This was an exciting time in the United States, and in Seattle. In some ways, it was a depressing time in Seattle. The Boeing Airplane Company was the largest employer in town, and in 1970, employement dropped from 105,000 to 35,000.
Boom. The bottom fell out of Seattle's life. Formerly middle-class families with good-paying jobs were now abandoning the city in droves. In the Capitol Hill area, where I lived, there was a HUD repossessed house on every block. The thrift stores were crammed with really good stuff. There were no jobs. Beer was 25 cents. The Captain's Table, in West Seattle, served a seven-course white-linen dinner for $1. I lived in a five-bedroom house with six other people. The whole house rented for $80 a month.
Being so poor meant we needed to learn to live well without money. I walked from Seattle Space Needle to Northgate to save myself the 10 cent bus fare. We ate collective meals from dumpster-dive expeditions. We had a wood-burning stove in the kitchen, because we could not afford to buy oil for the furnace in winter, when the thermometer dipped to the 'teens. We had food stamps, which made a huge difference. We cooked everything from scratch, and considered eggs, ketchup and mayonnaise to be "convenience foods".
"Neighbors in Need", which later became food banks, got started at this time in Seattle, as did city-wide 911 medic services.
This was at the same time we were educating ourselves about the corporate Masters Of War, not only in Viet Nam, but around the world, in a never-ending search for more people and natural resources to exploit.
Jerry Rubin called for a boycott of all useless products from corporations. "If you boycott Coca-Cola, that will stop the war!" This was also a time of environmental activism, when people were just learning about the dangers of pesticides and herbicides, and just beginning to hear about "Round-up Ready" genetic modifications of our food supply.
So getting together to provide real food for people at a low cost by co-operating was a natural response to the zeitgeist, and it happened all over the country, not just in Seattle.
More later.
