... until Steve or whoever makes this posting thing easier to do. I don't even know if I've succeeded yet.
OK.
I guess I have a longer connection to Dumont than practically anyone except Steve. I was there from 1976 to 1987, from (sadly) after the First Fifth, which was before my time, till the very bitter(sweet) end.
I do think we have a story to tell, and it's not just of the Merry Prankster variety. Don't get me wrong, there were many Merry Moments, but Dumont was so much more than a youthful escapade. It was probably the most important formative experience of my entire life. And we are famous in a minor way far beyond our circle. The thing we did was amazing.
When I look at the list of people who are at this point involved or at least being communicated with, I realize I hardly know any of you. It seems at this time the thrust is towards the first five years, the early years of dreamers who weren't quite ready to leave their heady radical university days, and who then went on to something else. Remembering Dumont fondly as some kind of youthful folly.
I was glad to see the composite pic that Steve put together and was posted recently, because this is much more the Dumont that I knew.
I think Steve should put together the T shirt design, and that it should be a collage of just a few of the many wonderful things we did, often in collaboration with WPIRG. Of course the Chevron would be there, the Mercury Paper, the Weston Paper, the Supermarket Tour, Hysteria, Healthsharing, Steve's anarchist publications, the things we did with Black and Red, Between the Lines, and of course our very backbone in the economic survival department, Labour/Le Travailleur. And so much more. Oh yeah, and Kopy Kwik, where would we have been without them?
I doubt if I will make it to the reunion, it is a long way from the Slocan Valley to Kitchener, in many ways. Also, it being this time in my life, I have another 40th anniversary this summer, that of the Vallican Whole Community Centre, which was where I was before I came to Dumont, and where I came back to.
I'll be glad to remember endlessly with my friends and comrades, however, and try to recreate some of what we had, to whatever end. It was quite a shock to me to realize it has been over 23 years since I left Dumont. We are all getting older and we need to be speaking our truth, both the good times and the bad, about what we accomplished and what it all meant. We can lose our herstory so easily.
It is the middle of the night here. Once I started thinking about this I couldn't sleep anyway so I thought I might as well take the plunge into this multilogue.
In sisterhood and solidarity
Moe Lyons
