We Can Change the World: An Intimate Journey Through the Early 1970s

We Can Change the World: An Intimate Journey Through the Early 1970s

What happens when you treat a kitchen like a community? In 1970s Eugene, Oregon, a ragtag crew with scrounged refrigerators, no bosses, and radical hope opened the Eggsnatchur Natural Foods Restaurant and proved that food could be more than a meal. It could be political, communal, and joyful. We Can Change the World is Lee Boutell’s spirited memoir of the Eggsnatchur, Eugene’s first organic vegetarian restaurant and a hub of counterculture life. More than a café, it was a cooperative experiment where meals cost under a dollar, homeless neighbors ate for free, and every decision was made by consensus. With no bank willing to loan them a dime, the Eggsnatchur family built the restaurant from scratch through sheer creativity, hard work, and risk-taking. Every every innovation, every improvement came out of their determination to keep the doors open and the vision alive to offer the highest quality and best tasting food anywhere, and do it inexpensively. Inside its funky, artistic dining rooms and with its legendary, frequent parties, the Eggsnatchur family lived, worked, and dreamed together. Boutell recounts close calls with health inspectors, hand-drawn menus, and celebrations that turned strangers into family. What began as a scrappy kitchen became a catalyst for the natural foods movement, linking a local community to a national wave of food justice and social change. Equal parts personal coming-of-age and cultural history, this is a front-row seat to a bold, messy, and hopeful experiment in in living collectively and stands as a bold reminder that even one small restaurant, built on nothing but grit and vision, can leave a lasting mark on the world. The book describes deep, transformative personal changes that young people went through during this turbulent era and focuses on how one man grew from a conservative fraternity boy in wind-swept Kansas into an alternative entrepreneur within the emerging cultural Renaissance of the Pacific Northwest. The author relates stories of people who were full of energy, optimism, and love of adventure, with great capacity for risk. Whether hitchhiking across the country, chasing romantic adventure on an island paradise, furthering dramatic environmental progress in the nation’s capital, or to a pirate's life on the Caribbean, We Can Change the World takes you to unimagined places during a dynamic era. Jim 5.0 out of 5 stars What an amazing time!!! Verified Purchase This book was an insightful perspective on an amazing time in current history. The U.S. was entangled in a war without any need, which helped light a cultural revolution that led to an evolution of creativity, eastern spirituality, innovation and environmental focus. Lee's descriptions of a spectrum of experiences during that time offer a unique angle of vision on a soul-stirring time on our delicate planet. And he also demonstrated that starting a restaurant and inspiring a community requires great love, stamina and perseverance. Hat's off to the entire family that made the Eggsnatchur an inspiring success. KCDoug 5.0 out of 5 stars A time capsule from the early 70s Verified Purchase A wonderful, well-written story of the metamorphosis of the author (and many of us) from a typical midwest, middle-class college student to a free-thinking, questioning "hippie" entrepreneur. While his day-to-day experiences were largely different from my own, I saw a lot of myself and of many close friends in his transformative thought, as it evolved during the few years covered in this book. Highly recommended to anyone who'd like a window into that remarkable time. Susan P 5.0 out of 5 stars Experience the 70s, even if you did and forgot, or if you didn't and wish you had. Verified Purchase A true to life experience by an adventurous midwestern young man who heads west and finds so much more than he was looking for in life experiences and forever friendships. Michael S 5.0 out of 5 stars Running a restaurant with counter culture ideals This is a true to life experience by an adventurous midwestern young man who heads west and finds so much more than he was looking for in life experiences and forever friendships in Eugene in the first half of the 1970s. I remember the times and the restaurant. The author shares his personal perspective and experiences in an engaging and realistic slice of a Eugene sub-culture that has had a lasting influence on the community. During the Vietnam War Lee Boutell turned his back on college to open a natural foods restaurant and a honey-sweetened ice cream business without capital, on a shoestring. Through creativity, hard work and persistence, he and kindred spirits developed the restaurant as a center for activism and a profit-sharing collective in Eugene, Oregon. Promoting healthy, good tasting local foods, they were pioneers in the natural foods movement of Oregon. They took risks, broke the rules if necessary and they had the time of their lives. Lee now is married with