Bob Smalser in FWW

And now those of us who haven't met him

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>will know what he looks like (see the author listing in front of mag). Handsome devil.

Thanks

Bob Smalser, Seabeck, WA

>It was fun, thanks.

I was frank about what newcomers need to buy and what they don't, IMO. As the article's theme was "We tell you what the manufacturers don't.", I was pleasantly surprised at the forthright approach I was allowed. The only thing that got cut was a 7th page on rehabbing fleamarket oldies ILO buying new, and that was for space....it was already two pages longer than any other article in the mag, and it's reasonably obvious none of the chisels hanging in my shop were made after WWII.

Senior Editor Andy Engel and Art Director Mike Pekovich are the guys responsible for the neat presentation and layout....I just wrote the words. The premium Barr chisels we used in the photo shoot were Mike's personal set.

We'll see how the non-shill approach is received.

And no, none of us involved got to keep all those new chisels. Strict publisher policy, and a good one.

Seabeck

WoodburnBob

>Bob, the last couple years I've admired your internet treatises, photos and remarkable industry. I started buying FWW with issue #3 but became disenchanted around the time they supplanted B&W with color. I spent many a cold night paging through the old FWWs and my original Whole Earth Catalog.

Next time I'm in Freddie's I'll study your piece, 'though I may not buy.

Bob, everytime I see your name and "Seabeck" I think of my aunt and uncle who lived directly across the little bay from the marina there in Seabeck. At the time, I think downtown Seabeck was the general store there at the marina; that was it. They'd take me out fishing salmon during the morning and before dusk we'd pick up oysters and clams on the beach. More than once we'd be out trolling and a nuclear sub would pop up half a mile away. Haven't been there for 25 years or more and it would probably sadden me to see it now.

Anyway, congratulations on the publication. Bob

Seabeck hasn't changed.

Bob Smalser, Seabeck, WA

>Still rural. Maybe a few more expensive homes is all.

Whole Earth Catolog?

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>I've seen this catolog only on e-bay, but have no idea what it is about. Would you elaborate Bob?

Congrats on the article Bob. I'll have to look for the mag. No shill approach eh? Boy, that just sounds like a breath of fresh air.

Todd O.

Re: Whole Earth Catolog?

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Todd,the Whole earth catalog is a counterculture magazine started,I believe,in the 60s.It has articles on how to build houses out of firewood,geodesic domes,etc.Alot of stuff like how to build a log splitter out of a bicycle pump(I made that one up)and other such things.That book was the main reading in my outhouse for years.Kind of like a hippie version of popular mechanics.---Jack

Whole Earth Catalog - from one who was there

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Yes, the 1960's. It was an attempt to let the back-to-the-landers who didn't have the advantages of growing up in farm country and/or with tool-using parents/uncles/aunts/etc. find out what was out there. It was primarily references to books, companies that sold useful stuff, etc., but served in the process to educate people on how to do things.

One of the listings was for a funky little company, then in Woburn, MA, called "Woodcraft." The beginning of my slippery slope.

Interestingly, a lot of the listings harkened back to the back to the land and back to basics movements post-WWII. The back to the land counterculture furry freaks of the 1960's were, in many ways, repeating what their (our, for some of us) parents had done in the late 1940's, except with more hair, fewer clothes, and a wider variety of chemical stimulants (not just tobacco and likker). The Last Whole Earth Catalog had a running story in the margins, a sort of hero's journey, that winds up with a wedding in Kentucky in which the rural folk gently point out to the newcomers that they've been doing that country stuff, too.

Mother Earth news?

Bob Hackett

>If it had how-to`s it had to be Mother Earth,one of my favorite reads back then too(right after any chopper mag I could find).

The Whole Earth Catalog was just a stepping stone to get to the folks who either made the products(like Snow & Nealey,eh Todder) or offered books on how to.

Maybe those alternatives to likker were kickin` in again Jack.;^)

Mainely,Bawb

This guy *LINK*

WoodburnBob

>The Whole Earth Catalog is a little like sex, a different experience for different people. My take on it was a little different from what folks are emphasizing here. Wikipedia.org has a nice history and description of it but that's not what I remember about it.

Since 2 million copies were printed for the last version, I'd guess you could find it in libraries, used bookstores, a cardboard box in your uncle's garage, and so forth for nothing or next to nothing. You should see for yourself. I'd doesn't even look that expensive on Ebay, but I'd guess you'll get a heavy dose of mildew unless you smell what you're buying ahead of time. Why don't you tell someone that's what you really want for Christmas this year, a copy of the WEC without mildew. I can't see how you'd be disappointed.

My copy went to my first wife in the mid-80s. I think I'll tell Rita that's what I want for Christmas this year.

By the way 'Ramparts' was the main stream political monthly I remember reading regularly in the late 60s and early 70s. I didn't have a lot of money then but I bought FWW and Ramparts each month for many years. Let's see if anyone remembers that.


Whole Earth Catalog (an example)

Re: Mother Earth news?

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Alternatively speaking,I've been wrong before. My memory is like a moth eaten rag.Some things from years ago are clear as day but I can't remember what I did yesterday.---Jack