conference Planning Group, which designed 3 days of presentations, workshops, and cultural events.

5 presentations were offered during the daytime that weekend, with around 80 workshops dealing more intimately with issues raised by the presentations. There were presentations on: class & bourgeois ideology, imperialism, history of the father-dominated family, socialist fem足 inism, and on practice.

At night, faggot culture was shared in the form of: poetry, music, theatre, dance, fairy tales, orgy, mother/moon ritual.

In order to develop solidarity and to raise needed criticisms of the conference, caucuses were held and statements created and presented by: faggots from working class backgrounds, Jew足 ish faggots, older faggots, sissies, and anarchists.

The last day of the conference closed with a session of criticism/self-criticism, which is so vital in making a workable revolution. This was the culmination and confirmation of the con足 ference as a success in raising important issues about faggots and class struggle.

Our friends at MORNING DUE, in co-operation with the Conference Planning Group, are pub足 lishing a full account of the conference as a special issue of MORNING DUE. If you can't qet your local bookstore to carry MORNING DUE, you can order one of these conference issues by sending $1.25 to: MORNING DUE, P.O.Box 22228, Seattle, WA, 98122.

The photos in this section were not taken at the conference.

14

Sandy Lowe is a fine friend. The richness and variety of his past! He grew up in the Jewish working class community in new york. Upward mobility turned him into a rabbi. The wispy influence of his mother lee's country visions (RFD #9, pg. 38) brought him to So足 noma county, California, where he now teaches at a community college. This is an edited transcript of a tape he sent steven at creekland.

I am sitting out under the stars, on my deck, ah waiting for the moon to come up. I'm get-, ting stoned. I wanted to get this tape to you NOWWW. Ah this is Sunday night. And on tuesday 1'II be going to Miami for two days to visit my father, and to New York for four days to visit my aunt who's in the hospital dying of cancer. She's going to die soon, and I just thought that it was better to see her now before the severe degeneration sets in. And it feels as if I will be stepping into a dream. 'Cause that's where my family has some reality for me, only in my dreams. I dream of family quite often. But it's also going to be a monster step away from Cal足 ifornia , from my friends in Wolf Creek, from the conference, and away from you, and everyone I. love and I and...and so this is a quick little piece of my voice, ah, lest I drift away into the Atlantic.

I suppose I am somewhat lower down now, than I have been most of the week. Ah, the confer足 ence set me very high. The conference was the most important thing of that sort that I have ever done in my life.

We were in,the midst, or just getting into, the criticism/self-criticism. You said "YOU CAN'T LEAVE NOW!" And I said "I know", and, ah, well we had to WORK the next day.

I felt the conference as a process of us taking a giant step towards a new society. As a matter of fact, the weekend was for me the new society.

As a teacher, I am now in a petty-bourgouis position of power over the working class. Those people are trying to get a stupid AA degree so they get a better job, and here I am orancing about, you know, on their time. Ah, their helplessness. And I saw a great deal of how structur足 ed the presentations at the conference were too. You know, I happen to like lectures. I like listening to them. I like giving them. But I know how DEADLY they are. I know how killing it is, for young people, for everybody. The working class people there obviously had been fucked over in the public schools, which is the PURPOSE of the public schools. To fuck us over, and to keep us in our place. And to train us to be computer operators, if we are of the proper color and temperment.

15

It was interesting because I, ah, when I care back to Windsor (CA) and I had to he hack in c'ass the next day, you know, I thought I was just going to FREAK OUT. I guess my biggest fear was tne whoie heterosexist society that I've just encountered over and over aqain. My ood, where are y brothers? where are the people I can touch, can kiss, can hold?..... Iguess that's what frightened r.e the most about coming back. Frightened re, ANGERED me! That I had to leave wfat was rea y a new society. Really something that I felt strengthening re, and giving strength to others for the first time in my life.

The conference liberated the land. It is the land's first major crop, healing is a major function of the land. It was the therapeutic new society! Ah, this marxism, this new justice, this freedom, this anarchism. This, this, this, this, Ahhhh ahh, hapl'APpiness, this joy, this gay, gay, ah, life. This possibility of something better, this new crop of the creekland.

I've never realized up until recently how different the struggle has been for me, to come out. To really be gay. I remember when I was very very little, thinking about beino different, this way, and somehow fearing it, and dreading somehow that it would be an inevitable developm­ ent. out at the labor day weekend I had a sense of gayness as I've only had a sense before when I've been madly in love. It's a great joy...ah, I loved it!

I care home, it was tuesday night, yes, tuesday night I was sitting out here on the deck, came ho-e from school, exhausted...! was back here at eleven at night, and the moon was full and gorgeous. And I came out, collected the experience of the day, that weekend, and the faces, and the beautiful people, everyone was GORGEOUS! handsome, lovely, sweet...and their faces came before me, and it was as if the sky was filled with them, their light and the lioht of the moon...and I ias 1 URBAT i.L>!! In their honor...it was wonderful.... wonderful.

Well, that was the support, that was the happiness I felt that weekend: the remote politicos who ran the show, the PEOPLE in the kitchen cooking dinner, the PEOPLE doinq dishes, the PEOPLE caring for the kids, the PEOPLE doing the great cultural events, the PEOPLE makina love in the fields, the PEOPLE in the tipi, the PEOPLE everywhere! Smilinq...and being...PEOPLE to one an­ other. .... I came back, you see, to this life here strengthened by the vision, by so many of the visions that I encountered. Most of all, it seems a part of the coming out process. I just de­ mand more for myself...D E M A N D . Demand to be a human being, demand to have the support of my brothers and my sisters in this world. For me to be who I am, and who I can be. For me to be gay.

I'm really sort of scared, I'm back, really feeling isolated, not from people that 1 love, but from a community that loves me too. A community that has some mutual vision. The world is a lot emptier, now that I am back. And I guess I'm scared because I'm gonna be aoino back east, fuck...A A A U U U G G G iK ill! To that madness that was my life. I think I can do it, I think it will work out. This class analysis has really begun to help me there, to free myself from the agony and suffering that was a part of my family, and to see that agony and suffering is indeed the fate of so many working class families. ihere was an assumption made at many of the workshops I was involved in that somehow workino class people ah, are brought together by poverty and oppression, and they learn how to help one another. That may be, in many ways, that was the case in my own family. But it was also a dreadful place to be. Poverty was a dreadful place to be. Because it breaks not only the bodies and the nervous system through malnutrition, but spiritually as well. The life I remember as a child was characterized by such extraordinary ferocity. Not my immediate family, although that wasn't too good either, but like you know, all the relatives, all these immiorant people, hard­ working people, who just sort of PICKED at one another. People were always fighting over pen­ nies. Who had more of this, and who had more of that. It was what capitalism was making them into. Into DOGS. My recollection of family was not one of abundance, or of charity, or of solidarity, or of love, or of anything else. It was poor and miserable and awful. And much of it I inevitably had to take personally. I mean, that's part of the trip. We blame ourselves for the problems which are so gigantic and social. This is the bourgouis ideology. It puts it all on our own heads. And that's where it landed with me! So, I grew up being a freak, blaming myself for the depression, and for my parents unhappiness, and for my perversion...oh fuck...

Marxism has been very helpful to me in the last few years. The conference just made it that much more so. The anarchists at the conference (RIGHT!) and the sissies, especially, I think were the ones who carried the day, INSISTING, somehow, that if all this political perception of the world meant anything, it had to mean something in very real, personal terms. I think they were right, and I think that's why we're on the FUCKING RIGHT track. OF the revolution. Because there ain't gonna be no marxist revolution without anarchists. There ain't qonna he no social­ ist revolution without faggots. Yeah...

It would be TLkkiBL: subversive if it ever got out, that we LOVE each other! Ahhh___ oh, fuck.... \h h h h h h h .....The moon just popped up, over the trees. It looks like Veronica Lake!!!

Ahhh...see, it's the waning moon, my favorite, my favorite week, my favorite quarter, this is the third quarter. I sit here late at night, under the stars, well after dinner, it's quiet, and SUDDENLY the moon comes up... "mooonn Overr Miamiiiii..."

-Sandy Lowe Box 408 Windsor CA. 95492

16

bread & roses revisited

(for the sissies)

oh flaming comrades you came down from the mountain twilight chanting 'â&#x20AC;&#x2122;bread & roses bread & roses" arm in arm/heart in heart you came fresh from your caucus hungry to no more food and into the evenings culture we followed you eyes and repression your shadows the same as ours earlier you had shared a workshop designing the midnight ritual of faggots & the mother and together we merged ceremony with solidarity de-mystified for all of our brothers not just us and you joined in with the anarchists caucusing for unity & to be heard twilight chanting "bread & roses bread & roses" and we voiced our concerns & support creating a statement together for the rest of the conference to wake up to midnight clouded over moon near full fifty and more faggot comrades huddled within tipi like shaman we sang & chanted songs to Her we held each other eye to eye arm in arm/heart in heart lips to lips we performed a fire ritual: faggots rising from the flames faggots resisting the oppression faggots joining the struggle faggots claiming the female aspect as we 11 as the male faggots working to be whole again we gathered then outside to dance our joy our love in spirals and chants we became seed for "bread & roses bread & roses" last day conference workshops delineated one last time interupted for sissy statement "stiff" men gasp for denial goats eat garbage dresses blow in the wind more workshops announced interupted for anarchist statement marxists shuffle silently another barnyard perhaps i feel warm with my comrades: anarchist & sissy faggots

the moment becomes chaos i head for the workshop: terrorism & armed struggle after workshop and lunch and terrorist talk criticism & self-criticism and many comrades on departure addresses exchanged there is work to be done smiles & tears & love faggots creating "bread & roses bread & roses" words spoken into microphone from heart & soul and finally i leave as i came and it is all a memory: faggots chanting "bread & roses bread & roses" (and any night now i wake up darkly dreaming comrades in dresses & with guns commandeering a military base dreaming faggots in revolution & with love tying scarves securely twilight chanting "bread & roses bread & roses") -jai d.-elliott

Mao House 2193li Alder Street Cugene, OR, 97405

17

A CRITIQUE OF

I have been asked to share some of my reflections (as a working class fagqot) on the re­ cent Faggots and Class Struggle conference. I feel kind of anxious about writinn anything be­ cause I don't have much practice. Mot too many people ask me what I think about thinns.

