Eighteen Years

Today's my 18th Anniversary of joining Twin Oaks. I was shown two rooms: one in the basement of Morningstar, that was tiny and painted dark blue, had one small window and a loft bed, and was claustrophobia inducing. The other was on the second floor of Tupelo and had no furniture and smelled like cigarette smoke. I took that one, despite the smoke, and later was woken up in the middle of the night by yelling. The woman in the next room was having a hard break up with her girlfriend. People at Tupelo ignored me and one woman remarked to me that she was surprised a new member had been put there. Needless to say, I was unsure I'd made the right decision in moving to Twin Oaks.

My main work was construction, doing the dry wall and painting at our new building, Nashoba. I moved in to an open room there after 3 months of living at Tupelo. This was after one member informed me that I probably would not be allowed to move to Nashoba, since I was a new member.

The habit of treating new members poorly has been addressed over and over again, on the O&I and in conversations. We now have a "New Member Liason," whose job is making sure new members have what they need and have their questions answered. I had no "new member liason," although the new members did have a once a week meeting, in which we mostly listened to the fears of one member concerned that she would not pass her 6 month poll. She did pass.

January is also not the best time to join Twin Oaks. It's cold, there's not a lot of work to do, and people are crowded indoors. This January, we have a waiting list, and no open rooms, as we also have a few long term guests. Keenan's put a couple of beds in upstairs Degania, to house guests, and has gotten in trouble for that. The message of "no more people" is loud and clear, and it has not changed since I moved here 18 years ago, even though there's only about a dozen of the same people left from that time. I truly think it is the wintertime blahs that descends upon the commune, and most of us just should hibernate and wait for spring and warm weather.
much love,
Kelpie