Summer 1970 - Weekend Planning Retreat
San Benito County, California
San Benito County, California
When different feminist factions discussed strategy, the same sticking points often emerged. It wore everyone down. Maybe, with a weekend away, we'd find solutions that had evaded us. Someone had a friend with an empty lodge on a few acres of country land, the perfect place to brainstorm. The plan for the retreat spread by word-of-mouth. There was no agenda, just directions to the location and a goal. A few weeks later, over 100 women from around the San Francisco Bay Area convened in a meadow on a hot Saturday morning. Most had carpooled with friends for the two-hour drive.
We gathered outside the rundown lodge and waited for the discussion to start. At the time, feminist ethos valued collective action and distrusted leaders. After several long hours in the sun, it became apparent that nothing was going to happen. No one was going to call the meeting. But since we'd come this far, we were reluctant to head home. There was little furniture in the lodge and only a few benches and tables outside. So we sat on the ground with our friends, clustering on the towels or the sleeping bags we'd brought, or just lying on the ground. By mid-day it was sweltering. Friends cooled off under outside showers. Clothes became optional. Finally, someone found a swimming hole and most everyone dove in. The next morning no one was in a hurry to leave. There had been no political discussions, but we’d all been through the same odd free-form retreat. We'd gotten to spend time with the friends we'd come with, and somehow everyone felt more comfortable together by the time we left.