I realize that I was privileged to get to attend the conference. Usually my survival de­ pends upon a 40 hour a week shit job with not enough "free" time or money to ao to conferences.

However, working with other faggot brothers and a borrowed car made it possible for me to at­ tend.

I wanted to attend mainly because I need contact with other working class faagots. I have been very isolated from faggots whose class experiences have been similar to my own. Also at the conference I wanted to see and hear what faggots from the other classes were doinq about their own classism (Classism: a system of prejudice and exploitation based on class, especially the exploitation of the working class. Classism is basic to capitalism.-RFD). Faaqots need to be strong and united so that we can take care of each other and fight this system that is kil­ ling us, but classism keeps us divided. I do not trust faggots who hanq onto their class priv­ ileges. I know it is painful for faggots from the middle and upper classes to recoanize that they oppress their brothers from the working class, but it is true. It is also true that the pain you feel can in no way compare to the pain those of us on the recieving end of your clas­ sism feel.

For me the conference got off to a bad start, when we broke down into small qroups of the same class backgrounds. The group I was in (working class) got stuck not only with child care but with gatepost duty, too. While we were talking, children were needinq attention and new ar­ rivals were at the gate. Some of the arrivals just assumed they could join our group thouqh they were not from the working class. I ended up feeling ripped off and resentful. There should have been priority for the working class faggots to get together. It is easier for middle and upper ciass faggots to communicate with each other. Most gay magazines, newspapers, and orqanizations are dominated by middle and upper class people and are aimed at the same type life­ style. Seldom do they touch on the experiences or needs of the workinq class.

As the conference progressed, I began to feel like I was at a "buffet" of ideology with mindfood galore. By mindfood I mean the presentations with their endless analysis, rhetoric, and abstract theories. Analysis and theories are necessary for revolutionary movement but they are going to have to come across in a more nurturing and less intimidatinq way if we want to

18

THE CONFERENCEHHS

work with working class faggots. Most of those presentations were cooked and served up without any involvement of those of us listening. Well, I don't like to be waited on. It doesn't feel good to me. Also I was afraid that if I questioned the validity of the presentations or said that I didn't understand what was being talked about, I would appear "uneducated" and/or be ac­ cused of disrupting the unity of the conference. That kind of unity is fascist. I helieve that most of the people giving the presentations were pretty much out of contact with the feelinas of those listening.

There should have been more discussion about class struggle on an immediate level. The very privileged faggots at the conference (and they were there, believe me) should have been ques­ tioned about what they were doing with their money and other resources. Why should a few have so much, when so many brothers have so little or nothing? Faggots who own land in the country should have been questioned about opening their land up to brothers who need a home. I thought it was really good that the faggots at Wolf Creek opened uo their land for the conference and are moving toward putting their land into a land trust. It is ridicously hetero for two faonot "lovers" to live alone on several acres of land or in a large space in the city, but it happens all the time. Privileged faggots have to MOVE OVER and share their resources.

The "fixed price system" as opposed to the sliding scale should have been discussed. It is very valid to class struggle. When you demand the poor faggots (especially those on welfare) pay the same amount as those who are more financially secure for gay concerts, conferences, newspapers, etc., you are helping the man to keep us down. We should also use "barterinq" when­ ever possible. I know that we have no control over what sex, race, or class we are born into, but NOW is the time to take responsibility for and change our oppressive attitudes and actions.

The real struggling and learning was happening I think, toward the end of the conference, especially the last day. The open mike helped a great deal. I felt supported enough to stand up and help give some criticisms that were pretty scary to say. Also the cultural events were really wonderful.

Having the conference in the country was a really good idea. I saw very "tribal" feelinos growing among us. When we came together in the fairy circle, I felt very protected, "whole". I could also see how powerful our magic is and how good it feels. And what a strong sense of deja vu! It really was like Remembering Forgotten Dreams... with love and strength,

Michael Oglesby, 438 W. Lawson, Fayetteville, AR, 72701

19

men half women i am the lamplighter the gate the barn and then the outhouse i poke a long kitchen match through a hole toward white ash mantle the flame catches some leak on the neck of propane cannister i call out fire extinguisher spontaneously a faggot gently blows out the flame i check behind me the two lamps contained against the mountains and the darkening sky the light moon rises i walk toward the only maple in this valley of wheat to hang what is now the third lantern i hear the life of flies around goatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head totem hung on a line parallelagrams and rhomboids of salt in shells of ears eyes mouth and horn no longer still the smell of death

a hundred men shouting culture direct me i see shadow of the broken lantern hang from my shadow hand solely from moon i feel light with possession not my own walking toward the barn for a night of people's culture after a day of workshops on class and imperialism three goats work their mouths continuously eating vegetation from the land unti1 they approach men half women for affection a cry of affirmation echoes through the valley in front of the barn i turn around to see if the lights are safe double lantern on the maple completes a perfect triangle -richard weinraub 291 East 17th Avenue Eugene, OR, 97401

finished with my night's work i walk toward the camp trust other eyes as the hills obscure the lights

20

I T M % 1 HAPPENED ©WE M Y I just happened one day to find myself looking for another place to live on our land instead of the old Econoline van. I had trouble locating the site where I was going to build, especially when I kept getting lost, and it all looked beautiful for the first time. Even a logged over area. I couldn't wait any longerl "I'll build here!"

And so at the end of the valley, at the beginning of the gulch, I started with string and stakes. I had seen that type of arrangement before, so I thought it might work for me, too. But it didn't.

It was late June and I figured I could have the place built in a week. What size was I going to build? I thought just a mere shed, perhaps 8' by 15' which after a while ended up more like 6 ' 5 V by 12'4/5".

People came by with their constructive comments which all seemed to state that I was doing it all wrong and it would never work out. I put up a frame and nothing measured right. I gave up on measurements and started to use the equal length paral­ lels, and making templates. I'd cut a piece of wood the way I thought and then followed suit with the others. I used a right angle occasionaly, but that got bothersome as things were never the same and it was lead­ ing to more frustrations. I had the use of a fine bubble level, but even that got out of hand. I would try to level one side, trot over to the other, level that, then go back and the first side would be off again. So I stuck to trying to make only the window

frames level.

The back of the structure was seven feet high. It took me a while to realize that there was going to be quite a pinch sleeping in the loft. My feet would be where the ceiling and the loft met and trying to turn over during the night could raise many problems! So I had to lower the floor and raise the ceiling.

There were plenty of geometric problems to solve. And geometry was my weakest sub­ ject. These geometric problems took some, but not too many, comments and opinions from visitors. In fact, I turned the whole pro­ ject into a leave-me-alone space. Many days were spent wondering if my fingernails would fall out because I had been hitting my fin­ gers so often.

Using rusty nails provided more fun, and trying to straighten them was as easy as unbending pretzels. I have found that any nail that bends more than a right angle can't be straightened, so it is better to pull it out and save it for some future use which has nothing to do with carpentry. I occasionally went out and bought a pound of

21

nails, the same way as when I lived in the city I would go out and buy a pound of candy when I was frustrated.

I started out using a small bow saw as I had heard from brothers that they were indisponsible in the country. I found that I couldn't cut in a straight line the first time I tried to cut a 2" by 4" with it. It just couldn’t go in a straight line! So I dug up an old rusty cross-saw, which suffic­ ed for the rest of the building. There was an awful lot of cutting to do. I even man­ aged to cut 1" by 6‘" s lengthwise to make 1" by 3‘" s.

I was becoming a carpenter overnight, but there were some outcroppings from that.

The first thing I noticed was exhaustion.

I'd start up early in the morning with great enthusiasm and by mid-noon I was wondering where the local bar might be, not to mention what was happening to me physically. My hands were taking the worst of it...calluses and blisters. I had to revert to wearing gloves after the third day, but it was too late. The palms of my hands were constantly sore and developing calluses from holding the hammer too hard. I have a tendency of squeezing the hammer handle everytime I aim the hammer at a nail... I guess it could come from the idea that if I squeeze the handle as tight as I can, it will hit the nail bet­ ter.

Then there was also the constant battle with the tweezers and needle, trying to get those god-danged splinters out.

Now, it's nice to have a fairly decent hammer, a good claw hammer, but beware of those 99<t specials. They last about a week.

After the second day of building I more or less got the gist of hammering nails into wood. So, a hammer, a saw, a bow saw (for the 2" by 4"'s), and a tape measure are what I needed. My tape measure somehow managed to get stepped on, but by breaking it off at the 1" mark and putting a nail through that spot, I found it was almost like new again, just a little shorter than before.

As for the construction: I put the floor in first and the roof last. I am told that that's not the way it works, and after the first storm which sent me scurrying about with unwieldly polyurethene I realized that it is better to do the roof first.

