How far to the Left was early Evergreen? Here's one measurement. In 1972 the Democrats nominated George McGovern, probably the most liberal major party personality to run in my lifetime. I worked as a volunteer in the Olympia HQ. Since my hair was too long for doorbelling, they had me stuffing envelopes, licking stamps, making phone surveys. There were entire precincts in Lacey where I found more people saying they were voting for nutball American Independent Party candidate John G. Schmitz (father of Mary Kay Letourneau) than I found voting for our guy.

Most of the local Scoop Jackson Democrats sat out the campaign. We knew we didn't have a chance, but we believed if there was ever an election where it was clearly good vs. evil, this was it. And America overwhelmingly chose evil. It probably didn't help that although McGovern was a decent man, he was a terrible politician. Still, I'm glad I had the experience of being part of that campaign.

The HQ was across the street from the State Theater, which was showing Robert Redford's "The Candidate" through most of the time we were there. The week McGovern got trounced, they were showing a new movie entitled, "When Legends Die." We thought that was pretty funny, actually.

Oh, back to Evergreen. Most of my fellow volunteers were irreverent and fun-to-be around senior citizens, not connected to the College at all (in 1972, I'm sure I thought people who were over 35 were senior citizens). We did have a few key people who were TESC connected, but there was a conspicuous absence of student help. Apparently, whenever they were approached to help out, many students dismissed McGovern as just another capitalist lackey. Leave it to me to volunteer for a guy who was rejected by Olympia locals AND Evergreen.