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Jan's Biography
Eugene has been home for almost 20 years. I have been living at my current address for thirteen years.
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, our family moved to suburban Dallas, Texas in 1958 when I was six. It was quite a change. My dad was a chemical engineer and my mom looked after us three boys, me the youngest. It was a thoroughly middle class upbringing. Nothing fancy but we all had our own bedrooms, in a four bedroom single story, ranch style brick house in a neighborhood with hundreds of others. The closest place to buy groceries was two miles away. We had an air conditioned dog house, but no dog. We took the occasional family vacation, one summer I went to a snazzy YMCA summer camp. We moved 70 miles north of Dallas in time for high school, a rambling ranch style brick house overlooking Lake Texoma. We lived in a rural subdivision on a 3/8 acre lot. The nearest groceries or any kind of store, were six miles away in Denison. I drove my first car, a '58 Ford, to high school where I was an undistinguished member of the tennis team until my senior year when I was removed from the team because I refused to get a hair cut. My preferred music became Jefferson Airplane and the Byrds, cranked up volume on the 8 track driving to school. My senior year, our sort of hippie group threw the frisbee at school during lunch. We went to study hall instead of pep rallies. A friend and I started talking to classes about recycling. This after my first two years in high school I hung with the sports, cheerleading and student council crowd.
Those were direction setting years, given incidents with school authorities, current events at the times - Viet Nam, Haight Ashbury,,,, and my own emerging thoughts and perspectives. After high school, I attended North Texas State University, just in time for the tail end of Viet Nam protests and free speech confrontations. I earned a degree in Geography. The college experience was expansive - new ideas, pot everywhere, declining inhibitions. I declined the career track. Two years after graduation, I helped a friend set up his portable geodesic dome at a remote alternative community [commune] up a 'holler in the Arkansas Ozarks. I ended up staying for two years. It was among the most remarkable experiences in my life with zany people, a gorgeous natural setting and a whole new set of perspectives and points of view.
I built my own small hand made 5 sided cabin with awesome views, 40 minutes walking from the community house. It was the semi hermit period for me, going for days without seeing anyone while surrounded by phenomenal Ozark beauty - creeks, caves, cliffs, forest. I would load the occasional pancake and go for fantastic hikes all above the cliffs and down to the creek. And the whole scene came to a bizarre end.
I returned to Denton where I went to college, had my own yard care business, painted houses and did light carpentry work, co habitated with a woman, and became involved with efforts to stop a nearby nuclear power plant. A number of us were arrrested at various demos. I built the first bike trailer I had ever seen in 1979.
Adventure and travel called. I have visited 35 countries on 4 continents. Out of the country for nearly 5 years. New Zealand, Central America, all over Europe including behind the "Iron Curtain", east, central and south Africa, Morocco, Israel, Turkey, Canary Islands. This was all low budget, back pack travel. Highlights - surfing Raglan, New Zealand; hiking the Ruwenzori Mountains, Uganda; summer in West Berlin; first mural - Lisciano Nicconne, Italy; Inella in Italy; bike touring - Corsica, Sardegna, S France, Austria, Samos, Amalfi Coast; ,,,,,,,,,,,
Travels in Europe and Africa lead me to the discovery of a latent artistic talent for mural painting. This is the work I did to support myself after returning from Europe in 1986.
I returned to Texas in 1986, lived in Galveston for 2 years, Houston for 2 years. It was during this time I became interested in Permaculture and took a design course in Austin in 1990. When my mom died in 1991, I gratefully left Texas and moved to Eugene.
Involvements in Eugene included opposing the construction of a large computer chip factory by multi national Hyundai. In 1997, that was an important experience - it acquainted me with the realm of urban planning and urban land use, transportation and suburbia. I was also involved with vegetarian activism and safeguarding organic food standards.
More recently, in 2000, I bought a mid 50's suburban house on a quarter acre property in the River Road Neighborhood. The intention from the beginning was to transform this place into a permaculture shangri la. Living here and transforming the property has been a highlight of my life. If I was a house, this is what I would be.
The ideal, to take care of more needs on site, to reduce my ecological and political footprints. I rarely buy fruit and vegetables. Solar energy helps warm both the main house and the bungalow. There is a 6500 gallon rain water catchment system. With filtration for drinking water capacity if needed, I can be off the grid for water. The place is aesthetically beautiful. It is a small example of the much larger transformations in land use, culture and economics I would like to see.
The site has become a community resource for showing what a nothing special suburban property can become. I have hosted many tours and workshops here. Permaculture is a key element in my personal ethos. It is an invaluable tool for organizing thoughts and designing practical alternatives to mainstream culture and economics ranging in scale from a quarter acre property to the neighborhood and beyond.
Outreach and advocacy for economic and social alternatives to the mainstream has become the focus of my life. I cannot imagine the world we live in is the ultimate expression of human potential. The converging and deepening crisis of resources, economics, global relations, environment, culture and spirit offer us an historic opportunity to reassess what our lives are about and redefine our values, ideals and goals, as individuals, families and communities. By great good luck, there are others in the nearby neighborhood also with the same perspectives and ideals. We all realize what a special place this is. We are in the early going of cooperation and creativity to make visible many of the changes we would like to see, at home and in the neighborhood. Pioneers on the suburban frontier.