So many possibilities were bypassed by just not attempting them at all. And I even got used to looking out of a broken window which in previous years would have been un­ heard of. But don't get me wrong, I wasn't about ready to live in a shack with broken windows and splintery boards, though there are some broken windows and splintery boards, but I know where they are, and that way don't rub on them or let them rub on me.

One of the difficulties in building the structure was trying to make things fit. I was constantly bending boards or squeezing things together. Trying to straighten crook­ ed boards is no wasy feat. The building, which started out to be a one-week project, took me almost three months.

Continued pg.41

HEARING THE SILENT VOICES OFOT HER CREATURES In the courthouse hallway the other prospec­ tive jurors smoke, chat and stare at the floor. The shiny display case on the marble wall was PRESENTED BY THE JOSEPHINE COUNTY SHERIFF'S MOUNTED POSSE, 1962. There are trophies topped with little horse statues, bronze saddles and gilded spurs.

After I am rejected for jury duty I see the dogcatcher's truck parked at the hardware store. In the cage there's a small white dog who looks confused.

It's hunting season. At the gas station the man running the pump is telling Carl something and grinning. I can't catch the particulars but Carl is looking away uneasily and barely nodding. "What was that about?"

"Telling me all about his new gun."

Doris Lessing, in her novel The Memoirs of a Survivor, suggests that "all this time human beings have been watched by creatures whose perceptions and understanding have been so far in advance of anything we have been able to accept, because of our vanity, that we would be appalled if we were able to know, would be humiliated. We have been living with them as blundering, blind, callous, cruel murderers and torturers, and they have watched and known us."

Straightway the sheriff's horses can't be freed from their glinting saddles, the dog from its annihilating dependence, the deer from its slaughter. But I can do without dairy products and I can get a live trap to catch the pack rat behind the sink.

Above the pressing issues of life in the kitchen and in the field there are glim­ mers of an ecology of Spirit. A porcupine waddles across the road in the headlight beam. We stop and murmur "Oh, a porcupine!"

For a moment we are children. What is this delight? The porcupine is Other, unlike the horses, the dog, the slain deer. It lives its mysterious life among the blackberry vines and fir stumps. But we musn't forget that it is there, quietly nibbling, sleeping and wandering. It will lead us to joy.

We queer people bring an equality to living in the country. The canning is shared.

The wood getting, the lovemaking, the pick­ ing of flowers. We are trying to found our new world on respect, not exploitation. It's a good place from which to reconsider how we relate to other creatures. Some day the nat­ ural animals, the deer, the bat, the crow and the porcupine will come to visit and I will be ready. We encourage our neighbors to keep their pets at home. Soon the conversion of my liberated chickencoop will be done and I'll move in, away from the electric light that outshines the moon.

[The verses accompanying the following prints are from Blake's "Auguries of Innocence".]

-Allan

22

A FIBRE FROM Tl IE B r A IN DOES TEAR 23

K

eeps the

H um am S 24

oul from C are

A RobinR ed breast in a C age r *

P uts all

IN A R aGE 25

We are considering a regular prisoners section in RFD. Mostly it depends on whether or not we get enough of a response from pris­ oners.

A prisoners section in a country gay men's magazine? Why? First: there are many country gay men in prison and they/you are starting to get in touch with RFD. Second: one of the few ways rural gay men have to meet each other is at the tea rooms in parks and along highways. There we become quite subject to arrest and imprison­ ment.

Third: the rulers of america use prison, and the fear of prison, to keep us all in a straight line. Anti-gay laws are most often enforced in small towns and the rural areas, away from the group power of organized gay­ ness. It's important for the victims of this injustice, and the potential victims, to be in touch. If you're gay you are liable to be

The day was pretty routine, like most days in here. Inmates came in from work shortly before 4pm. Officers locked everyone in their cells for "count". A practice that happens everyday at 4pm so officials can make sure everyone is still here.

scapegoated for a crime. Once in prison gays tend to be denied parole (simply for being gay!) and do twice as much time as "straight" prisoners for a crime.

It is important to add that the differ­ ence between straight and gay in prison is not whether you have sex with men, but whether or not you identify as gay.

There's a lot of great creative writing coming out of prison. Where are the gay George Jackson's? Where are the american Jean Genet's? We would love it if you/they would send poetry, fiction, drawings and essays to RFD. Gay prisoners and rural gay men often share a certain isolation that could be re­ lieved to an extent if a dialogue between them could be started and maintained.

We’d like it if this proposed column could be an aid to prisoners speaking to each other.

Shortly after everyone is locked in, in­ mates that lived with a view of the street in front of the penitentiary --roughly 1/3 of the 1800 man population-- noticed several police cars pull up at the front entrance.

Shortly thereafter some inmates noticed a bus pull up and signs go up. Some inmates, at first, thought their neighbor's radios were turned up a little loud and hollered for them

26

to turn then down. But it wasn’t long before inmates realized that there was a demonstra­ tion going on outside, and what they were hearing was that. All the radios were then turned off.

GAY LIB WAS HERE. Protesters of the Nat­ ional Coalition of Gay Activists, some from as far away as New York, had come up from the Kansas City Republican Convention. They came to protest the ban of gay publications, and the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), and other gay discrimination at this prison.

Protesters had the full attention of all the inmates on the street side of the cell houses. Many others living on the other side of the cell houses (without a street view) were unaware that anything was going on, which included myself.

Count usually clears (is completed) in about 30 minutes. This day it didn't clear until after 5pm. A little unusual, but not uncommon. Maybe officials thought the pro­ testers would leave before they unlocked any­ body. Who knows. The protesters didn't. Then as is the usual practice, officers started ringing out for chow. This is done by unlock­ ing one tier at a time through one cell house and then through the next the same way, to the tune of bells. Inmates are not required to go to chow or to stay in their cells here.

As the tiers were rang out, inmates lined the tiers on the street side to watch and listen. The windows were crowded with inmates trying to get a better view and to hear the demonstration more clearly. Some didn't go to chow this night, even though they served fried chicken.

My tier and cell house were scheduled to be one of the last out. An inmate came by who had just rang out before our tier and said, "your sisters are out in front of the penit­ entiary." "What.'?!" "The gay lib is out front." "Be serious." I couldn't believe it.

Gays don't march on prisons..A minute later another inmate said they were calling for me out front. I still couldn't believe it.

(Calvin, the author of this press re­ lease, has been fighting against the censor­ ship of gay publications. They were first labeled pornographic and denied for that rea­ son. Later they were stopped because "they wouldn't help an inmate with his affliction, and glorified homosexuality". Periodicals were sent back without notifying inmates.

When this was discovered he filed complaints with officials. Eventually he forced offici­ als to stop inspecting "privileged" mail, that is mail sent to the news media. Rules and regulations have been vague. Restrictions prohibiting "pornography" were removed. "Not permitting a publication that will be detri­ mental to the security, discipline or good order of the institution. It should not be based soley on sexual views." — RFD) A few minutes later they rang out my tier and I ran around to the front side of the cell house. WOW! Beautiful! Fantastic!!

I wanted to hug everyone of the protesters.

Couldn't help but drop a few tears. Happiest I've been since I got here.

Officials had refused to let denonstraters onto the front steps and kept them to the road in front, which is a full city block from the front of the building. But we heard the protesters. And we saw them. And we loved them. And not just the gay cons either, but every con in here is proud of the gay lib movement.

Prisons are very sexist places, always have been. Many straights just couldn't beleive a bunch of "sissys" had the balls to put on a demonstration. Any attention brought to the inequities of prisons is welcomed by all, and to quote a representative comment, "it took a bunch of sissys to do it." The gay community cared and it felt wonderful. Really great!! It is very rare to have a public dem­ onstration at a penitentiary.

Demonstrators came to boost the morale of gay inmates. That was very successful, to make an understatement. Gays walked around here proud of protesters, and of themselves, and rightly so. Straights were proud of the demonstrations too, beleive me. Made me more determined than ever to stop this discrimin­ ation here by various legal actions.

Inmates that have been locked up for de­ cades in different prisons at different times had never seen anything like it. And they were glad. They were happy. It's really hard to explain how much this meant to gay inmates here.

Important was that gays here realized very much that there were people, people like themselves, out there that cared. Inmates have heard of gay lib, a little, but that was always something distant. Protesters brought it to us. Many gays here have no idea what a gay community is all about. I've spent many hours since the demonstration explaining what the gay community was all about to inmates here, as much as I know. (I've been here 3 years). Most say they will be in touch upon release. It is really sad that officials go so far to actively promote a lack of know­ ledge of the gay community. Most of us will get out someday.

Demonstrators told the warden what was thought of him. And we cheered, and cheered, and cheered some more. He needed telling.

Protesters did a good job of that to be sure.

They'd have us locked up in the hole for years if we told him the same thing. Most in­ mates, including myself, are quite surprised that officials have taken no retalitory ac­ tion against me because of the demonstration here, or on some trumped up charges. So far officials haven't. I will give them credit for that. Everyone here is very surprised I'm not in the hole by now. Such is the attitude of inmates, in large part, to fighting the government. Officers here have said nothing about the demonstration, and if anything are overly quiet about it.

The demonstrators swore they would be back and that the gay community would not tolerate this censorship and discrimination.

I think this was the first demonstration by gays at a prison. I hope it is not the last.

Thank you, gay community.

-Calvin Keach, Leavenworth, KS

27

A Le^tWr

-froiA

V jJ a \ W

UJa-Wa-

Strip cells are a concrete box with a

solid steel door. The only furnishing is a hole in the floor which serves as a toilet.

