Let's think about this, folks - right now we get to visit with each other, gossip on-line, get together occasionally for a weekend, laugh at each other's quirks and enjoy each other's company when we want to! Every time someone suggests setting up an "Old Folkie's Home" or commune or whatever, I start imagining what it would be like to live next door to some of my "Festival Friends" for the rest of my life...

Having lived in goldfish-bowl graduate housing, where everyone knew what everyone else was doing, when you were fighting with your spouse, what you were cooking for dinner, who's car was in your driveway, etc, I can't think of anything that has more potential for ruining friendships than having said friends all living together in a closed community.

We have a group of friends who all live in the same neighborhood in our area, but we don't live next door to one another, and there are plenty of other neighbors who have different interests around. I think that that kind of diversity is necessary to make for a thriving community; the chance for solitude and privacy is just as important as the feeling of community to me. Much as I love my folkie friends, I wouldn't want to live with most of them! (And I'm sure they probably feel the same about grumpy Italian-Polish Americans...)