Memories and images of life in Olympia, Washington during an era of significant social change from the 1960s through the 1980s.

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  • Whimsical and Creative Names of Group Houses and Collectives 1960 – 1989 – By Joe Tougas
    One of the interesting practices that was characteristic of the Olywa local culture in the 1970s was the naming of the various houses and households . . . The number of houses with names ballooned over time. Recently, when a request went out for people’s memories of those named households, the response was huge. Here is a list of over a hundred names dredged up from peoples’ memories and documents.
  • Cafe Intermezzo – By Carolyn Street LaFond
    I was coasting down the Fourth Avenue bridge in April 1977, having just recovered from a grueling tonsillectomy and on my way to my Special Ed teaching job at John Rogers Elementary. At the bottom of the incline I noticed a woman working on the large show windows of a shop next to another shop front with an identical set of windows indented from the street. The position of the windows and size of the adjoining space cried out to me, “There’s a great place for an espresso bar!”
  • Construction Brigades in Nicaragua During Reagan’s War – By Jean Eberhardt
    During the contra war—a right-wing terror campaign waged by ex-national guard mercenaries of Nicaragua’s ousted dictator and funded by the U.S.—over a hundred thousand people from the U.S. visited Nicaragua. Many of us traveled and volunteered with purpose. For example, delegations of elected officials mobilized by progressive organizations, ecumenical study tour groups, long-term volunteers with Witness for Peace, caravans carrying material aid with Pastors for Peace, medical teams, coffee and cotton harvest brigades, and journalists.
  • Olympia F.O.O.D. Co-op from the Floor Up – By Beth Hartmann
    The first day I volunteered at the Co-op was the day we laid the linoleum at the downtown store. There were several people there, and it was hard to know where expertise was coming from, if there was any. I did my part, carefully placing tiles where the glue had been spread.