According to theory, the prisoner is stripped and thrown into the box for an indefinite period. What actually happens is that the prisoner is stripped, beaten bloody (the pri­ soner always "attacks" the ten-man goon squad), and left in the box for an indefinite period.

The courts have repeatedly ruled the use of strip cells to be cruel and unusual pun­ ishment. But the institution would still use them to bury men who resist "treatment" or protest illegal conditions. The strip cells are out of sight from other prisoners so the guards' accounts of beatings cannot be dis­ puted by anyone other than the victim. There is a man on B tier who is still recovering from the stomping and gasing he received in a strip cell. This prisoner was left bleeding for more than twenty-four hours before he was finally given medical attention, which requir­ ed hospitalization.

Up until now, the use of strip cells has been associated with some form of organized protest, like the food strike several months back. Now, however, this criminal technique of control is to be used whenever the warden

feels a prisoner is a threat to the order and security of the prison. And we as prisoners are powerless to stop it.

I.S.U. prisoners filed a writ, but the court is in the warden's pocket. We need your help as soon as possible, if we are to be pro­ tected from physical harm and abuse. Stop the use of strip cells. Write letters of protest to the governor, congresspeople, and the at­ torney general. Demonstrate your support of our struggle for human dignity. Write:

Governor Dixie Ray Olympia, WA Love and struggle, The Walla Walla Brothers* I

RFD: I am an exchange prisoner at the Calif­ ornia liens Colony as you can see from my ad­ dress. As I have no funds, would you please allow me to receive your publication. I was born and raised on a farm in Renwick, Iowa, Wright County.

The circumstances of my current situa­ tion are as follows: As a non-Hormon prisoner of the Utah State Prison, my sentence was to expire on

28

May 13th 1975. My crime in 1973: arson (a con­ tained fire which did less tnan $25.90 damage and endangered no one). Solely because I ex­ pressed my intention of having sexual reas­ signment surgery and hormonal treatment upon release, I was NOT allowed to be released on the date my sentence terminated. Shortly thereafter, I was transfered from the Utah State Prison to the California Department of Corrections to "escape direct physical harrassnent and direct discrimination" from the Officials of the Utah State Prison and Utah Department of Corrections. Utah retains full custody of my case, however, and have said they will not release me until 1 change my sexual identity...regardless of the law or the fact that my sentence terminated sixteen months ago.

The villain in this instance is the Utah State Department of Corrections and the nar­ row-minded people who run it, the Mormon Church.

Should anyone care to verify this situa­ tion, they can call Dr. Bill Barkley, Ph.D, Staff Clinical Psychologist at the California Mens Colony and/or write me direct. I have never been charged or convicted of any offense involving my sexual identity.

Respectfully, Jack W. Hoffman B-66513-X California Mens Colony P.O.Box A-E ) P.O.Box A-E (5289) San Luis Obispo, CA, 93409

life for a crime that I never committed. In fact never even knew about it until the de­ tective cai;»e out to start pressuring me four years after the crime. It all started because I am a known pedophile. 1 have been this way all my life. It is hard to relate to people and tell them that I have always loved young boys sexually, even now I have a strong de­ sire to love, sexually, with them. I could never hurt one for all the money in the world I am not built that way. Yet, I was accused of aiding and abetting a murder of a 15 year old boy. 1 was facing life in Denver, Color­ ado because the law conspired against me to try and gey a statement. Sure, they used a sex charge to get me to say something about a murder. I never did anything in the first place, but I had seven arrests prior to my charge, and I knew that it would be hopeless to try and fight it. They never even gave me a chance to prove it a lie. They didn't even charge the guy that I said did it. They just threw tne charge of murder on me, and rail­ roaded me into this spot for the rest of my natural life. But what can a person expect with a state appointed lawyer who works for the court pleading guilty most of the cases he gets. I had no money so I got no break.

(Our latest letter to Bill was returned stamped "released by court order". We hope it's true. -RFD) Bill Bargy #93012 P.O.Box E Jackson, M I , 49204

Greetings: I saw a listing of your publication and immediately decided I had to subscribe. I was vastly intrigued by a magazine for rural gays.

Having grown up on a farm in rural Idaho I was so ignorant of the entire gay scene it was unbelievable. I honestly didn't know what a homosexual was. I knew I was different, but thought I was unique. You can imagine what surprises were in store for me when I left home at age 14 and went to San Francisco.

Got the magazine without any trouble. I don't think there would have been any objec­ tions if they had examined it. As it was, they didn't even open it, just sent it dir­ ectly to my cell which is the case with most 2nd or lower class mail in envelopes. My one bitch...I just cannot accept the word "fag­ got" in any sense other than a derogatory one. If you only knew how many "knock down drag out brawls" I've had in prisons (I'm a multiple offender) over someone calling me that. I know what sense RFD is using it in and I do applaud the sense of freedom and spirit in which it is used, but the word just has such bad connotations for me personally, that I abhor it. How brazen can you get? A Pansy moti f?

Yours in unity and love, Rick Anderson Box B-31915 Florence, AZ, 85232

Dear gay brothers and sisters: I am in the Washington State Prison. I am among my gay brothers and sisters and they turned me on to Join Hands (a newspaper free to gay prisoners, Join Hands, P.O.Box 42242, San Francisco, CA, 94142). I read it and read it almost 6 times and I know that my brothers and sisters are fighting for their gay world.

I read about the 100,000 gay march in San Francisco. YEH-H00! It opened my eyes to a new world, to know that gay brothers and sis­ ters are out there doing what we want to do, but can't at this time. You should have seen the smiles on our faces when we read about it It was the most beautiful smile and as big as the ocean, right on.

I 1ove you, Buddy L.

RFD: I am a prisoner in the Jackson Prison, Southern Michigan (SPSM). I am doing natural

RFD: I am a gay prisoner, and this institution doesn't permit us to subscribe to or recieve any gay publications. The reason for this be­ ing, is beyond my realm of thinking. I assume that this is done to discourage us gays from being gay. As we aren't permitted to recieve any gay literature while in here, it is very hard for us to keep up on the gay happenings on the outside, or to find fellow gays to keep us informed. This is the reason that I have written to you, in hopes that through the help of you and your publication, I will be able to contact a few fellow gays, with whom I could correspond with, and so keep abreast of the happenings in the gay world.

29

Also to enable r« to correspond with fellow gays for friendship and possible relationship jpon my release from here. I will answer all who write to i•«, and I would appreciate those who write to me to enclose a stamp with their letter, to enable me to answer their letter.

Respectfully yours, Patrick Melvin *140-765 P.O.Box 787 Lucasville, OH, 45648

DEFENSE FUNDS NEEDED

BY PRISONER for new trials and to fK/it oppressive prison conditions

RFD and friends, I would like very much to correspond with a gay queen. This is to be for a long time relationship, hopefully. 1 am a very lonely prisoner, also 1 am a very serious person. I will answer all letters.

I was born and raised in the country and like country life and living better than city, but can adapt to either one. I can do the whole bit from cooking to feeding chickens.

I would be grateful to hear from some of you folks from the outside.

Love, Willie S. Kinney 65512-camp-A-L/L-15 Angola, LA, 70712 Hello, Presently I am confined in what this state refers to as a "rehab-center". Actually, it's an old territorial prison that was built in the 1800‘s.

If any of your readers would like to write to me, I would be very happy to hear from them. All letters answered.

Love and peace, Tim Braun Box 1010, Register No. 42509 Canon City, CO, 81212 RFD, If possible, I'd like to add to your correspondence list as a pen-pal or rather listed as a person who wants to correspond with others who are interested and lonely.

Ralph Hogan QB-015,5-n-14 Queens Boro Correctional Fac. 47-04 Van Dam Street Long Island, NY, 11101 RFD, I too wish you'd have a little more pol­ itics to keep the folks in the country up on the situation all over. Fascism is fast try­ ing to come back, you know what that means, and the prisons are filling, you don't have to be a criminal to get here.

Here's a recipe: Save your mush kids (oatmeal/cream of wheat), re-fry it.

Salt, pepper, and greens added Let it cool in the ice-box.

Slice and re-fry when hungry.

Add onions or whatever you like.

Much love and warmth, Carl Harp Box J20 Walla Walla, WA, 99362

Hi , I am a resident of the Menard Correction­ al Center and am doing 15-20 for armed rob­ bery. I have 5 years in and two years before I go to the parole board. My mother recently passed away and I have been writing family and friends. I would like to establish a con­ tact with persons interested in helping a gay that is tired nearly to death of this life in a cage called a prison.

Friendly yours, Richard Knidell Box 711 #42138 Menard, IL, 62259 GAY LEGAL ENCOUNTER EXCHANGE GLEE is a legal exchange recently formed to provide free legal assistance to the gay prisoners incarcerated in all Federal and State facilities. Some of the services avail­ able are research, assistance with the preperation of suits and motions, filing class action suits (especially 1983) and in some cases, non-appointed court representation.

For more information on these and other free services, write to: Jerry Dighera, P.O.Box 2, Lansing, KS, 66043.

Appeal for ALL Gay Prisoners: As chairman of the National Gay Prisoners Coalition, I would like to say thanks to all the brothers/sisters who supported me in my recent court case against the U.S. Bureau of Prisons at Marion U.S. Prison, Illinois on 6/21/1976. From being victorious in a gay rights case, I can state that your letters of support and funds had a real effect on the outcome of the trial...in our being win­ ners instead of losers. However, several other gay brothers/sisters are still in need of legal help, funds for appeals etc. If you can possibly send funds to: Sister Evelyn Ancilia, Convent of Transfiguration, 495 Albion Avenue, Cincinnati, OH, 45246.

