Oral history interview with Lisa and John Freitag

Oral history interview with Lisa and John Freitag

Lisa Freitag describes growing up in the Boston, Massachusetts area and moving to New Hampshire in 1973, having been influenced by the Whole Earth Catalog and back-to-the-land movement. She speaks of meeting John Freitag in Canaan, New Hampshire, of their decision to move to Wooden Shoe commune, commune life, and the home birth of their baby at Wooden Shoe with the assistance of Thurmond Knight. She also speaks of their decision to leave the commune and move to Rockbottom Farm in Strafford, remaining there until 1982 when they purchased their house in South Strafford, Vermont.

John Freitag describes attending the University of Wisconsin in Madison from 1968 to 1970, participating in anti-war demonstrations, discussions with his father about the costs of war, and his own sense of responsibility regarding service to his country. In 1970 he began two years of alternative military service as a conscientious objector at The Center for Human Survival in Canaan, New Hampshire. He recalls attending early Natural Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) organizational meetings and being asked by Samuel Kaymen to truck produce to New York City, helping to coordinate the start of food cooperatives, New England Peoples Coop, and subsequent VISTA food-related projects, and later anti-nuclear activism. He reflects on the dual contexts of 1960s upheavals driving back-to-the-landers to Vermont and what was happening at that time in Vermont, his appreciation for citizen’s participatory democracy in Vermont, and describes various roles he has played in Strafford town government.

24 July 2015

AudioFile1970s-48

MP3

Audio File

Canaan (N.H.)

Strafford (Vt.)

Permission to publish material from the Vermont 1970s Counterculture Project must be obtained from the Vermont Historical Society.

Rowell, Leslie

Freitag, Lisa, 1952-

Freitag, John, 1950-

Strafford (Vt.)

1 hr., 26 min., 54 sec.

Vermont Historical Society Library, 60 Washington Street, Barre, VT 05641-4209