During the school years of 1970-71 and 71-72, I lived at the Smiling Bear Coop. During the first year I was on the board of directors and the second year I was the Chairman of the Board of Directors. The Coop took advantage of the laws dealing with dairy cooperatives in Wisconsin (we didn't produce any milk products but had a good lawyer). Because of these laws, we could pay very minimal rent because the owners had to pay minimal property taxes.
Among my memories are the conflict between Marxists and Trotskyists; a crazy lady named Theodora who traded psychiatric medicine with others who had prescriptions she liked betterl and the fact that during a Vietnam protest we had a sign outside saying, "Smiling Bear Frowns on the War" with an image of a stylized bear's face frowning.
¶ 6:49 PM
Martin's memories preceding the chronicles, i.e., before 1986. The reason for this blog is to capture old memories that come back to me at seemingly random times. Thus the entries will not be in chronological order. Also, the accuracy of this blog is less than the accuracy in the more contemporaneous blog http://weisschronicles.blogspot.com/