Why We Moved to the Country and What We Set Out to
The Robinsons talk about why they moved to the country and how the Have-More plan came about.
March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
CAROLYN, our son Jackie, and I haven't any land to sell - we aren't promoting anybody's products. We just want to tell you some things we learned about how to have more fun, more health and more security than 99% of the people in this world ever had before.
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Back in 1942, we Robinsons lived in a big apartment house in New York. Far from having all the conveniences and easy living you are supposed to leave in a big city, we discovered we had very little.
In the first place, we always felt restricted. Living in the city wasn't easy, it was difficult. And every time we turned around - it cost us money.
For example, just to let the baby walk or play outdoors cost us money and trouble. First, we had to dress the baby nice (because we were going to the park), then get together blankets, diapers, his toys, etc., carry all this and the baby out to the elevator, wait until the elevator came for us, then outside we would have to walk two blocks and wait for a bus, then ride about 15 blocks and get off the bus, carry everything into the park, and find a spot where we could sit down.
One terribly hot Sunday afternoon we had gone all through this procedure and finally found a spot that wasn't crowded, spread a blanket to sit on, unpacked the baby's toys, diapers, etc. and settled down for a few minutes' peace. Just then a policeman came up to us: "Look - you can't stay here," he said.
"Why not?" I asked.
"How long d'ya think the grass would last if everybody was allowed to set and walk all over it?"
I suddenly remembered as a boy how wonderful it had been to lie in the grass in back of our house in the little New England town in which I was brought up.
We got up to leave. I said to Carolyn, my wife, "Look, let's get out of here!"
"It'll be awful hot back at the apartment," she said, "and Jackie hasn't had any sun for a long time."
"What I mean is let's get out of this dirty, noisy city - let's go live in the country . ."
That is how we began to think seriously about living in the country. I say think about it - because we thought about it for a long time before we did it. First, we couldn't see how we could afford living in the country. Then we began to wonder if we couldn't have a garden and maybe some chickens and by raising some of our food have more money so we could afford it.
The trouble was that a couple of our city friends who had farms always said the vegetables they raised cost about three times what they sold for in the store.
In fact, one man we knew about who had a fine modern dairy used to set before his guests two bottles. One was milk, the other champagne. "Take your choice," he'd say. "They cost me the same."
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