Well, you sound just like the guys that decided a joyous open gathering of many folks would become directed by a handful of guys who probably weren't capable of being athletic enough to play organized sports or make a team in High School or college.

And no..that one experience alone didn't shape my attitude about community.
It did open my young eyes, though.
It showed me how a large group of people could be manipulated by a few.

I was really young but I recall hearing the adults talk about the incident and I remember how it became a topic at pot lucks and other gatherings.

The atmosphere of open extended community among the alternatives in Floyd then was becoming very cliquish.
Someone had said it was the dope dealers versus the back to landers and of course the dope dealers had the money to hire the back to lander people who had carpentry skills to build their homes for them.

Maybe the women had been the worst at volleyball.
But I doubt any of the women made the men go without suppers because the men couldn't cook very well.

What has shaped my views of community since then includes our moving to The Farm in Tennessee for awhile.
Then to another community in Georgia before we ended up buying our own place in Georgia

I grew up in Pulaski county,When I moved to Illinois at age 10, I got beat up a lot for having a southern accent.I don't think many of you have ever been physically attacked for being from the south, you might feel a little different if you had.Locals are quickly becoming second class citizens in their own region.

Most Floydians assume that "locals" are rednecks,Whatever you say, You have certainly not adapted their speech or taken much from that culture.
It is still very much "us and them" along linguistic, residential and cultural lines.

Woody could not care less about Appalachia, He saw a chance to make a buck by marketing the music. Your proof of "alternative reverence for local culture" is pretty weak.How come even the hippies that have been here since 74 will never say "yall"? It just sounds bad to your ear, like ebonics or some other dialect of the lower class.

Sparky had a good heart, and many good ideas. Root is a great person.

Yeah, Old "sparks" quickly shifted from Mayan priest to UFO expert. Any uninformed souls can see the footage I have of him, I am willing to share.He went to Roswell and appeared in a documentary billing himself as a "UFO expert" I guess smoking a lot of grass and tripping gave him his "credentials",But most of Floyd has not seen this footage, They don't want to hear or see anything that challenges the gods they have invested their whole lives in.
I form my own opinions, if that is "griping" to you than so be it. Everyone told me how great this guy was and I was entirely unimpressed, and don't make me start with the evidence either. I respect those who were friends with him , but I am not convinced that he was any sort of god.Do you have the courage to admit when your loyalties have been misplaced? or do you cling desperately to the past?I have never been shown the " Love, Family or community " that accepted me as I am, Or accepted my gifts. It has always been the top-down patriarchy with some self styled "priest" at the top.Nothing novel or revolutionary there, It's the same model that Charles Manson used to control his followers.And Sparky wanted that so badly, wanted to be worshiped; and -lo and behold the weak minds fell to their knees.Certainly if I was sporting dreads to my ass and loaded with bud, I would be instantly accepted into this "family". But I am cynical and not inclined to follow anyone or anything, Sparky's keen eye for subordinates quickly assessed that I was a "low probability follower" and thus I held little interest for him, he wanted lost souls to mold into followers.

I am glad for all the positive minded folks who layed the groundwork in Floyd, Long before I ever moved here. Sparky was not one of the "positive" people though, Please convince me otherwise, I am open minded and willing to admit when I have been shown to be wrong.
I would like to discuss the issues with you ; Your opinions are interesting but you fail to support your position with any evidence. The "community" that Sparky formed was a bunch of drug addled luddites living in nasty old school buses, I never got the impression that he was trying to help anyone, Not without some return.So pick your battles carefully, I don't think that all the dirty laundry of that era needs to be aired for me to make my point. I am just as adamant when people attempt to tell me how their "personal relationship with Jesus has made them whole".It is the same crap with a different hub at the center.

But I have never been one to respect "authority", Not Jesus, George Bush or even Sparky, Ya'll have to show me something first....I am a confirmed Atheist, and so "believing" to me requires proof, not the testimonials of the born followers.But I see how it is, the old gods of Floyd will be furiously defended to the death. I mean seriously, If I was to configure a list of Floyd's most outstanding individuals,He would not even place.You have too much invested in this for your own good, and what has it earned you?Show me any thing to justify your devotion, The concept of the "sacred Mayan trailer park" is not doing it for me.

Lets see was it the trailer park of old school buses that made Sparky so great or the Drugs and phony Mayan Shamanism?. We see now that the Mayans destroyed themselves through a two tiered hierarchical society that clear cut the rain forest to constantly expand it's population. They enslaved and conquered neighboring groups, demeaned women...blah blah blah. Mormonism, Mayanism,Judaism, Sparkyism, None of these are offering the solutions that we need if we are to continue as a species. We need to throw all the old gods and outmoded ideals into the garbage and take a hard look at ourselves.I don't worship John Smith just because he claimed to have been given gold tablets from God, and I sure as shit don't worship Sparky because a bunch of eggheaded burnouts believe in his divinity,lol.

I feel like Jesus running through the temple, smashing idols and the commerce which has replaced idealism...If the peasants burn me at the stake it only means I am on the right path.The monoliths of Floyd culture are as stifling and backwards as the mainstream religions, you might as well be "preaching Allah" at me..I would like to seperate the wheat from the chaff, Put all the good and superior things about Floyd on one side of the table and on the other side let's put the hedonism, heavy drugs and patriarchy, Floyd will be much better without them.

So let's talk honestly, I am constantly battling the "old gods" in an effort to get beyond this disgusting nostalgia for the 60s.The 60s are over, Fuck free-love orgies,Being whacked out on "recreational hallucinogens" and nasty old boring ass tye dye, What was once "anti-establishment" has come full circle to become the enforced norm.Would your Gods ever admit that drugs could be a problem?Would they support drug treatment for people who need help? Probably not; As that would require an admission that drugs can be harmful if not used carefully.I think that drugs have done Floyd more harm than good, and they certainly were Steven Brick's downfall. For all the good he might have done, he undermined it with greed and a slf destructive lifestyle that caught up with him.

You don't even use the word "ya'll", Such is your contempt for local culture and dialect,There is no evidence at all that you ever attempted to "assimilate" into Appalachian culture at all,In fact you have ghettoized and marginalised yourselves right out of the picture.. You surround yourself with other white, middle class suburban reugees and tell me how superior Sparky was,LOL. bitch, please....