In Gay Unity, John Gibbs 86976-132 P.O.Box 1000, U.S. Prison McNeal Island, WA, 98388

30

MOTHER

»

r

TH E M OTHER EARTH N EW S

. . . i t te lls y o u h o w (sn lirocv 2>«r)

TH E M OTHER EARTH NEW S

June 25 . 1972* Stewart Scofield Malcolm Heights C ollective R.D. 02 Kalcom, liwa 50157 Dear S tew art, Many thanks for your le tte r .

We here at Mother have agonized, soulsearched and argued with each other re ­ garding the running o f P & S lis tin g s fo r gay people. The outcome of a ll th is was a deelelon--very much against our personal b e lle fs--to make i t an e d ito ria l policy not to run such lis tin g s . We con­ sid e r our message to be the most Impor­ tan t aspect o f the magazine and—unfortunately--many o f our readers are not young, hip, open-minded folks, but are l i t t l e old ladles In tennis shoes.

Have a happy day .

Pott Off to* Box 70 • K*od*fW»nvtll*. N C 28739

November 2. 1976

RFD Collective 4525 Lower Wolf Creek Roa<l Wolf Creek, Oregon 97*97 Please excuse my delay in answerinq you, Out I have been away on a

extended trip.

Both the Publisher and 1 have discussed your advertis«nent and your letter, and feel that, in the best interests of the nagazine. we rnjst reject your advertising.

(As you will note from the rate card, we re­ serve the right to reject an advertising.) Therefore, ! an returning the advertiseoent you submitted.

Thank you for your interest in THE MOTHCR EARTH HEWS. Sincerely,n

V.

Nancy Bl&nop for THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS

.v

/' < Jules Richards Advertising Director

P.O. BOX 70. HENDERSONVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA 28739

We are angry. It is time for MEN to change their anti-gay advertizing policy!

They rejected our request for an ad in their P&S section in 74. The above reply to Stew­ art's request for an ad was published in RFD #1. After the subsequent protests, they changed their policy to allow individuals to place ads.

So when some friends sent us $25 in August to place an ad for RFD in MEN we expected no trouble. Weill.... they're rejecting us again! They have not replied to our request for the exact reasons for the rejection. We expect them to lie. The reason is clear. Homophobia.

For too long the country has been the preserve of narrow-mindedness and hiqotry. The only alternative for gays has been to flee to the city. That is starting to chanqe, though rarely with any help from the supposed hip community.

We want to let the folks who read the Mother Earth News know that there's a qay male voice in the country. They need not be alone.

Please write MEN and protest their decision to reject us.

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LETTER looming bright as a bare lightbulb on the night­ fall the moon watched me walking to the post of­ fice where Zephyrus left moth-bites in the sky summertimes this road is dirt the trees grow green my hands they sweat

D000 THE CAT GIVES HIMSELF TO THE UNIVERSE AND LATER WRITES POEMS Dodo the cat enjoyed the winters in Lord Kurosawa's palace.

He would slip through the snow in a bright silk kimono when cherry blossoms were falling.

Reflective Dodo paused and stopped. He saw his whole life pass before his eyes.

He saw the cat innerds red on white snow. They were neat and fresh like the clean tatami mats laid out for the visit of the Shogun.

Sweet and ripe.

August plums in a lacquered bowl.

Did Dodo see too clearly?

Did he feel too deeply?

we are snow

Afterwards he would write when the starlight fell through open shojii panels.

He licked the falling snowflakes from his fur. His cousins waited for him in the Northern palace.

all the same

-Bruce Boone

it's freezing now snowfalls cover us

on the way to the white village where a let­ ter might wait sti11 from your hand that I left ho­ ping its love­ ly guidance would not die -Christopher Garten

I have set myself among the grass and slept with sorrel and with wind.

I have felt the solid scrape of timothy, the honest, stubble scrape of beards and new-mown hay.

I have dreamed and drained myself against an August sun and found myself awake with bees.

I have known you, brother-1ove, when haying hardens chest and arms and tasted your brown belly, rich with sweat and prairie soil.

I am anchored corn in the black earth and know the roots of legumes at my toes.

-Kenneth Craig Bland

35

FOOD

FOOD

B U L G U H

I want to turn all our friends in RFD country onto a food we really enjoy alot. It is very inexpensive, lightweight, easy to store, nutritious, versatile, and delicious. Bulgur is a rather obscure form of the whole wheat grain. It is the whole wheat berry which is first roast­ ed and then cracked open or crushed gently to open the shell of the grain and expose the tender, nutritious germ. Bulgur can be prepared in many ways and has the unique property that it does not need cooking at all, although we usually eat it heated. The flavor of bulgur is nutlike and the texture can range from crunchy all the way to soft and tender like oatmeal, depending on how the grain is cooked.

My first taste of bulgur was at a gay garden party in the city four years ago. The host, an art collector and student of exotic ethnic cuisine, served a salad of soaked bulgur, kidney beans, and corn on a bed of romaine lettuce and topped with a piquant oil and vinegar dressino laced with lots of garlic. It was so delicious, and mysterious, since none of us had ever tast­ ed bulgur. Since then I've learned that beans, corn, and wheat are an excellent combination for complimentary proteins. That same summer 1 inherited 10 pounds of bulgur, that humble grain, from gay friends on the surplus commodities program. They didn't know how to cook it. I had the bulgur a year before I began experimenting with it. And it has only been in the past few months since moving to the country that we've been eating it regularly. We love its flavor, ease of preperation, versatility, and fiber content. Now we eat it in lieu of bread and rice which use more energy and take longer to prepare.

At first I was very conservative in cooking bulgur. I tried finding recipes for it in doz­ ens of cookbooks, but in all my research I uncovered only six recipes. Since then I've prepared it countless ways. One thing I've learned is that it can't be undercooked or overcooked, al­ though prolonged cooking will help nutrition escape. In my research I did discover some facts about bulgur. It is usually spelled "bulgur'1 althougn it is also spelled "bulghur" and "bulgar" This links it to Bulgaria and Armenia, the only parts of the world where it is eaten as staple.

It is also used in a minor degree in some Middle Eastern cooking. It is considered an ancient food and has always been connected to Gypsy culture, and with the diet of nomadic peoples, who value it for its flavor, light weight, and ease of preperation. These properties make bulgur an excellent backpacking and camping food. At my local food co-op bulgar costs 314 per lb. A pound of dry bulgur has a volume of eight cups. Since bulgur has the capacity to double in volume when prepared, a single pound of bulgur produces sixteen cups of delicious food. Usually I pre­ pare about half a cup of dry bulgur per person. That amounts to only 24 per person. Rulaur is very economical. Brown rice, by comparison, costs half again as much per pound and takes much more fuel and time to prepare.

The easiest and most traditional way to prepare bulgur is soaking the grain in equal parts liquid (usually waterj. Atter ten minutes the bulgar will have absorbed the moisture and will appear fluffy and doubled in volume. It will maintain much of its roasted crunchiness at this point. After a total soaking time of half an hour the bulgar will be softer and fluffier. As it is soaking, herbs, spices, or fruits may be added depending on what its destiny as food is to be. In this uncooked, fluffed state it is an excellent cold cereal for breakfast or a snack. It can be mixed at bedtime and left to soak with dried fruit and a little extra liquid and at breakfast it will be tender, the fruit plump and moist. A favorite breakfast here at Sunny Val­ ley is: 1 cup bulgur

36

1 cup water or fruit juice 1 apple, thinly sliced or 1 orange, diced 1 handful coconut 1 handful sunflower seeds 1 handful raisins or currants cinnamon and nutmeg to taste Stir all ingredients and set aside for half an hour. Serve with a topping of honey, maple syrup, yogurt, milk, cream, or sliced bananas.

Soaked bulgur may be added to any vegetable salad in any proportion. The recipe for "Tabooley", the famous Lebanese bulgar salad, is: 1 cup bulgur juice of 4 lemons cup olive oil (any good oil will do, of course) \ clove garlic, crushed 1 cup onions ana green tops 1 cup parsley, chopped 4 large tomatoes, finely chopped 2 stalks celery, finely chopped 2 cucumbers, finely chopped salt, pepper, touch of basil Soak bulgur in oil and lemon juice until bulgur is fluffy and plump. Add all ether ingredients and place Tabooley in a cool place for at least 24 hours so that the flavors can blend. Tabooley may be served as is, in scooped out Zuccinni shells, on a bed of leaf lettuce (please boycott iceberg lettuce if it is storebought), or according to Lebanese tradition wrap­ ped taco-style in a large pliant lettuce leaf. Other spices and veggies may be added as a nice departure from the traditional recipe. Chopped beets create a flamingo pink salad and diced avacados would be nice. Sprouts taste nice and add more crunch. This salad may be kept, if re­ frigerated, for two weeks...Lne longer it marinates the stronger the rlavor becomes.

The second traditional method of preparing bulgur is by cooking it on top of the stove. In this method the bulgur is prepared by steaming much the way rice is prepared although bulgur does not need a tightly fitting lid on the pan. In fact, it may be cooked in an open pan. The recipe for cold bulgur cereal (breakfast) makes a luscious hot cereal if it is heated on top of the stove. Adding more liquid as it evaporates helps avoid sticking. After about ten minutes of cooking the cereal is ready to serve with a bit of butter, honey, yogurt, maple syrup, jam, or whipped cream. You'll never eat oatmeal again. This cereal may be made with extremely simple ingredients or it may be transformed into a baroque confection fit for a queen.

