Exactly so, Dick!

In 1953, several people including Walt Robertson and myself formed the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society. It was to be primarily an academic association, dedicated to getting what folklore had been collected in this area, and what was yet to be collected, into some kind of reasonable and accessible order. It was also formed to sponsor concerts by various folk singers, both well-known performers and locals. And the organization was completely a-political.

The first well-known performer we sponsored was Pete Seeger.

Pete sang a most enjoyable concert, and aside from one or two labor songs, there was nothing political about it. Nevertheless, large numbers of the 200+ people we had on the PNWFS's mailing list started calling, asking that their names be taken off the list. Reasons given were things like, "I'm a year away from a degree in engineering, and when I go looking for a job, I may need to be able to get a security clearance. And I'm sorry, but I can't afford to take a chance. I mean, after all, Seeger's suspected of being a Communist."

We had no idea! People were scared spitless! In about a week, there were only about a dozen of us left. I remember someone commenting, "This is Kafkaesque!" So we abandoned the PNWFS as just unworkable at that time.

I'm happy to say that some 50 years later, Bob Nelson (Deckman), Stewart Hendrickson (Stewart), and I have reorganized the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society to fill what we still feel is a need in this area—once again, to try to provide an organized and accessible archive for the folklore of this area, and to make sure that performers of traditional material have venues in which to perform.

The PNWFS web site.

Don Firth