[Story contributed by Margaret Ecker, RN, MSN]
Sometime around 1975, local friends in Lake City offered us newly minted community organizers this abandoned house for a dwelling. We lived communally, our numbers fluctuating with the season. We lived with a coal burning stove and kept our provisions in gallon glass jugs against the mice. We worked every day, each at local job in support of community owned health care or the growing environmental issues, like strip mining and clean water. We paid no rent. To show gratitude, we rebuilt the front porch. Here, you can see nascent carpenters John Davis, who went on to found a national low cost housing consultation group based in Burlington, Vt.; and Trip Van Noppen, currently executive director of Earth Justice, a non-profit environmental protection organization based in Oakland, Calif.
