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Time Capsule: Kathleen Christensen, ’78

Veggie Burgers and Group Massage

Between afternoon classes and late-night studying, we kneaded whole wheat bread, watered organic vegetable gardens and plotted nonviolent civil disobedience. We were going to change the world -- starting in our own kitchens and backyards.

From 1975 to 1978, I lived in two Stanford co-ops, Terra House and Columbae House, and spent many hours at a third, Synergy House. I remember co-op kitchens as centers of social life -- and social change. Men who had never been taught how to scramble an egg learned how to prepare chile relleno casserole for 50. All of us favored soybean croquettes over steaks, back then when no one counted fat grams.

Our work for the environment began at home. Synergites liked to brag about their solar clothes dryer<a clothesline. Co-op residents jump-started the University