Add bulgur to soups to make them a little more balanced, nutricious, and interesting. Do enjoy this obscure Gypsy grain. If you invent any interesting new combinations, feel free to send me the recipe...maybe we can get together and put out a "Gay Gypsy Grain Cookbook"...Well. as Julia used to say when I owned a TV, "Bon Appetit!"

Your friend: Chuck Beckwith, Sunny Valley Farm, R.F.D.2, Box 101, Mt. Horeb, WI , 53572

Book Review:

The Book of Tofu

by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi Autumn Press, P.O.Box 459, Soquel, CA, 95073 Vol. 1 336pp., $6.95 Vol. 2, $12.95

I look around our pantry and wonder. The path toward a life more friendly to my nay sensi­ bility and commitment to justice...that path seems so long, filled with unexpected turns. Diet­ ary changes meander parallel to other-facets of my journey and I realize that slowly these changes have accumulated into a totally different diet from what I grew up with.

Over a year ago, with the prospect of helping to slaughter a goat, I faced squarely the contradiction between my enjoyment of dairy products and my utter revulsion toward the basic necessities of dairying...taking the life of the unwanted males, the infirm or the non-produc­ tive animals. Now, I am no fanatic: I firmly believe that if we all tried to solve all the con­ tradictions of our lives at once, we'd all go crazy within a week. But this one stared me in# the face, and after awaking in a feverish sweat at 3am, I realized that I needed to try, at least, doing without the bounty of animal products: eggs, cheese, butter, milk.

37

I was qirite aghast at myself. My previous dietary changes "happened" to me; I wandered away fron meat nearly ten years ago, and white sugar has rather painlessly ebbed away durina that time also. Renunciation has never been part of my self-image. I could read Adele till 1am, and still gag on brewer's yeast. And besides, what's left to eat? I surely would shrivel up on a mucousless regime of raw fruits and vegetables.

As the seasons have passed since that moment of resolve, there have been lots of aood meals ...dairyless versions of past recipes, and a lot of help from the theologically doubtful Ten Talents, a Seventh Day Adventist recipe book. But probably an equal number of hours poking through a barren refrigerator looking for non-existent "nasches", or, for godsake, even a choc­ olate bar (Baker's chocolate would have done). Big diet changes affect one's whole beinq; I be­ lieve they are as radical as any political or economic alterations. And something as central as milk..,from my mother's breast right down to the pile of gallon milk cartons that used to clog the back porch...

The discovery of The Book of Tofu has undoubtedly been the big culinary event of this year for me. In a few short weeks a whole vista of vegetable-base protein-rich goodies appeared, with no end in sight. Authors Shurtleff and Aoyagi explicitly argue the political and social value of availing ourselves of this age-old East Asian institution. Volume 1 (which is all any­ body would want at first) outlines the basic political arguments of protein efficiency and the world food crisis; discusses the food value, versatility and economy of tofu; and continues with 300 pages crammed with easy to read and nicely illustrated information on how to make tofu, and how to use tofu-products in traditional Japanese and western diets.

Volume 2 is more technical, and is basically a blueprint for setting up a small commercial tofu shop...like a home bakery.

Regularly now I or my companion makes a 24 pound cake of tofu, which lasts throuah a couple of days of breakfasts, lunches or suppers; the residue from the process...a fluffy sludqe called okara...is harder to use as quickly and sometimes accumulates beyond hope. My first tofu­ making effort took a couple of hours, not to count mopping every surface within 5 feet, and scrubbing 5 burned pots; but now it is a manageable 40-50 minutes, and quite as satisfyinq as

V

"B k 1 "9 brea“ HOW TO MAKE T O F U ^ \, Ten Talents cookbook has a good, simple recipe which I started with; after experimenting, and reading The Book of Tofu, I have evolved this recipe. And in the great cooking tradition of old world mothers and new world faggots, I constantly experiment, make alterations and see how a new way turns out. I encourage others to do the same, and when in doubt, The Book of Tofu is likely to help. ingredients: 2 cups dried soybeans 1 teaspoon Epsom salt equipment: electric blender big, heavy cauldron l‘x2' piece of cheesecloth colander or 4"x6" bottomless box pressing sack (jellybag will do) large bowl Soak soybeans in water overnight; will swell to about 6 cups. Convert soaked (uncooked) beans into GO by blending with water into a thin puree. Our blender can handle about 14 cups beans with 3 cups water at a time, for 3-4 minutes.

Put GO through pressing sack, catching the soy milk that comes through the sack in a big bowl. Press hard to get all the liquid out. I usually put the OKARA (the residue which is left in the sack) back into the blender with more water and repress it, to get more soy milk and less OKARA. Put OKARA aside...it can be used in potato pancakes, soyburgers, granola.

Heat the soymilk in the cauldron or large pot. (A thick cast iron or cast aluminum pot won't burn the milk.) Watch carefully, for when it boils it will rise up quickly in a foam; turn heat down and simmer for 7-10 minutes, stirring to keep from burning.

Add solidifier...epsoni salts is easiest to get and I like its taste. One tablespoon dis­ solved in 2 cups warm water is usually enough; but if it doesn't separate completely into curds and whey in the pot after a few minutes, add another teaspoon with some more water. Whey should be clear.

Ladle or pour curds and whey into a moistened cheese- or loosely-woven-cloth lined col­ ander or settling container. If you're frugal, catch the whey as it comes through the baq...qood for soupstock or blender drinks. Fold the loose ends of cloth over the settled curds, and press with a plate with a brick on top for a few minutes to expel more whey.

The pressed curds will form a cake; s1id cloth-lined cake out of mold and into cold water for a few minutes to cool; unwrap and use or store for later, (all sources say store in water, but mine stores quite well on a plate in the refrigerator.) Yield: about 2 pounds.

Our favorite recipes so far are steamed tofu, with soy sauce and simple garnishes...scal­ lions, parsley, radishes; deep fried tofu squares, served with a bowl of soy sauce and qrated ginger to dip into; and pan-fried slices, a breakfast favorite and good with a heap of alfalfa sprouts. Ms. Aoyagi offers about 500 more recipes.

-Carl

38

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E;ne Zeiturg der Schwuiendewegung F o r e v e ry o n e o p p o s e d t o th e re g im e n ta tio n o f o u r b o d ie s (in G e rm a n ) in te rv ie w s , p o e try , p h o to s , essays, discu s­

Jo w e ** l i •

s io n , c o m ic s , news, h is to r y , re vie w s, sto rie s 111/76 T O P IC : S ad o -M a so ch ism IV /7 6 T O P IC : P ede rasty 1/77 T O P IC : G ay M o v e m e n t 11/77 T O P IC : P rison 111/77 T O P IC : F e m in is m IV /7 7 T O P IC : S o c ia lis m O n e -y e a r s u b s c rip tio n S 6 (4 issues, a ir m a il) + m a ke ch e c k s p a y a b le to : G e rh a rd H o f f ­ m a n n P SK 7 5 7 0 2 -1 0 5 , B e rlin -W e s t M a ilin g -a d re ss: R e d a k tio n s k o lle k tiv P o s tfa c h 3 7 3 1 0 0 0 B e rlin 6 2

If you are a fairy or fairies, living in the country, RFD would travel to your part of the country and spend a few days with you recording the everyday reality of your lives on tape and in pictures, to be shared with others through RFD. For further info, write to: Visits c/o RFD.

40

IT JUST HAPPENED ONE DAY The most difficult part was the roof. 1 just kept procastinating that one off first of all because I am afraid of heights, and secondly because I had to completely redo the rafters. I had five I' by 4"’s covering a 13 foot space. There was much controversy and various engineers looked at the struc­ ture. The pitch was too steep, they said. I asked one of the authorities why, and he said “you have to climb up there to put the roof on don't you?" So I had to double the number of rafters... the roof alone took me a month to complete. I worked by myself, toting 4“ x 8"'s up to the rafters and trying to hold on one end while I hammered the other end in, and that is no easy chore mind you. I had no experience at acrobatics, but was now getting my share. Well, once again I was able to o overcome some obstacles which I had never im­ agined.

The roof was difficult, especially when it came to the eaves. I felt like some moun­ tain climber going around rocks, which made the world look topsy-turvy. After a while I rigged up a rope arrangement which I tied to my waist, and thus able to walk on the roof.

And now, four months later, the house has stopped creaking. I feel quite content that it's not going to fall apart. It's pret­ ty comfortable, and the cost was way under $100. Most of the cost was for roofing and felt paper. There were cinderblocks and old 1" by 3"'s and 4" by 4'" s and six windows laying around on the land. I used foil in­ sulation with a dead air space between.

Shingled the outside for looks. It is late October now, and the construction is not sag­ ging, nor are any of the other things happen­ ing that I was told might happen.

I'm not trying to advocate that you just go out and start building without any prev­ ious knowledge or building codes. I am saying that it is possible to build yourself a shel­ ter and be content with it. If you are not afraid to bend rules and use common sense, I think that it is possible for anyone to do it. Utopian ideas don't work on your fitst house. I don't know about later. Be practi­ cal. Make sure there is accessibi1ity...not some far out hill top. It's better to be near water than to walk a mile to the nearest stream. Find out where the sun rises and sets, and build accordingly.

The basic problem is just getting started. Once you get started then things will happen to give you plans for the next step...

