Looking back on it, it seems like a great idea (were you expecting me to say something different?). The communes I've lived on have all been neat places (not without problems of course). Well, except for a small number of gay men. The only one I know of with more than a handful is Short Mountain in Tennessee, which I've had great fun visiting but which I can't quite imagine living at.

1992-1993. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. So off to the big city in search of the gay life. I guess the big problem (or opportunity) here was that it sort of looked like I didn't need to choose between the commune life and the city life--there was a new commune starting there in the city with plans to grow and all this stuff. Well, in the end the main result of that is that I became convinced that starting a commune really is as hard as people at East Wind told me it would be, but my heart ended up at Acorn, despite the fact that I kept telling myself that there wouldn't be enough gay people at Acorn.

1993-1994. Acorn Community, Mineral, Virginia, USA. Well, there were a few gay people at Acorn and Twin Oaks (8 miles away, nice biking distance in my book), so certainly life remained eventful while I took the effort to flirt with them and get to know them and so on. Of course I wasn't going to take any chances, so I drove to Washington, D.C. every week (2.5 hours away). I played in the gay band there and visited my parents who had moved to D.C.

1994-2000. Washington, DC. Now that I'm in town I get out and go dancing and this and that often. I guess at the moment the initial explore the town excitement has worn off. In some ways I never really settled in DC. Funny town that way (I'm not the only one to have that reaction).

2000-. San Francisco bay area, California, USA.

This page is part of Jim Kingdon's personal pages.