Letters to California 1971
During the summer of 1971 George Mullins and Madelyn Averitte separated and George accompanied Colleen Anderson to California. The remaining members of the Ragnarokr commune continued to work on the building on their rural property near North Bay and run the leather shop in Toronto. George’s departure left the commune overextended. There were too few people to operate the leather shop while developing the bush lot they had purchased the year before. This prompted Philip and Mary to recruit new people into the commune. This proved difficult to do. They also looked for individuals who were interested in building a cottage or a cabin on the property without making a commitment to the leather shop.
Ultimately they decided to change the business structure of the leather shop from a commune to a co-operative to accommodate the new recruits. They hoped to create a working and living environment that gave the workers more freedom to come and go as they pleased. They also kept in touch with George as they worked to convince Madelyn to allow George to return to the commune. After a few months had passed Madelyn forgave George and he and Colleen returned to Toronto in the spring of 1972. Madelyn and Colleen quickly became good friends and have remained so over the intervening thirty-five years. The following are transcripts of Philip’s letters to George and Colleen, dated between September 1971 and January 1972.
Philip Mullins
Fourth World
33 Baldwin Street
Toronto 130, Ontario
September 29, 1971
George Mullins or Colleen Anderson
c/o Bud Pisarek
334 Placerado
Auburn, California 95603
George,
Kindly complete the enclosed form and return it to me. If you wish just sign it and I will fill out the details, except for the license number. After speaking with Dad, I have decided to travel under your name because he trusts no one. I hope this is alright with you.
I also need a set of draft cards. If you will send for them right away then we will have them in time. Mom is sending me your birth certificate. If you don’t want to go along with this then let me know right away and I’ll try to do something else.
We’ve got the house at the Frostpocket good enough to move into. In fact we are living there about half the time now. The parents stayed two weeks and did much work. They have gone back to Louisiana now. They missed you.
Brother Phil
Mad Averitte, others
Fourth World
33 Baldwin Street
Toronto 130, Ontario
November 16, 1971
Mullins
P. O. Box 34
Colfax, California 95713
Dear George,
Thanks for the information. I don’t know when or where we will be going. If we become rich, we will travel somewhere. We do not have a Mail Box in South River yet. We are living there about two-thirds of the time but are making almost weekly trips to Toronto to care for the leather shop. Sales at the retail store are low as it is every year during this season. The wholesale business is keeping Mary and I busy with the help of Randy and Mad.
It looks like we might have Hydro (electricity) to the house this winter after all. At first the electric utility handed me a lot of shit but now they are singing a different tune. If we get rich we might buy another piece of swamp. We have looked at the 100-acre lot. It has a hill on it but otherwise is swamp. It is on the other side of the valley toward South River. I think that the consensus is that you can return here without having a knife thrust between your ribs. Mary said at first that she was going to leave if you came back but that is her usual bull-shit and how she too sings a different tune.
We are going to reorganize again this winter. We might have to hire some workers. We do not have much money but there is still too much work for the four of us. This is one reason why I am writing this letter. I’d like to know if indeed you plan to come back to the leather shop and, if so, when. If you can be somewhat definite then I will count on you. If you can’t be definite then I can’t set up anything involving you and your troop. I mean things like lumber to build with, work to score with, etc. So think on these things and let me know sometime this winter if you plan to ‘return’ or otherwise.
Sincerely, brother George (sic)
Philip Mullins
Fourth World
33 Baldwin Street
Toronto 130, Ontario
December 30, 1971
George Mullins
P. O. Box 34
Colfax, California 95713
We got a Christmas card from Carol Huebner who is quite proud of her progress these last few months. Dave Woodward is also doing well. The boys in the band are playing occasionally at bars on Yonge Street and making about $75 a week. Chuck Wall had saved $250 but hard times forced him to spend some of it on cymbals and rent. He is broke again as usual but he now knows that he can save money. Lisa Steele still works for the Canadian Whole Earth Almanac but probably not for long. Chris Risk’s old girlfriend has also fallen on hard times and is borrowing $100 from Chris who is in bad financial shape himself. He and Myra were in Killaloe for three or four months, became disillusioned with life in Renfrew County and returned to Toronto. They are still interested in living in a rural area and I’m supposed to talk to Chris about the possibility of moving to the swamp with us.
We, especially Mary when she is drunk, have been drumming up vast hordes of homesteaders for Machar Township. She has been drunk several times during the last few weeks but I don’t know how many homesteaders she has recruited. Surprisingly enough most of her victims remember the promises they made when they were under the influence but only the White Father knows if they’ll keep their promises.
Speaking of white feathers, it is now possible to hear the scratching of little feet in the house (if you happen to be in the basement and listen closely). The day the piano arrived, so did a chicken. She was fresh from Kissington Market, so fresh that she walked in. The chicken lives in the basement and is growing feathers again. (Most of her feathers had mysteriously disappeared prior to her arrival). Having a chicken living here is strictly illegal but she is rather nice and primarily eats, sleeps and shits. I’m hoping to use her to start a flock of chickens. I’m going to train her to fight off cats in the hope that she will do the same to the bears and lynx that might presume to prey upon her and her kind.