DAIRY GOATS and they got so much attention they were nearly torn off our bodies. So we started taking orders and selling them. A local TV station came to the farm and taped a wonderful segment for the evening news, which has brought lots of attention to the milk in the stores. Also, the local newspaper has indica­ ted Interest in doing a feature story on the dairy in the near future.

Outside jobs are still necessary to hold our household together, but we are moving in the right direction of more independence. We hope to do some other farm things to help support ourselves as time goes on; produce, flowers, dried flowers and weeds, possibly goat milk soap, yogurt, etc. All in all, the past 6 months have been good. The major prob­ lem has been not having enough time and ener­ gy to do all the work and have some left over for us. We are considering adding another person or persons to our farm, but don't know what form this will take yet. At the moment the critical time/energy shortages are at bay and we are having a bit of time to do garden­ ing, etc. And have a few precious moments.

$5 p lu s 50C post h a n d lin g to: O regon D a iry G o a ts 2 6 2 6 3 H ig h Pass J u n c tio n C ity . OR 97448 p le a s e s ta te siz e S.M.L.XL

41

CONTACT LETTERS Brothers and Sisters, I'm a 19 year old hippie (that is, if they still exist) faggot who will be embark­ ing on my "confused-adolescent-on-the-roadto-find-out" phase of my life next May or so.

My guitar and I shall be travelling (via thumb) around this charming place they call the U.S. and visiting such exotic places as, say, Cleveland until I'm good and ready to stop. This could take years.

Anyway, as I ponder different lifestyles for myself and my future, I often toy with the idea of moving into one of those faggotdyke country communes that RFD so thoroughly glamorizes. But the trouble with moving any­ where when you're a 19 year old hippie fag­ got going through a "confused-adolescent-onthe-road-to-find-out" is that you can't help thinking there’s somewhere better that you could be. So I won't move anywhere to stay for quite some time.

Now keep reading, kiddies, I'm almost coming to the point of this letter.

Anyway...(see? I told you) while I'm hitchhiking I'd like to stop off and visit these assorted collectives around the coun­ try. Tnis way I can get an idea of what the scene is all about and give me a little in­ sight so I can decide if it's the life for me. As for m e , I'm a faggot folksinger, in­ to radical politics and vegetarianism (but if meat is served, I'll eat it), not smok­ ing, blah blah blah ad nauseum.

So, please, please, please assist me in my travels and invite me for a visit. Please respond before April 1.

Much love, Hori zon 1455 Haight San Francisco, CA, 94117 (415) 612 2539 Dear People: We are a coven/family of gay witches (female and male) planning on buying a small farm in northern California.

Witchcraft is an earth religion, a re­ linking with the life force of nature, and of space and the stars beyond.

It is not a set of precepts and beliefs, but an active joy, of awakening the power that lies within all things: "ALL acts of love and joy are My rit­ uals. You shall dance, sing, feast, make music and love, all in My praise, for mine is ecstacy of the spirit, mine also is joy on earth, for My law is love unto all be­ ings ."

We perceive the Craft both in terms of individual growth and as a vital part of the process of social change.

We welcome correspondence and contact with other gay people into exploring the realms of the magical/spi^itual.

One last note: The Craft does work with male/female polarities, but we see that polarity reflected within people; humans are not unipolar, but androgynous.

Blessed Be, Silver Wheel c/o Caradoc P.O.Box 2064 Berkeley, CA, 94702 I'm sitting at my kitchen table on a foggy grey day. I have a beautiful photo­ graph from Times Square Studio in front of me. And I am writing RFD because I think it is my (our) best chance for getting it all together. The roots of my gayness are in the days of childhood when warm days, lazy sounds, views and thoughts of older boys and men and the wonderful intuitiveness of small boyhood formed my idea of what adult life would be. The dream has changed, now ruddier, now more distant, sometimes only a little beyond arm's length...but I've only found it ninted at in what passes as the gay lifestyle. The tired adjectives "commercial" and "exploitative" too aptly describe so much of what is presented to us as gay. And the image many gays present to themselves.

But for me, I'm holding onto what I once thought my adult gay lifestyle would be ...happy, warm, mystical, solitary as we 11 as brotherly, sensual and fresh. That's why I'm gay...not to wear trendy clothes and say unkind things about others.

I'll tell you what some of the things are which I've found to be supportive of my perception of gayness: RFD, the life and some of the writings of E.M.Forster, the music of Phil Spector, Paul Simon and Jackson Browne, the photography of Ed Wild of NY's Times Square Studio, the feeling of Richard Amory's Loon books, and the drawings of Boston’s Joe Brainard and RFD's Micheal.

And now in the past year I've been reading the books of John Michel 1. He's an English­ man who has theories about a universal civ­ ilization before recorded history. He is not concerned with space landings and alien cultures, but with the possibility of an or­ dered, mystical and humanitarian world cul­ ture featuring celestial observations, numerological reckonings and peaceful living. I am enthusiastic about these theories.

If what I've said finds harbor among your thoughts and feelings, I'm asking you to get in touch. When I read about gays in the past such as Edward Carpenter and E.M. Forster, I'm always glad that they found friends who shared their ideas and plans.

Let's make sure that we know each other.

George Williams 113 Lincoln Street Hartford, CT, 06106

42

Dear RFD Brothers, I live on two acres in a barn I convert­ ed (with a little help from my friends) with a pond and a bit of a garden. Eventually, I plan to move farther out and buy 100 acres or more and start a community.

I'm a relationship person currently without a partner. Anyone unattached want to take a look at attaching? I'm a bearded, longhaired college professor who is a very loving sensual/sexual human being. Are you on a similar wavelength? I'd welcome hear­ ing.

Love, Ralph H. Walker The Barn, RD 4, Box 293 Sussex, NO, 07461 (201) 875 4710 or 881 2118 Dear RFD People, I'm living in the city and feeling I'd like to be living in the country within a few years.

In the meantime. I'd like to make friends with some people living in the country.

A bit about myself. At present I am go­ ing to school, studying social work and car­ pentry. I also do some volunteer work at a gay community center, and have been doing primal therapy for a few years. I feel most comfortable with mixed groups (straight and gay, old and young, women and men, etc.) and with gay men who think of themselves more as people and men than as gay. I am bisexual... mostly gay, recently.

I would visit you in the country and learn about your life there, and you could come to visit me in the city. I'd like to find people, ideally, who live within a few hour's drive.

Pat Land 1131 Talbot Avenue Albany, CA, 94706 Dear RFD, My buddy, Danny, and I find your little magazine truly inspiring. If any readers are looking for contacts in New Brunswick, we would be happy to show them around.

Fraternally, Hal Hinds, Maplevale Farm Cross Creek, N.B. Canada Dear friends at RFD: Your welcome magazine makes me aware that a gay peer group (sharing values and personal goals) does exist, and that makes me happy since I missed that feeling when young.

I am 28, living with my cats and plants.

I would like to hear from individuals excited by personal change, interested in the arts, literature, nature, desirous of a companion­ able relationship sharing differences and similarities equally, and willing to take a chance on a letter. Thanks.

Tony Wally 410 W. Chandler Street Macomb, IL, 61455

Dear RF0, When I picture a street corner here busy with bare bodies and don't feel like it.

That rare hot day in San Francisco that’s special to everyone and I am at h o w writing this. At night I am reading or playing with 2 or 3 friends instead of being out where cars drive slowly by. Dreams c o w through these moments of driving past trees and fen­ ces and open land through woods and feeling the air subtly change temperature and the smells fade one into another.

I am at a point in my 33 years of life, growing years on a farm in N.H., now as a person who brings something interesting to every new situation, where I would like to meet someone from the country for some kind of exchange.

Write to me, I will answer with some­ thing special just for you.

Bob Burnside 2548 Folsom Street San Francisco, CA, 94110

I feel it's a matter of time (short I hope) before quitting for the country, thus the more your magazine facilitates contacts with gay communes and gay people the happier for me. To make me young or beautiful at this point would be some order, but perhaps I can learn from the sometimes agony of oth­ ers as to just how one handles their un­ speakable predicament (joking...well, per­ haps half-joking).

In any case, a very lit­ tle communication would probably go a long way.

Good Luck, Philip Babcock 1320 Alma Avenue Walnut Creek, CA, 94596

43

Dear Candor1 and others at RFO, Reading RFO has kept me from doing anything else tonight...and now it's bedtime, and I want to share my thoughts with you, with appreciation for your work and the peo­ ple revealed to fie through your magazine.

I have trouble applying the word gay to myself as a tern) of self/social identifi­ cation. Part of my resistance to the word comes fron the image of "gay" that my mind sees and my own image of myself in compari­ son. The two do not perfectly correspond in my mind. I am much more comfortable in my head with the term homosexual, and yes, I AM homosexual. In dealing with the issue of my homosexuality, I seem to have lost a great sense of who I am, all in the process of re­ lating to the "gay world", since I live quite close to San Francisco.

The sense I have of your magazine, particularly the personalities revealed in articles, transcriptions of conversations, and letters, is that there are "real" honest people who are homosexual and who are so much more.

It would be good to receive corres­ pondence. I'm not rurally situated (quite the opposite) and I don't want to leave sub­ urbia as of now. I hope that doesn't dis­ qualify me from whatever participation in your reader's lives is possible.

With openness and love, Tim Warner 167 Villa Avenue -4 Los Gatos, CA 95030

Could it be possible to put a "Wel­ come" section into the issues? This would be a section where, if a fellow RFD sub­ scriber is travelling through a certain section of our Great Country, he would be welcomed by another.

