Voluntary Peasants, Part 4: Hippie Peace Corps Goes to Guatemala

Historian/Humorist/journalist Melvyn Stiriss sheds new light on the sixties in this bold adventure. Beyond sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll—beyond hippies. Stiriss was a UPI reporter who followed the story of the times over the edge to live the story himself. Mayan Adventure visits The Farm commune's Hippie Peace Corps in action. A far-out year of hippie humanitarian earthquake reconstruction, working with Mayans in Guatemala. Voluntary hippie peasants from The Farm, America's biggest commune meet the Real Deal. Who knew humanitarian work could be so much fun, such adventure and so rewarding? Plenty is a hippie Peace Corps arm of The Farm commune—a community awarded the Swedish Right Livelihood Award—“For caring, sharing and acting with and on behalf of those in need at home and abroad.” .

February 4, 1976—3:01 a.m., a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake violently shook Guatemala for barely one minute. When the dust settled, 23,000 people were dead; 80,000 injured, and many thousands were homeless.

1,500 miles north in Tennessee, at The Farm commune—long-haired, ham radio operators picked up calls for help from Guatemala—“Terremoto!” Earthquake!

"The Farm’s humanitarian outreach program, Plenty sent a team of three hippie carpenters to help with earthquake reconstruction. I was one of those carpenters—launched on the adventure of a lifetime and an opportunity to do some good in the world."

Rich in photos by the author, Part 4, Mayan Adventure—describes humanitarian work to build houses, schools, and a clinic for Mother Teresa. The Farm was then a spiritual community of 600 people in Summertown, Tennessee.

Coming February, 2016, the whole 5-part story in print and ebooks.

Memoirs, impressions, vignettes, anecdotes, observations and reflections of times that flipped the world. A Zen joy ride, a Gypsy Good Time, Woodstock. A far-out joint venture. True stories of living communally in America’s biggest commune and cannabis church for thirteen years, finding joy working to save the planet at The Farm, up Moonshine Alley, Tennessee.

“Imagine all the people living life in peace.”—John Lennon

That was us! We had it going. Over the collective’s 13 years, thousands of people lived and worked together as “voluntary peasants” sharing a path with heart—working for free—to create a low-budget, grassroots, 24/7 peace demonstration—an eclectic, agrarian, egalitarian, fun, simple, gracious lifestyle the world can afford.

Cool, fun, weaving of journalism, pathos and humor transports the reader on an entertaining, mind-expanding, psychedelic odyssey. Entertaining, insightful, fun classic tales of the Sixties as a young UPI reporter follows the story and energy of the time over the edge. A portal into magical psychedelic times.



Stiriss—“I co-founded and lived thirteen years in America’s biggest commune not undercover but as a full-fledged member of the hippie collective, living the dream, “saving the world.” The idea of writing about the experience came after, when I realized the importance of reporting behind-the-scenes, everyday observations of one of the most-intriguing social experiments to come out of that heady era.”

The whole 5-part Voluntary Peasants will be in print and ebooks Spring, 2016.