Update: April 1999. I'm currently on a Personal Affairs Leave from Twin Oaks (for up to a year), but still come back frequently since I am living nearby in Charlottesville. I have a long-term house and dog sitting gig there, so expenses are low, and free time fairly plentiful. I'm trying to use this time to focus on building my web information businesses. My main business web site now is my Compact Disc Shopper's Guide .

I've lived at Twin Oaks for seven years out of the last fourteen. The first four I did starting back in 1985 just after I graduated from college (with a BA in Psych, of course). I ended my membership in 1989 to buy and run a local, on the brink of bankruptcy, soyfoods manufacturing business. 'Virginia Soyworks' was my life for the next two years, as I ran the whole operation on my own. Not ready to take the leap to having employees, feeling that I was pushing my luck, and having saved 90% of my tofu fortune, I sold the biz to Twin Oaks in 1991, where it is run today as Twin Oaks Community Foods.

During the next five years, I lived off my 'curdled' savings. I looked into joining the radical, but now defunct, 'Haight-Ashbury' Kerista commune, but I wasn't polygamous enough for them. I returned to Twin Oaks for a few months as a resident; lived with my mother for a while and took some programming courses; and vagabonded around public lands in a camper I put on my back of my faithful tofu delivery truck.

I did most of my vagabonding during a trip through northern Arizona, southern Utah, and western Colorado from 1995-6. I camped out on National Forest and BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands, usually not moving my home for two weeks at a time, and consequently putting twice as many miles on my mountain bike's odometer as on my truck's. I used the time to enjoy the great outdoors, as well as playing my guitar and electronic piano, and writing on my notebook computer (these were powered by the solar panels on my camper's roof).

In the Fall of 1996, I drove back east and rejoined Twin Oaks again as a resident on New Year's Eve. I was mostly there until Spring 1999.

Some other background info:
Born: June 1962
Siblings: None
Parents: Carol & Jim, divorced, both University professors (Linguistics & Journalism)
Childhood: Moved frequently over the NE and Midwest US, and lived for four years in Africa (Uganda, Kenya, & Nigeria)
Summer Camp: Choconut (Pennsylvania)
High School (boarding): Putney School (Vermont)
College: Grinnell (Iowa)

Why I joined Twin Oaks:

I read Skinner's 'Walden 2' in my first Psych course. This is when I started realizing how we are shaped by our environment (as we shape it), and so it makes sense to consciously engineer it to facilitate our long-term values & priorities. From my viewpoint, this engineering is most easily and excitingly done in a commune.

I lived in co-op housing for my Junior and Senior years. I thought - "why does this group living and sharing of responsibilities and resources have to end when we graduate?" Camp Choconut and Putney School also were positive experiences for me in group living.

I took a course on 'American Utopian Communities'. We mainly covered defunct communes from the 18th and 19th centuries (Shakers, Oneida, etc), but we did spend a class on Twin Oaks. There was also a lot of group discussion. At the end of it all, the professor asked if living in community had any personal meaning for any of us. Out of the 20 students, I was the only one who answered "yes!"

Why I've left Twin Oaks:

Although the first book on Twin Oaks was "A Walden II Experiment", Twin Oaks no longer consciously practices behaviorism. Why? - I don't know, because to me behaviorism is about scientifically/rationally studying our environment(including our brains) so we can operate more in harmony with it(perhaps this is known as 'cognitive-behaviorism'). But such efficiency or methodical approaches are often met here with celebrated irrationality, ignorance, and distrust.

Because of its income sharing, lack of rewards(incentives), and accountability, Twin Oaks has greatly eliminated feedback loops between actions and consequences. On the outside, you create a mess, you clean it up; On the outside, you blow-off work, or do it badly, you get fired and/or are docked pay. On the outside, you put in extra effort and responsibility, you are rewarded.

Having good social skills and being pleasant are much more highly valued here than being productive or responsible. Admittedly, this especially irks me because my interpersonal skills are lacking, and I can be hard to deal with sometimes when I'm angry and/or depressed. I would like to do better at being pleasant, but meanwhile I don't want my strengths discounted because they're associated with work, or in other words - areas that benefit people indirectly or in ways that aren't necessarily immediately obvious (although they're usually obvious to me, and I try to complement people for their well done work 'behind the scenes'. )

So why do I keep coming back?

I haven't found a strong sense of belonging anywhere, and for all my criticism and alienation with Twin Oaks, it's the most home that I've found.

Perhaps I get caught up in the potential I imagine both for Twin Oaks and myself here. I love how work, socializing, hobbies, personal growth and world change are all (or at least could be) happening in the same place. I also like the variety of the lifestyle.

I don't like the inefficiency of most of the mainstream where more than half of your income goes to paying a car loan, and rent or a mortgage. I fear getting stuck in a demeaning job and a lonely apartment.

Work I've done at T. O.

FOOD:
Kitchen co-Manager
Milk Processing (Cheese, Yogurt, Butter) Manager
Cook (Bread Baker, Lunches, Dinners, Granola Maker, Tupelo Serf)
Dishwasher(this is the one job we all have 2 take a turn at)
Dairy Crew Member (milking cows)
Garden Crew Member

INCOME:
Tofu Production and Purchaser
Desk Person - I'm one of the people who answers the phone and says "Good afternoon, Twin Oaks Hammocks. How can I help you?"
Hammocks Weaver
Rope Production Manager
Purchaser for Businesses
New Industries Manager
Emerald City Worker (make oak chair frames)

OTHER:
Video Manager
Stand-In Planner
Health Team Member
Vehicle-Use Manager
Auto Shop Mechanic
Louisa Tripper (do errands in town)
STP (Sewage Treatment Plant) Crew Member