As a coordinator for the Presbyterian Gay Caucus, Synod of Lincoln Trails (the midwest), I offer my Christian welcome to RFD. With Hoosier Hospitality, Randy Stover 704 S. Washington Street Hobart, IN, 46342 FLYING SOUTH FOR THE WINTER? Solitary faggot needs winter guests. The other (non­ gay) members of our group have left me with the goats and cow, on a beautiful middleTennessee mountain. Come and visit if you're passin' thru. (Log cabin, spring water, no electricity, lots of applesauce). Write for directions, etc.

Milo Rt. 1, Box 98A Gassaway, TN, 37095

New from

CATALYST C A N A D A S GAY P U B L IS H E R S

P0NS0, THE SEDUCTIVE R00MB0Y WHO DIDN'T COME OUT... why didn't he dare to be himself? and other mystery tales in:

GARDENS

by G ra h a m J a c k s o n

Two men. m e e tin g at the fu n e ra l o f a third w ho had love d them both try to fin d th e ir w a y in to e a c h o th e r's life This & ten o th e r short stories S3 95

SONGS FROM THE PHILLIPINES Feteris, Exposition Press, $7.00 900 S. Oyster Bay Rd.,Hicksvi1le N.Y. 11801 ISBN 0-682-48141-6

COMMON OR-GARDEN GODS by >an Y o u n g

A new fe ll-ie n g lh c o lle c tio n b y the w id ely-p u d 1's h eo Canadian w rite ' who has been -a lien m e tin e s' g a y poet in A m erica 53 95 A v a ila b le from CATALYST T i 5 B ia n ly re A ve O n t C a n a d a M 1 N 2S6

S c a rb o ro u g h

44

BARTER

4

Tired of working with straight men? Ex­ perienced housebuilder needs helpers: one carpenter, must have substantial experience; and two helpers, some experience and desire to learn and work hard. Interesting, chal­ lenging jobs. Write telling your experience and interests.

Tim Rice Rt. 1, Box 1A Comer, GA, 30629

If J 1 2 JT A T C S T

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Small macrame bracelets of waxed linen for your barter. Good work and nice brace­ lets. Send $1.75 cash or preferably your barter.

Richard Dierks Rt. 1, Box 501 Belton, TX, 76513

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ANNOUNCING:

jP C A L GAY NEWS • NATIONAL GAY NEWS • CALENOAR • E N T E R T A IN ^

Gay Mews

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Trade or sale: My cookbook, A ROUND-UP OF WESTERN OUTDOOR COOKING, $3.00. Also, Elephant Garlic, gets as big as a tea cup.

50c a bulb.

Byron Smith 2009 East 7th Street Lubbock, TX, 79403

everything you expect a new spaper to be, in one neat, dependable package, exclusively for gay people and th eir friends.

M A O /JO H W /. S J 7 0 3

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SUBSCRIBE AND SEE!

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$ 6 /1 2 is s u e s Marled m plain, sealed envelope

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THE LAMbDA bOOKCLUb

Mail payment to Gay News Chain ~ P 0 Box 10236, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15232 5

Agreat advertising medium too! Call (412) 363-0594 for details!

For gay men and lesbians The Lambda Book Club now offers quality gay litera­ ture Lifetime Membership, S10.00 Along with the bimonthly "Lambda Bookfetter" listing discounted Selec­ tions. Alternates, and Contemporary Classics, Members receive redeemable coupons worth S10.00 No time limits.

No requisite number of books to buy Books shipped only when ordered

Ni»sav3adsa3iN30»S3iiiNviNnH»STviaOiia3 • sjionaoad a3oar

L A M B D A B O O K C LU B

I’m enclosing $1.00 for each of the copies of An Evangelical Look at Homosexuality in my order. Please sen d ------- copies.

(Make checks payable to HCCC, Inc., 30 East 60th Street, New York, New York 10022)

P O B ox 2 4 8 B e lv id e re , N J 0 7 8 2 3 I would like to join the Lambda Book Club and receive The Lambda Booklerter Enclosed is my check or money order lor $10 00 (Please do not send cash ) N am e

Nan*______ _____________________________________________

A d d re s s C ity

Addreaa___ ______________________________________________________

Oty-------------------------------------_ _ _ _ _

Stata___________________________________ Zip Coda---------------

45

S la te Zip (Please print clearly.)

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VISITORS

we love meeting you. but we try to avoid a motel atmosphere, please write and ar­ range a visit.

SUBSCRIPTIONS the subscription price remains at $4 a year, we expect it will have to be in­ creased in 77. subscribing saves you $1 a year, friends who bought this RFD at a bookstore, RFD would gain $1 a year if you subscribed, we must share the cover price of $1.25 with the bookstore, plus possibly pay a distributor, plus pay higher postal rates than we do for subscribers copies, you would help us financially if you would subscribe.

DISTRIBUTION bookstores keep 40$ on the $1.25 cover price (32%)discount). full credit for complete copies returned, encourage your favorite bookstore to carry RFD. send us their name and address after you have talked to them, we are establishing connections with distributing companies, distributors discount is not decided. would you like to distribute RFD to bookstores and friends in your town? write us. we are now giving volunteer distributors either 10$ a copy or a few free subs to RFD. ADVERTIZING we welcome advertizing, particularly from gay owned and oriented businesses/groups. rates: $5 per column inch (1" high by 3"), camera ready, black and white copy.

BARTER our barter column is off to a great start, hopefully it will continue, please be brief (30 words or so), do send a donation.

CONTACT LETTERS space is a problem, if you are concise we won't have to edit your letter to make it fit. 100 words maximum, a donation, please, we will not publish weight, height, race, age, etc.

CONTACT LIST the new one will be thrown into the chaos of the u.s.mail service durinn the Christmas rush, you will be too late to be included by the time you read this.

SUBMISSIONS we all need to hear what you have to say. share it. we are especially needful of good fiction, all published contributors get a free sub to the maqazine plus 2 copies of the issue in which your work appeared, graphics: black & white only, photos should be high contrast, written: poems, features, how-to's should be typed triple space, if possible, we edit unless requested not to.

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TAPES

although it requires a considerable amount of work to transcribe and edit tapes, we like the intimacy of the written spoken word, so, especially if this is the only way you are going to appear in RFD, send us a cassette tape about the lat­ est event, your garden, your dreams, your self.

FUTURE THEMES & DEADLINES

we are going to center each issue around a particular theme.

MACHINERY (SPRING ISSUE -deadline, 1st feb) dealing with cars, trucks, farm equipment, butch and fem mechanics, how-to's,how-not-to1s . pictures of the equipment. photos of the family car. the poetry of the machine, the maciic of your relationship with metal.

SPIRITUALITY (SUMMER ISSUE -deadline, 1st may) the gay man as visionary, priest, minister, rabbi, shaman, witch, holy communion, tarot and the little red book, the birds and the bees, a sharing of those places we go to in quiet moments, a sharing of the strength we find in crisis.

GROWING OLD (FALL ISSUE -deadline, 1st august) there is no respect for growing old in this culture, you don't look old" is a compliment, how do we restore the respectable role of older folks? how do we destroy the youth cult? how do we feel as we grow older?

VISUAL ISSUE (WINTER ISSUE -deadline, 1st november) a special attempt to talk without words, to feel with images, letters and regular features, but every­ thing else will be either graphics or the words of photographers and artists discussing their work.

PUBLICATION

we try to get RFD in the mail round the solstice and the equinox (the first dayof each new season), generally RFD arrives in the bookstore first cuz we use UPS for mailing packages, they are cheaper (for over 2 pounds) and fast, subs go via u.s.mail which is much, much cheaper for single copies but certainly slower, especially the further you get from the mountains around wolf creek, fall *9 was quite slow arriving to you kuz there was a UPS strike back east, be patient, and don't blame the workers at RFD o r UPS!!

ADDRESS CHANGE? don't write us an angry letter if you've moved and haven't gotten RFD. we don't like angry letters, we'll write you an angry letter back, and you won't get RFD. the post office does not forward RFD. they destroy the maqazine, tell us your new address and charge us 25t. we can not afford to send you a new one. so...if you move, send us your old and new addresses and the zip codes, the sub file for RFD (and most magazines) is done by city and zip, not name.

MAIL is answered collectively once a week by the 8 of us. so be sure to give full details when you write, mysterious references to a past letter are very frustrating.

NAMES & ADDRESSES we intend to publish the names and addresses of all who write or contribute to RFD. that way you/we who read RFD can encourage and support each other not only in our sex lives, but also in our poetry, our photography, our crafts, our creativity, our strugglings towards a free and gay, gay society, if you don't want your name and address published, tell us.

COPY TYPE PERSON we need a professional type person for lay-out, 1-14 february. we will pay a salary.

BACK ISSUES ft3-#9 are available. $1.25 each.

SPECIAL OFFER send us $10 and recieve a personal thank you from a member of the collective of RFD, the magazine with a heart.

ADDRESS ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO:

4525lower I Volt'Creek

W ,Oregon97497'

fou r issues'year// Renewal------------------------ $4. □ Y e a r ' s s u b s c r i p t i o n ------------------ $ 4 . j ] I n s t i t u t i o n - - -------------------------------- $ 8 . 0 S u s t a i n i n g ---------------------------------- $15.UH N a m e ______________________________ Add r e s s ___________________________ T o w n & S t a t e ____________________

P le a s e send a G IF T S U B S C R I P T I O N to: b e g i n n i n g w ith : WINTER

Q

SPRING 77

Q

Zip_____________

N a m e _________ A d d r e s s ______ T o w n & State_ Z i p ___________

If you love us and support us PLEASE SUBSCRIBE.

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