Notes: Whole Earth Catalog, Spring 1969

Is there anybody left in this world who remembers this?!?

This was the Whole Earth Catalog.

Think of it as the analogue or paper version of the Internet.

It was the size of two sheets of A4 or letter-sized writing paper, and printed on newprint.

A long time ago when I was a kid, I had a copy. I put it in the second drawer of my writing desk, with my stamp album on top of it. Then both got thrown away by mistake by some idiot.

There’s a really vivid image in my mind, the one that got me buying it in the first place — “The Indian Tipi.”

I didn’t know (and still don’t) know why I was drawn to that entry, but it clinched it for me. I just HAD to buy it and read it from cover to cover. Knowing the stuff contained inside it was like going into historic territory for me.

And believe you me, it really was historic territory.

Loving this kinda proves I’m something of a hippie inside me.

Except that I’m not. Except that I am. Except that I’m not.

Except that I’m everything that I am and am not.

© The Naked Listener, 2012. Image via World Earth Catalog.