Where Mother Came from

During the nearly six and a half years that MOTHER EARTH NEWS has been published, one particular question has popped up time and time
again from almost everyone who’s talked to me about the magazine:
“Where did you ever get the idea for a publication like MOTHER?”

Well, I got the idea from a lot of places.

From
living the first seven years of my life on a 40-acre family farm
(complete with goat, cow, pigs, chickens, orchard, big garden, etc.) and
a fair number of my later years on a 144-acre largely “organic” farm in
Indiana.

From decades spent with people who lived and worked
outdoors at their own pace and in their own way, as a natural
consequence of who and what and where they were.

From picking a
great number of rocks out of the pasture by hand. From helping to build
what — at the time — seemed like miles of terraces across washed-away
hillsides. From pouring many cubic feet of concrete and otherwise
remodeling old and constructing new barns, houses, and toolsheds. From
throwing thousands of bales of hay to a herd of dairy cattle and then
hauling much of that hay — in somewhat altered form — out to spread on the
fields. From fishing some, hunting a little, and working a lot on those
Indiana farms.

From the 12 years I spent on the road as
cartoonist, writer, road manager for a performing group, draftsman,
common laborer, aircraft electronics technician, display fabricator,
salesman, gas station attendant, deliveryman, reefer hand, designer and
builder and owner and operator of a trampoline center, factory worker,
film director, model designer, and a whole lot of other things …
including bindlestiff.