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).

2000–2005. San Francisco bay area, California, USA.

2006–. Washington, DC suburbs.

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