The Last Whole Earth Catalog

The other day, I was reading one of my new favorite blogs by Urban Food Guy. http://urbanfoodguy.blogspot.com/ . He included a recent video of Stewart Brand, of Whole Earth Catalog fame. I hadn't thought of that book for years--decades maybe. That started me on a search for my copy which, surprisingly, turned up on the bottom shelf of our library just two rooms away.

The brochure tucked inside clearly said it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection obtainable for 1 book-divident credit plus $1.50 --a big savings from the publisher's list price of $5.00! The biggest surprise for me was that I had written the date and my name in it--Patti Wilson, 1971. I haven't been her since 1972. I didn't remember being so interested in this "stuff" way back then. My copy was called The Last Whole Earth Catalog: Access to Tools. It was resurrected in the following years with catchy titles like the The Updated Last Whole Earth Catalog and the Millenium Whole Earth Catalog which I still have. I spent the better part of this afternoon browsing and reminiscing about the days when I was a hippie-wannabe. I wonder how many people I know still have their copy. Do you?

I knew I had to take the time to find my old copies of the local new age papers and directories so I could refocus on the history of new age Gainesville. Surely, I wouldn't have throw them out. (Dottie, do you still have your copies?) That took a little longer and they ended up being in clear view in my home office, just waiting for this present moment when it feels like enough time has gone by to actually call it our history.