Jan's Biography
Eugene has been home for almost 20 years. I have been living at my current address for thirteen years.
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, our family moved to suburban Dallas, Texas in 1958 when I was six. It was quite a change. My dad was a chemical engineer and my mom looked after us three boys, me the youngest. It was a thoroughly middle class upbringing. Nothing fancy but we all had our own bedrooms, in a four bedroom single story, ranch style brick house in a neighborhood with hundreds of others. The closest place to buy groceries was two miles away. We had an air conditioned dog house, but no dog. We took the occasional family vacation, one summer I went to a snazzy YMCA summer camp. We moved 70 miles north of Dallas in time for high school, a rambling ranch style brick house overlooking Lake Texoma. We lived in a rural subdivision on a 3/8 acre lot. The nearest groceries or any kind of store, were six miles away in Denison. I drove my first car, a '58 Ford, to high school where I was an undistinguished member of the tennis team until my senior year when I was removed from the team because I refused to get a hair cut. My preferred music became Jefferson Airplane and the Byrds, cranked up volume on the 8 track driving to school. My senior year, our sort of hippie group threw the frisbee at school during lunch. We went to study hall instead of pep rallies. A friend and I started talking to classes about recycling. This after my first two years in high school I hung with the sports, cheerleading and student council crowd.
Those were direction setting years, given incidents with school authorities, current events at the times - Viet Nam, Haight Ashbury,,,, and my own emerging thoughts and perspectives. After high school, I attended North Texas State University, just in time for the tail end of Viet Nam protests and free speech confrontations. I earned a degree in Geography. The college experience was expansive - new ideas, pot everywhere, declining inhibitions. I declined the career track. Two years after graduation, I helped a friend set up his portable geodesic dome at a remote alternative community [commune] up a 'holler in the Arkansas Ozarks. I ended up staying for two years. It was among the most remarkable experiences in my life with zany people, a gorgeous natural setting and a whole new set of perspectives and points of view.
I built my own small hand made 5 sided cabin with awesome views, 40 minutes walking from the community house. It was the semi hermit period for me, going for days without seeing anyone while surrounded by phenomenal Ozark beauty - creeks, caves, cliffs, forest. I would load the occasional pancake and go for fantastic hikes all above the cliffs and down to the creek. And the whole scene came to a bizarre end.
I returned to Denton where I went to college, had my own yard care business, painted houses and did light carpentry work, co habitated with a woman, and became involved with efforts to stop a nearby nuclear power plant. A number of us were arrrested at various demos. I built the first bike trailer I had ever seen in 1979.
Adventure and travel called. I have visited 35 countries on 4 continents. Out of the country for nearly 5 years. New Zealand, Central America, all over Europe including behind the "Iron Curtain", east, central and south Africa, Morocco, Israel, Turkey, Canary Islands. This was all low budget, back pack travel. Highlights - surfing Raglan, New Zealand; hiking the Ruwenzori Mountains, Uganda; summer in West Berlin; first mural - Lisciano Nicconne, Italy; Inella in Italy; bike touring - Corsica, Sardegna, S France, Austria, Samos, Amalfi Coast; ,,,,,,,,,,,
Travels in Europe and Africa lead me to the discovery of a latent artistic talent for mural painting. This is the work I did to support myself after returning from Europe in 1986.
I returned to Texas in 1986, lived in Galveston for 2 years, Houston for 2 years. It was during this time I became interested in Permaculture and took a design course in Austin in 1990. When my mom died in 1991, I gratefully left Texas and moved to Eugene.
Involvements in Eugene included opposing the construction of a large computer chip factory by multi national Hyundai. In 1997, that was an important experience - it acquainted me with the realm of urban planning and urban land use, transportation and suburbia. I was also involved with vegetarian activism and safeguarding organic food standards.
More recently, in 2000, I bought a mid 50's suburban house on a quarter acre property in the River Road Neighborhood. The intention from the beginning was to transform this place into a permaculture shangri la. Living here and transforming the property has been a highlight of my life. If I was a house, this is what I would be.
The ideal, to take care of more needs on site, to reduce my ecological and political footprints. I rarely buy fruit and vegetables. Solar energy helps warm both the main house and the bungalow. There is a 6500 gallon rain water catchment system. With filtration for drinking water capacity if needed, I can be off the grid for water. The place is aesthetically beautiful. It is a small example of the much larger transformations in land use, culture and economics I would like to see.
The site has become a community resource for showing what a nothing special suburban property can become. I have hosted many tours and workshops here. Permaculture is a key element in my personal ethos. It is an invaluable tool for organizing thoughts and designing practical alternatives to mainstream culture and economics ranging in scale from a quarter acre property to the neighborhood and beyond.
Outreach and advocacy for economic and social alternatives to the mainstream has become the focus of my life. I cannot imagine the world we live in is the ultimate expression of human potential. The converging and deepening crisis of resources, economics, global relations, environment, culture and spirit offer us an historic opportunity to reassess what our lives are about and redefine our values, ideals and goals, as individuals, families and communities. By great good luck, there are others in the nearby neighborhood also with the same perspectives and ideals. We all realize what a special place this is. We are in the early going of cooperation and creativity to make visible many of the changes we would like to see, at home and in the neighborhood. Pioneers on the suburban frontier.