Mary has gone to Chicago to pull off a big dope deal, I think. She said that she was going to visit her mother but I don’t believe her anymore than the officials at the border will. After all whose mother could live in Chicago, the sidewalks of which are caving in and from which two of our most recent additions (to the American exile community) have so recently fled? They left nothing behind.
Because of the steady decline in the work force in the leather shop, I have been forced to reorganize and have insidiously taken the capitalist road. I have routed all Maoist and progressive thought, repudiated my unworthy past and, in general, betrayed the working class by instituting, organizing and devising a co-operative scheme which restores individual competition and class divisions, thoughtlessly destroying the commune which we so long strived for and so long loved. Why all this? We did it because of the steady loss of those persons with whom we built this commune and which whom we struggled and so on and etc. Randy, for example, has mostly stopped working unless he has to (and now he must work or do without money and sustenance).
Tom Bonanno, Mary Rauton, Randy Rauton, Steve Spring (recently chained to Simone Bennett in Holy Matrimony), myself and several others (Don and Judy Holman, perhaps Myra Kaplan and Chris Risk) and a cast of thousands have banded together in this rather poor time of year to work for our individual and collective good. This year will be, I think, the year of the commercialization of Ragnarokr (a Great Leap Backward, the explosion before the decline, the expansion before withering away, etc.) in that the emphasis is going to be more and more on assembly-line activities. I’m getting quotations for cutting dies for some of our best selling items. I want to have the products we usually make from patterns cut by machine. I’ll get the stripping for lacing cut somewhere and all we will have to do is assemble the sandals. I’m going to buy pre-finished leather that is spray-painted in the factory. No more of cutting everything by hand and punching all those holes.
I would like to be able to ensure everyone five dollars an hour for every item we make for the wholesale trade. We are going to continue the retail trade but the business will be owned by Mary, Randy and I instead of by all the workers as before. The co-operative will replace Cow Products and maybe Fourth World Enterprises. That’s enough business news. I’ll get back to the important items of information. Janice Spellerberg and Margaret Thurlow have taken up belly dancing. They dance on Yonge Street and in London, Ottawa and elsewhere. Apparently they are doing quite well financially. They get paid about $175 per week, which is no mean sum. They seem to enjoy the work.
We have applied for a government grant to teach but, as usual, they turned us down. Frank Tettemer and Marita are on some Indian Reserve north of Thunder Bay. Their address is Box 532, Station ‘F’, Thunder Bay, Ontario. They would probably like to hear from someone. There has been so much breeding around here lately that I’ve lost track of who is or is not expecting a child. The jewelers across the street, Mike and Paula Letki, are expecting a child. Simone Spring as well. Some couples are splitting up but I can’t for the life of me remember who. I think it is some of people at the Whole Earth Store.
Now in answer to your questions: no, yes, maybe and OK.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you, your brother Philip
Philip Mullins
Fourth World
33 Baldwin Street
Toronto 130, Ontario
January 18, 1972
George Mullins
P. O. Box 34
Colfax, California 95713
Dear George,
In answer to your question, we will continue to rent this place or some place in Toronto as least as long as we continue to have Randy working with us. The wholesale and retail operations compliment each other and, although the rent in Toronto is much greater than building costs in the country, retail prices are also much greater than wholesale prices. I think we will continue to operate the retail store for quite a while.
We have not been to South River since about a month before Christmas. I have not been able to get the tractor started. Moisture seems to bother it. The next time I’m there I will drain the radiator because the anti-freeze is only good to about 30° F below zero.
We did not intend to spend all of December and January in Toronto but we are still trying to resolve the man-power needs of the operation. I had thought that we would start a co-operative but it remains to be seen whether or not that will resolve the problem. I’m half-way thinking about doing away with the co-operative and communal idea and hiring people at $1.75 per hour.
If you intend to build on the property near South River you should begin in early spring. Your letter mentioned February 1. Mary has recruited a whole lot of people several of whom are talking about building houses next summer. I think most of them are mainly interested in growing weed. Myra’s boyfriend, Chris Risk, should be acceptable to you. The others are Greg Sperry and Don Holman and his wife. Tom Bonanno may be interested but not this summer. I have no objections to any of them. I have decided that ‘the more, the merrier.” That is to say, if there are ten people who commit to living there, perhaps one of them will actually do so and, if we expect to have animals, at least one person will have to be there all the time.
I might put up a barn this summer. That’s all I have in mind at the moment. Of course, I have to finish last summer’s house and improve the road.
Oscar’s Surplus Jobbers doesn’t have those boots anymore. Unless you took them with you to California, they are probably still here. It doesn’t look like Mary and I will be going anywhere this winter so we are arranging to purchase the Mexican sandals from the import company next door (Morningstar Trading Company). If necessary I’ll hire one of the Mexicans living here to get them for us.
Jeff is fixing another junked car, a 1964 TR-4. He says he will have to put $450 and two months into it. It must be a real beauty. He is working in construction in Pensacola. The parents and the grand-parents both report that they are in good shape.
Good Day, Philip
