Friday, August 28, 2009

1982 - Watershed, the Newspaper

Holistic Gainesville was teeming with abundant opportunities for spiritual growth in 1982, but for Gordon and me, it was the the magical year we got married on May Day. We came across our wedding vows recently, and reminisced about how we promised to stay together as long as our spiritual paths were joined. We didn't include our other requirement, that we'd stay together as long as we always lived south of I-10! No problem. We like it hot!





Watershed's first issue came out in March of 1982 with Jim Zimmerman and friends. It called us to action. Michael Shields and Thomas W. Simon defined the paper as providing "a new forum to witness the emerging awareness that we can create our future and why that has everything to do with how we live in the present." It was full of environmental and political issues, both local and global.

We devoured articles by Michael Shields, Thomas Simon, Larry Cole, Stan Pollack, Sandi Trachsel, Sallie Harrison, Jim Notestein, and Robin Lasobeck. The second issue was put out with the help of Marilyn Bays, Joannie Breeze, Peter Conrad, Patty Everett, Suzanne Kragiel, Debbie Moodey, Sergio Ortega, Tom Simon, Scott Weinstein, and, of course, Jim Zimmerman.



Their first article was by Michael Eldridge who analyzed the City Commission election. The paper said they did not endorse any of the candidates even though Michael was clearly a supporter of the winner, Gary Gordon.

I recently became a Facebook friend of Gary's. He has a great website that has many old photos, including one from 1978 of Gary and his bandmates Kenny Shore and Dave Durham aka The Archer Road Band. You can also hear some of his original music on the site. http://garygordonproductions.com/
If you click on Great Gainesville Music on the left side of the page it will take you down Gainesville's musical memory lane back in the day before any of us said, "back in the day."

In 2008, Lake Superior State University included "back in the day" among its phrases that deserve eternal banishment. I also read that among young people the expression can now mean no more than six months ago. I read it on the Internet so I KNOW it must be true!

It appears I am no longer staying current with the latest phrases and my language dates me. That can happen when your children are grown and the grandchildren live in other states. My amazing daughter, Priscilla, gently told me last year that my perfectly adorable and quite large Tinker Bell pocketbook was no longer called a pocketbook. It was a bag. Okay, it did look like a tote bag, so I adapted and called it a bag. I don't think Tink would like that. I know my mother wouldn't, and I certainly don't. To me a bag is a sack, something we used to get at the grocery store before we knew any better and started carrying our own cloth bags. Thank goddess for children or I'd be a dinosaur. (No doubt another outdated expression.)

However, I do want to pat myself on the back about something.  I believe I was the first person I knew who noticed at least a decade ago that the crossbar on the capital letter "A" was very gradually being omitted in ads, book covers, movies, etc.  I think I deserve a point for that astute observation. I predicted then, and hold to my opinion, that in time "A" will permanently lose its crossbar and become an upside-down "V." Only time will tell. But I digress and I want to tell you about Watershed, the newspaper.

Watershed had the first ad I ever saw for Paul Hoffman's Transformational Information Systems, a new age information and referral service. More in a later blog about Paul and the many ways he influenced and supported my life choices. Another first time ad for me was Jim and Cindy Hirt's Demian's Leathers at 1634 West University Avenue, around the corner from the old (pre-fire) Chaucer's restaurant. They traced around your feet on paper and used that as a pattern to make comfortable sandals that actually matched the shape of your feet. It was a novel idea in America, where women were still stuffing their feet into painful pointy-toed high heeled shoes that resembled no human feet anyone has ever seen in the history of the world.

Oh wait, I think young women are wearing them again after a generation of radical freethinking non-conformists discarded every semblance of uncomfortable anything we wore to attract men (or other women), including, but not limited to, burning bras and ill-fitting pantyhose. (A man must have invented pantyhose.) My upbringing, by well-meaning parents who had survived THE depression, didn't leave room for wasting anything so I just packed my bras away for awhile and gave the pantyhose and high heels to Goodwill. So what has happened? Did we teach our daughters nothing, or are they now the radicals, rebelling against the way we were by teetering in their 5-inch heels? When you think of  life as a whole, I know that none of this matters at all. I am just noticing, not complaining.

One of my nicknames is C.P., short for Curious Priscilla. I simply had to google "who invented pantyhose?" and, as I suspected, it was a man. In 1959, Glen Raven Mills of North Carolina introduced pantyhose invented by Allen Gant, a descendant of John Gant, who founded the textile mill in 1902. Now if you're ever on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and this question comes up, you will be well-prepared and I shall expect a thank you email (which I am told is old hat and email may not exist by then). Please don't tweet me or text me because I rarely check my Twitter account and my cell has text messages disabled. I do like Facebook but not all the apps so I won't respond to them either and, by the way, I'll admit it, we have no intention of getting rid of our landline which is the only thing that worked in a tropical storm a few years ago after the cell died and the power went off.

Well, I got off on another tangent but I like to follow the energy wherever it takes me. I want to say one more thing about my leather sandals from Demien's. I've had mine for over twenty-five years and have only had to replace the soles and strap once. What a bargain! At the risk of injecting negativity, I've just got to say it. They don't make things like that anymore. (I suspect that people somewhere probably do and I just haven't attracted them yet. I'll have to work on that.)

The Watershed ad for Chaucer's at the Renaissance Fair at 1642 W. University Avenue brought back happy memories of delectable dinners shared with fantastic friends. Before heading home, we always stopped downstairs at Rainbow Dreams which rightly called itself The Unusual Gift Shop. Future Watershed ads told us the Florida School of Massage had moved to 1115 N. Main St.

David Bole's ad was in Watershed's April, 1982 issue. David had earned postdoctoral degrees in acupuncture from the College of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture in Oxford, England. In 1979 he opened Gainesville's first acupuncture practice. His ad showed an address of 2929 NW 13th St. David is now director of the Traditional Acupuncture Center at 1204 NW 10th Ave. He is also a fully ordained monk (Gelong). Lama David is the resident teacher for the Gainesville Karma Thegsum Choling (KTC). His website is http://www.davidbole.com/ where I just enjoyed a 3-minute video about our own very special Dr. David.

The December, 1982 issue had a front-page interview of Jorge and Wanda Ibanez (where is the tilde on this keyboard when I need it?) done by Scott Weinstein. They talked about their new small business, Emiliano's Spanish Bakery at 615 W. University Ave. They tempted us with Latin-American pastries and authentic pan de agua. Scott also interviewed Wanda's brother, Gilberto Depaz of El Mercado, the store next door at 613 W. University Ave.There was no Spanish market in Gainesville at the time so Gilberto had to travel to Tampa and Miami to get supplies. It's hard to believe that Emiliano's Cafe opened downtown twenty-five years ago. Their website http://emilianoscafe.com/ says they "have evolved and have changed to remain the same," and reminds us that they "spearheaded Downtown Gainesville's Renaissance, ushering in a new era of patio cafes."

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