Coop Scoop’s Tenth Birthday Musings from Ed Miller (January 1986)
Excerpted by Ruth Ann Smalley
“While Jimmy Carter was crisscrossing the country to gather support for his presidential bid, the news of Honest Weight’s birth was being spread by word of mouth across the overlapping social circles of Albany hippiedom.”
“Your group (or ‘family’, as it was known) was responsible for collecting, collating, and processing the orders (right down to carrying those two-ton cans of oil down the basement steps, and pouring a pound into Peter and Judy’s jar, two pounds into Margaret Inderhee’s jar—and there were no spigots, kids) once every three or four months.
But, despite the early difficulties, or maybe because of them, things got bigger and better quickly. It wasn’t just that the monthly orders were growing (to about $1000 a month in the first year)—there was more going on—a lot of really high-energy people getting to know each other real well, real fast, working hard and enjoying it. And we were getting a lot of great food at great prices.”
“Also back in the old days, we had a much more limited variety of foods. You’re not going to believe this but back then, not only did we not have any fruits and vegetables, but we also didn’t have five kinds of jojoba shampoo, not to mention cookies and cakes (no, Baba’s Bakery wasn’t even born yet).”
“Another feature of the earlier years was the atmosphere at Coop meetings. We weren’t going to get stuck in the eversweet flower-children syndrome, you see, so the idea was to be clear and honest and to let your feelings out, so we could take care of business. This led to the only (many) shouting matches I’ve witnessed that I considered absolutely hilarious. I’ve got to try to recreate one in particular. Get this—there’s about eight of us at Pierce Hall, interviewing Manager candidates one at a time, over about five hours. About two hours into it, after we finished one particular interview, our interview leader looked positively furious (you remember, this was pretty common at that time) and pointed accusingly at one of us, who had nodded out, and blasted her with something like ‘DAMN IT!! What kind of CRAP is this with you SLEEPING RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERVIEW!!!’. Well, she didn’t miss a beat, and blurted right back ‘I WASN’T SLEEPING! I just had my eyes closed!’, and the rest of us knew it would be OK now; they had gotten their feelings out.”
“I guess I really can’t do as many Coop hero stories as we’ve had heroes, because there’s just not enough paper to write ‘em, but maybe just one little anecdote from 1981, when we were gearing up to buy our building (four mortgage payments to go now). Well, I was calling up one more number, giving the pitch about how much we had already raised, and how much more we needed, and how important it was, when she said she’d really like to, but she was hurtin’ for money, and she was leaving town tomorrow to move out West . . . and I started to say I understood, and we’d really miss her, but she said she could spare three dollars, and damned if she didn’t leave it off at the Coop the next day on the way to the bus station.”
Now don’t get me wrong; I know that Albany people are no better by birth or environment than other people, but when Co-opers from other cities where the coop is not doing too well (or folded three years ago), ask us what we’re doing right, I can only look for explanation to the efforts of all our members over the years.”
“Toward reluctantly concluding this article, it seems kind of appropriate to draw some analogies between present-day Honest Weight and a ten year old child. It doesn’t fit too badly, actually. We’ve been growing steadily our first ten years, learning a lot of new skills, but it’s clear that our most explosive growth and learning is yet to come. We are beginning to develop muscles we never knew were coming, gradually adding maturity and clarity of purpose to our actions. Our future promises to be limited only by our imaginations. Happy Birthday, Honest Weight.”
Biography: One of Honest Weight’s founding members, Ed passed away from ALS in the spring of 2017. These lines from his Times Union obituary offer a sparkling commentary on his character: “When he wasn't working for the DEC, he spent time with his family, gardened, connected people with humor - jazz - Festivus - pies in the face - and other unique experiences. He taught a fierce independence both with humor and resistance. Some might say he was a mensch and a champion of humanity, but he would deny it all. Everyone agreed he was a kind and gentle soul. He will be missed dearly. A fervent recycler, Ed donated his body to Albany Medical College for research. You may wish to send donations in his memory to the ALS Association.”