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When Roger went to college he was on the career track that was indicated by his aptitude tests: Math & Physics. In his second year of college he was not doing well in his field of study because he was not interested in it. His attitude was that he had taken a path that he had not consciously chosen to be on. The social climate of the times was during the Vietnam war. There was an awareness or an awakening happening. Roger was not consciously feeling it yet, but it was there.
He dropped out of college and reenrolled the next year in Philosophy, Sociology and some Psychology. But, "A restless attitude seized me again". He was in the town of River Falls, a small town that did not provide many options or stimulation for him. This was in the winter of 1969-70. He had some friends who were going to school in Madison and Colorado whom, he suspected, were also experiencing similar feelings. His Madison friend, then 21 years old, decided to buy a car and he drove with Roger to Seattle, Washington -- near where Roger felt a pull to go to the North Cascade Mountains.
Roger had been to the mountains in high school with his church group and he wanted to connect with that feeling again. "The feeling that there was something greater or bigger than what my reality was at that point." He had a desire to get into the most wild of wildernesses to catch and dry fish for a winter food cache. The path changed, however. One thing he learned while he was finding food: berries, apples, and food left by other hikers, was the lesson of trusting the universe. "Be true to yourself and you will be provided for." "Be true to your vegetables and your vegetables will be true to you" (Frank Zappa)
When Roger was in Seattle, the U.S. bombed Cambodia - it opened up many ideas in people. "We could see fast, big change in the future -- what we would be and do in 5 years was a total toss up". He was sharing a house with several people, living on food stamps, spending most of his time in a wild park in Seattle - it was an undeveloped park with a stream and ravine: Ravenna Park. He lived in a house with an open door policy - anyone who was traveling through, who wanted a place to stay for a night or two, was welcome.
One man traveling through was called "The Greek". The Greek told Roger "learn to grow your own food", not because it's cheaper, but because we'll need to know how to grow our own food for our survival. That moment was the "seeding of my consciousness."
There was an omnipresent feeling of system collapse. The Greek told Roger to visit the "Family of Man" at Marble Mount in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. So Roger and a woman friend hitchhiked to Marble Mount. They stayed two weeks, then returned to their house, gathered their "stuff" and Returned to Marble Mount.
Roger moved in with "The Family" at Marble Mount. It was a community of 30 to 80 people (depending on the season) at the edge of a National Park. They were raising their own food: grains, vegetables, beans, with no technology, doing everything by hand. They ate two meals a day, drank tea, smoked sacred herbs. They took daily saunas. Some members of the community hand-cut wood every day and late afternoon, before supper, they took their saunas.
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