Overview

The early 1970s were a time of tremendous upheaval and unrest. Fed up with civil rights abuse, the military draft, the Vietnam War, business-as-usual politics, and lack of access to healthy life choices, visionary Americans began building an alternative world. They wanted to change the world and they did. Overwhelming numbers of Baby Boomers rebelled against the rigid rules, materialism, harsh treatment, limited opportunities, and unimaginative expectations their parent's generation placed on them. Above all, young people wanted freedom to live their own way, and would do practically anything to achieve it. They built alternative communities outside of conventional society by joining together and creating new ways to connect, make a living, celebrate, and organize to make a better world. They started countless alternative businesses, cooperatives, festivals and non-governmental organizations to serve humanity. This book tells the story of the Eggsnatchur Natural Foods Restaurant in Eugene, Oregon, and describes the high adventure, intrigue, and loving learned along the way. The workers became a family of like-minded activists who formed a profit-sharing collective that served the community with the highest quality food available. They facilitated positive social and political change by challenging the norms and the powers of the day. The book describes deep, transformative personal changes young people went through during this turbulent era and focuses on how one man grew from a conservative fraternity boy in wind-swept Kansas into an alternative entrepreneur within the emerging cultural Renaissance of the Pacific Northwest. The author describes young people of the times who were full of energy, optimism, and love of adventure with great capacity for taking risk. Whether hitchhiking across the country, chasing romantic adventure on an island paradise, engaging in political activism in the nation's capital, or embarking on a pirate's life in the Caribbean, We Can Change the World takes you to unimagined places during a very different era.

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J 5.0 out of 5 stars What an amazing time!!! This book was an insightful perspective on an amazing time in current history. The U.S. was entangled in a war without any need, which helped light a cultural revolution that led to an evolution of creativity, eastern spirituality, innovation and environmental focus. Lee's descriptions of a spectrum of experiences during that time offer a unique angle of vision on a soul-stirring time on our delicate planet. And he also demonstrated that starting a restaurant and inspiring a community requires great love, stamina and perseverance. Hat's off to the entire family that made the Eggsnatchur an inspiring success. Susan P 5.0 out of 5 stars Experience the 70s, even if you did and forgot, or if you didn't and wish you had. A true to life experience by an adventurous midwestern young man who heads west and finds so much more than he was looking for in life experiences and forever friendships.

Author Information

Lee Boutell quit college at twenty-one years old to open a natural foods restaurant and a honey-sweetened ice cream business on a shoestring. Through hard work and persistence, he and kindred spirits ran the restaurant and center for activism as a profit-sharing collective in Eugene, Oregon. Lee now is married with two adult daughters and has a quiet life in Eugene as a gardener, craftsman, artist, and writer. Lee enjoys music and exploring the natural world.

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