DYKES AND DOGS CAMPOUT, JULY 1981, SUNOL REGIONAL WILDERNESS, BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA

(Dykes and Dogs Campout, July 1981, Sunol Regional Wilderness, California --

photo by Maggie Jochild)

For a few years during the late 1970's and early 1980's, I organized an annual Dykes and Dogs Campout at the Sunol Regional Wilderness about an hour outside San Francisco. We would occupy some or all of the four campsites along Alameda Creek in this East Bay wilderness area, sharing meals, hikes, swimming, and nightly campfire. One year, by a wild coincidence, the campsite next to ours became occupied by Martha Shelley, her lover and their three children.

This photo is from the campout in July 1981. Not everyone who attended is in the photo. I have identified all the attendees below, along with their relationships and political affiliations at the time. This is a rich cross-section of one political dyke community and friendship network at that moment. The two somewhat overlapping organizations mentioned are Lesbians Against Police Violence and the Pleiades, first incest survivor self-help group in the U.S.
copyright 2014  -- Maggie Jochild

Attendees not in photo:

Holly Wilder (close friend of Maggie's and several others)
Joan Annsfire (lived on Brosnan Street with Julie Twitchell, next door to Maggie and Kathie; member of LAPV)
Julie Twitchell (lived on Brosnan Street with Joan Annsfire, next door to Maggie and Kathie; former member of Henry Street Household)
Marcie Essock (ex of Maggie's; member of LAPV)
Renee Enteen (became Maggie's roommate and briefly her lover later this year)
　

Shown in photo, left to right:
Standing:
Kathie Bailey (Maggie's roommate at 73 Brosnan, member of LAPV, lovers with Kay Finney)
Travis Smith (member of Pleiades)
Mimi Goodwin (member of LAPV)
Judy Pollock (lovers with Tricia Case)
Tricia Case (lovers with Judy Pollock)
Maggie Jochild (currently single, member of LAPV and Pleiades)
Sim Kallan (roommates with Annie Bell)
Diana Robbins (member of LAPV)

Squatting:
Kata Orndorff (member of LAPV and Pleiades)
Kay Finney (former roommate of Maggie's at 73 Brosnan and in Wimmin's House land collective in Durango, Colorado; lovers with Kathie Bailey and briefly member of LAPV)
Annie / Anne Marie Bell (briefly member of LAPV, roommate with Sim Kallan, briefly lovers with Maggie later this year)
Georgy Culp
Susan Bell (sister to Annie Bell)

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HANDING ON THE PAST

For my birthday, Amanda Johnston and Allison Sigrist sent me a chunk o'cash, mutiples of my age. These woman already give me $ each month right before rent is due. I was going to use it to pay my phone bill, but then I stopped to think about what these women mean to me, individually and as a couple. Among countless other important realities about who they are and what they do, it was Amanda who introduced me to the internet back in 1995 and trained me to have an online presence. Her marriage to Allison helped spark the writing of Ginny Bates. And their visit last November launched not only the research of Allison's family (i.e., Lavinia) but also Stoundmeal.

So I decided to spend the gift on something other than grim necessity. I could hear each of them in my head saying "Yes!" Consequently, I now have a combo scanner/printer/copier that networks with my new laptop, including the ability to scan from slides and negatives.

During the 1980s, at the height of my genealogical travels, everywhere I went I asked folks I visited if I could copy their family photos. I had a camera with a special lens and stand that made this easy. Most of these photographs were in danger of being lost and did not exist elsewhere, certainly not in negative form. I also photographed places and gravestones, keeping detailed notes. I have hundreds of these negatives safely stored in labeled sleeves.

I was also inspired by JEB, Lynda Koolish, Cathy Cade, Tee Corinne, and many others during the 1970s to document my own life and community. I have dozens of albums stuffed with photographs of the wimmin and events I knew. Few of them have ever been scanned.

So, my goal for the next couple of months is to render all these images to a digital format that can be easily shared and reliably preserved. It's a monumental project, something I think of as part of the heritage I want to leave behind. I will post later on the question of privacy and distribution, asking for your feedback.

This weekend I have embarked on the oldest images, family going back to the first advent of photography. As I scan, I am definitively identifying each photo, running it through editing, and posting it at my online genealogical tree -- instant sharing. I will share a few of these in future posts with stories attached as I write them.

And it frees me up for the brave new world I have embarked on with Margot.

For now, the photo above shows me at age 9 (on the left) with my cousin Sally and little brother Bill in Dilley, Texas, December 1964. This is in our dining room, which was also my only space in the house. I was being abused by Craig though not quite sexually yet. I had just written my first poem and found out I was a lesbian. Sally is my cousin, Mama's sister's (Aunt Sarah) younger daughter, 4 months apart from me in age. The stuffed lion was called Leo. We are sitting on my bed.

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