Voluntary Peasants/Life Inside the Ultimate American Commune:THE FARM, Part 5: Utopia Myopia

By Melvyn Stiriss

Soon To Be a TV Series
Voluntary Peasants/Life Inside the Ultimate American Commune: THE FARM, is bursting with true, far-out sixties stories—cool adventures, good vibes, warmth, humor. Entertaining and uplifting. The psychedelic sixties come alive in this multi-level history/memoir, written by a journalist who dropped out to live the story of the times and seek enlightenment.

An extraordinary journey from Greenwich Village beatniks in the ‘50s into the psychedelic ‘60s and ‘70s—heady, revolutionary times—times rich in lessons that can possibly help us now.

This book, Prologue to Voluntary Peasants, is the author’s back story entitled: Enlightenment What’s It Good For.

Melvyn was born in New York City, raised in Edgewater, New Jersey, attended the University of Richmond, was a newspaper and UPI wire service reporter and editor. These are his far-out adventures coming of age, going with the flow—riding a powerful wave of energy that raised consciousness and shattered conventional paradigms around the world.

After attending Woodstock, Melvyn followed the energy to San Francisco, sampled the spiritual smorgasbord of swamis, yogis, gurus and chose to follow hippie “self-realized spiritual teacher” Stephen Gaskin on a round-the-country, 100-colorful hippie bus caravan. Hop on a fun hippie bus and journey to Tennessee to begin a new life and a new lifestyle, a lifestyle the world can afford.

Voluntary Peasants conveys sixties energy, vibes, mindscape and philosophy. Beyond sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll—beyond hippies, true tales of a remarkable experiment in collective living as thousands of high-minded people join forces, pool resources and attempt to create a gracious, meaningful, sustainable lifestyle the world can afford.

Leave the ordinary. Let your head soar free and take a trip—an extraordinary journey from Greenwich Village in the ‘50s through the psychedelic ‘60s and ‘70s—high adventures, true tales channeling heady, revolutionary times, providing some insight to today’s times.

Voluntary Peasants is available as a 422-page paperback with 40 photos only at www.voluntarypeasants.com. Voluntary Peasants will soon be available as an audiobook.
Includes the author’s backstory: Enlightenment/What’s It Good For
Voluntary Peasants is also available as an Audiobook at Amazon’s Audible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melvyn Stiriss
• Release date: Aug 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005202934

Melvyn Stiriss

Storyteller, humorist, artist, musician, naturalist, back porch philosopher—Melvyn Stiriss was born in New York City in 1942, raised in Edgewater, New Jersey and attended the University of Richmond. Melvyn worked as a newspaper reporter in New Jersey and as a reporter, editor, and announcer for United Press International wire service in New York and Chicago.Melvyn worked a stint as a Madison Avenue publicist, a “Mad Man,” went to Woodstock, “dropped out” and followed “the powerful mysterious energy of the time”—over the edge, out of the box and into the heart of the cultural revolution—San Francisco,” where the young seeker found a weed-smoking “psychedelic Zen guru,” Stephen Gaskin. Melvyn joined Gaskin’s cannabis peace and truth church and became a founder and long-term resident member of Gaskin’s collective community in Summertown, Tennessee—The Farm.Living at The Farm, Melvyn worked as a farmer, carpenter, mason, vegan chef, miller, head baker, gatekeeper, newspaper editor and worked thirteen months in Guatemala doing volunteer earthquake reconstruction work with a team from the community and Mayans, building rural schools, clinics, houses and a health center for Mother Teresa.After leaving the community in 1984, Melvyn moved to Austin, Texas where he worked as a carpenter, co-director of Casa Marianela refuge, taught vegan cooking and worked in a dozen movies in various capacities—carpenter, set dresser, prop maker, locations, craft service and as an extra. Melvyn now lives in upstate New York, writes, hikes, plays keyboard and speaks around the country.

Book preview

Voluntary Peasants

Life Inside the Ultimate Sixties Commune: THE FARM

Part 5

Utopia Myopia

1977—`84

By

Melvyn Stiriss

A journalist who followed the sixties over the edge searching enlightenment

Copyright © 2018

New Beat Books

Warwick, New York

Smashwords Edition

ISBN# 9781005202934

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Thirty-Six People Living in One House

Chapter 2 Pete Seeger and the Big Apple

Chapter 3 Relativity

Chapter 4 New Reality

Chapter 5 Courtship and Marriage

Chapter 6 Catskill Sabbatical

Chapter 7 New Beginnings

Chapter 8 The Right Livelihood Award

Chapter 9 Mel’s Deli and Cosmic Bakery

Chapter 10 The Famous Infamous Ragweed Raid

Chapter 11 The Weekly Beat

Chapter 12 Tipping Point

Chapter 13 The Changeover from Commune to Co-op

Chapter 14 Exodus

Epilogue Updates, Observations, Conclusions,

Note: This is Part 4 of a five-part series

Previously, The Farm has grown to 1,200 residents, sent humanitarian teams to Guatemala, Mexico, Miami, Ireland and an ambulance crew to the South Bronx. I return to The Farm after working with Mayans 13 months in Guatemala.

chapter 1

Thirty-Six People Living in One House

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.

—Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

MAMMA MIA WHAT A TRIP! I was back on The Farm, The Farm—the motherland—hippie holy land—back with my tribe and our extraordinarily loving community—where everyone jumps out of bed at the crack of dawn, eager to get back to work to build and sustain this awesome beautiful lifestyle. Ahh! Tennessee in spring. Feeling like a new man, enjoying a renewed sense of beginner’s mind.

As I walked down the road from the Gate deeper into The Farm, I saw many new faces—this season’s flower children, back-to-the-landers, spiritual seekers, drop-outs and asylum seekers. Everyone had that healthy glow folks get from working outside. The whole place seemed a living dynamo, a human hive of activity. Returning to The Farm felt like jumping onto a moving carousel, and I had to immediately match speed.

It was true. The Farm did have spin, positive spin. Through the years, we generated a myth, a myth which I myself had worked long and hard to create

Now there was a growing tension between myth and reality. The Farm was simultaneously coming together and falling apart in an ongoing, constant struggle between creation and entropy; between order and chaos.

I discovered a mysterious white bump on a toe and went to the Clinic. Having been deemed by Stephen as uncompassionate, Dr. Neal, our first physician, was long gone. Our new MD, Dr. Jeffrey Hergenrather, examined my toe, pulled out his Swiss Army knife, sterilized a blade and carefully carved out the spot and sent it off to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. They identified the thing as an African sand flea, that somehow had made it to Guatemala, probably on a ship from Africa, then managed to hitch a ride on my big toe to Tennessee, and finally wound up in Atlanta. One well-traveled flea.

[After living for years at The Farm, Dr. Hergenrather worked twenty-five years in a California hospital emergency room. He is founding president of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians; a former vice president of the American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine, is a member of the International Cannabinoid Research Society and practices cannabis consultation in Northern California.]

My space at Blackberry Jam was long gone, and I had to find a place to live. Good karma. A nice couple, Donald and Carol, invited me to live with them at Schoolhouse Jam—a big house situated off Schoolhouse Ridge Road.

Schoolhouse Jam was a two-story, wood-sided, sheet rocked, multi-family dwelling; population thirty-six: couples, kids, babies, single men, single women and a rotating guest pregnant woman, here to have her baby delivered free by Farm midwives. The Jam had hot and cold running water, indoor shower, a vegetable garden and yard with a tepee and rope swing. The house had rooms for couples, a single ladies’ bedroom, attached military tent for single men, and the guest pregnant lady stayed in her van.

I gathered up my few earthly possessions, hiked out Schoolhouse Ridge Road and entered my new home. I was immediately drawn to the good food smells and energy coming from the kitchen, which was all lit up by a string of automotive light bulbs.

Four young mothers were feeding a quartet of babies sitting in a row in a high-chair-built-for-four. What a scene—a high-chair-built-for-four squirming, slurping, messy, little Buddhas—one food-finger-painting, another smearing mush on a neighbor baby, another little darling turning his bowl over, and one good little baby eating eagerly. One cried. They all cried, and doting mothers swung into their best comforting there-there mode.

Other women took on the tasks of cooking supper for thirty-six—cutting vegetables, wielding rolling pins, shaping and cooking white flour tortillas and stacking them under a towel to keep soft and warm. A big pressure cooker full of soybeans hissed on the stove, jiggler venting bursts of steam, producing a lively beat of its own—choo, choo, choo, choo—accompanying the thumping rhythms of rolling pins and chorus of babies and chatting women—all together producing serendipitous kitchen music.

Dinner’s ready! Music to everyone’s ears. Classic Farm supper—burritos with soybeans, onions, hot sauce from Canning and Freezing, and everybody’s favorite—Good Tasting nutritional yeast from Farm Foods; plus steamed Farm-grown kale and spice cake baked with flour from the Mill.

After dinner, one of the men cheerfully announced,

The smoking lamp is lit in the living room.

This signaled a house meeting. Children were escorted to their rooms while adults gathered in the sunken living room, kicked back, toked up, got mellow and shared stories of the day. Lovely.

Then we talked about the material plane—home maintenance and improvement needs—who’s going to do what. I got worked into the chores schedule for dishwashing, compost-emptying, floor mopping and store runs.

After the house meeting disbanded and people retired to their rooms, there was another short meeting of medical crew people lived at Schoolhouse Jam: Barbara, a clinic lady; Marilyn, a lab lady; Carol, a midwife-in-training and Dr. Hergenrather.

I enjoyed silently monitoring their medical discussions and learning. I admired their knowledge, intelligence and dedication, It felt good to learn from a consciousness quite different