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What was it like being vegan in the old days?

Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 8:12 am
by Jebus
Nearly all of us became vegan during the Internet age, but I am curious what is was like being vegan in the 1970s and 1980s. Who were the people who became vegans? I'm guessing vegetarian freethinkers. How did they get information about nutrition etc? Was their a popular book about veganism? How were they viewed by the general population? Were they hated like today's vegans or were they more looked at like freaks. Since there were no vegan restaurants I'm guessing there were vegan clubs in the big cities were they would get together.

If there are any old timer lurkers on the forum, please share your experiences.

Re: What was it like being vegan in the old days?

Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 9:03 am
by DarlBundren
From Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/4wx8x7/any_lifelong_vegans_or_someone_who_has_been_vegan/

i went vegan in the eighties. maybe '87? i admit i'm a little fuzzy on it and didn't write the date down at the time. reagan was certainly president.
in retrospect, it was difficult. but at the time, it just seemed normal. we went china town to buy stuff from the buddhist grocery. we sprouted beans in mason jars. we made soy milk from scratch, then couldn't figure out what to do with the okara and wound up flushing down the toilet, then flushed the soy milk too, because it was so gross. we bought nooch by mail. we bought shoes by mail from england; you had to trace your foot on a piece of paper to get the right size. we were all horrified when canada changed the food labelling laws in the early nineties and we discovered that salt and vinnegar chips had had milk in them the whole time. we cooked dried beans in the pressure cooker. we drank whatever beer and didn't know any better.
we hitch hiked 200km to see tom robbins speak. we had catty clique-fights between the goth/industrial vegans, the hippie vegans and the punk vegans; everyone knew each other. we ate at this restaurant called 'govindas' that was run by the hare krishnas. i even worked there for a couple of weeks. we collected photocopied cookbooks with recipes that made no sense ("soy not oi!" was the best of them by a long shot!). we ate samosas from this street cart. they were rubbery. we took the bus to the 'big city' to eat at the dosa restaurant on gerard.
we skipped family dinners. we ate french fries. lots of french fries. sometimes every day. 'frymaster' has been my username since i had a 1200 baud modem. we cooked up great plans, like going to mcdonalds, drinking ipecac and throwing up all over the restaurant. then chickened out and flushed the ipecac down the toilet.
we got wool socks for christmas from uninformed aunts and put them in our drawers, unworn. they're still there. we bought those massive bags of rice from the chinese market and ate them. i wallpapered my bedroom in empty burplap rice bags. we made tempeh in ziplocs on top of the fridge and made everyone in the house sniff it to make sure it was okay before cooking. we wrote letters to alf prisoners and paid too much money for international reply coupons. we all got excited when we found out that 'silkscreening' didn't actually use silk and we made too many shitty tee shirts.
we read whatever we could get our hands on. there was no internet to speak of, so pickings were slim. we checked out books on nutrition from the library and studied up so we could argue with our toxic relatives. we read 'diet for a small planet' and 'diet for a new america' and third hand photocopies of pamphlets. we went and saw shitty bands because we'd heard the drummer was vegan and stood in the back, thinking 'why does this band have to be so shitty?' then went and chatted up the drummer after the show anyway. we formed shitty bands and went on tour and got chatted up by vegans who hated our set after the show. we packed lunches for everything. we bought raw veggies at the safeway and at them in the parking lot. we found a buddhist restaurant in a far away city where we could eat everything and ate everything, then fell asleep in a park because we were too full to move. we took vitamins because everyone told us we'd be dead by a week tuesday if we didn't.
i still do most of these things.

Re: What was it like being vegan in the old days?

Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 10:13 am
by EquALLity
DarlBundren wrote: Sun May 14, 2017 9:03 am From Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/4wx8x7/any_lifelong_vegans_or_someone_who_has_been_vegan/

i went vegan in the eighties. maybe '87? i admit i'm a little fuzzy on it and didn't write the date down at the time. reagan was certainly president.
in retrospect, it was difficult. but at the time, it just seemed normal. we went china town to buy stuff from the buddhist grocery. we sprouted beans in mason jars. we made soy milk from scratch, then couldn't figure out what to do with the okara and wound up flushing down the toilet, then flushed the soy milk too, because it was so gross. we bought nooch by mail. we bought shoes by mail from england; you had to trace your foot on a piece of paper to get the right size. we were all horrified when canada changed the food labelling laws in the early nineties and we discovered that salt and vinnegar chips had had milk in them the whole time. we cooked dried beans in the pressure cooker. we drank whatever beer and didn't know any better.
we hitch hiked 200km to see tom robbins speak. we had catty clique-fights between the goth/industrial vegans, the hippie vegans and the punk vegans; everyone knew each other. we ate at this restaurant called 'govindas' that was run by the hare krishnas. i even worked there for a couple of weeks. we collected photocopied cookbooks with recipes that made no sense ("soy not oi!" was the best of them by a long shot!). we ate samosas from this street cart. they were rubbery. we took the bus to the 'big city' to eat at the dosa restaurant on gerard.
we skipped family dinners. we ate french fries. lots of french fries. sometimes every day. 'frymaster' has been my username since i had a 1200 baud modem. we cooked up great plans, like going to mcdonalds, drinking ipecac and throwing up all over the restaurant. then chickened out and flushed the ipecac down the toilet.
we got wool socks for christmas from uninformed aunts and put them in our drawers, unworn. they're still there. we bought those massive bags of rice from the chinese market and ate them. i wallpapered my bedroom in empty burplap rice bags. we made tempeh in ziplocs on top of the fridge and made everyone in the house sniff it to make sure it was okay before cooking. we wrote letters to alf prisoners and paid too much money for international reply coupons. we all got excited when we found out that 'silkscreening' didn't actually use silk and we made too many shitty tee shirts.
we read whatever we could get our hands on. there was no internet to speak of, so pickings were slim. we checked out books on nutrition from the library and studied up so we could argue with our toxic relatives. we read 'diet for a small planet' and 'diet for a new america' and third hand photocopies of pamphlets. we went and saw shitty bands because we'd heard the drummer was vegan and stood in the back, thinking 'why does this band have to be so shitty?' then went and chatted up the drummer after the show anyway. we formed shitty bands and went on tour and got chatted up by vegans who hated our set after the show. we packed lunches for everything. we bought raw veggies at the safeway and at them in the parking lot. we found a buddhist restaurant in a far away city where we could eat everything and ate everything, then fell asleep in a park because we were too full to move. we took vitamins because everyone told us we'd be dead by a week tuesday if we didn't.
i still do most of these things.
:lol: That sounds amazing.

Re: What was it like being vegan in the old days?

Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 11:11 am
by Jebus
Wow! I didn't expect such a thorough reply. I wish I had been part of all that. What made you become a vegan in that day and age?

Re: What was it like being vegan in the old days?

Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 11:20 am
by DarlBundren
No, It's not mine, I found it on reddit. :)