Commentary: Opening the Time Capsule (Issue 1, Part I)

What follows is commentary about Volume 1, Issue 1 by the founders and editors. of The Advocate. The full issue is visible at the bottom of this page or by clicking The Advocate, Volume 1, Issue 1.

Page 1

Scott Berkey – Okay, here goes. I am going to crack open Volume 1, Issue 1 and see what drops out.  I don’t know for sure how long it has been since I have read this issue, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is ten years and it could be closer to twenty. Once we stopped publishing I bagged and boxed up back issues and never really had time to go back to them. I thought about trying to pull together tenth, twentieth, and then twenty-fifth anniversary specials, but obviously that never went any further than keeping at least one copy of issue back issue safe and get the scans made.

Brendan Kinney – Quick quiz: What were you doing in November 1988?

Jamie Hill – I don’t have memories of how The Advocate came to be. I do remember walking around and selling ads. And indeed I’m shocked at how many of them we managed to sell! Do you guys remember how we brokered the favorable printing deal with the Herald? I was working at their press at the time … was Ben, too? (“Ben” was Brendan’s nickname in high school. It’s complicated. – Ed.) If not, then probably that would have been me who brokered that connection. I remember Dickey (Drysdale, former editor of The Herald of Randolph. – Ed.) gave us an incredibly sweet deal.

SB – Brendan and I had probably been scheming about starting a newspaper or magazine for about three years when The Advocate was finally born.  We had known each other since grade school and worked together in the press room at the White River Valley Herald (later The Herald of Randolph and eventually one of The Advocate’s many nemeses).

JH – I also remember how utterly thrilling it was to see OUR little paper coming off a real actual printing press. The concrete physicality of that experience was so powerful. It felt validating; like what we were doing mattered. Much more so than any subsequent publishing experience I’ve had. The connection back through history to everything that the printing press has represented felt palpable in that moment.

SB – Someone has written “11/4/88” by hand in the top-right corner of the front page.  So as we were creating that first issue I still had my cast from breaking my leg during pre-season soccer for Vermont Technical College.

BK – For me, 27 (now 30 – Ed.) years ago feels like a million, but at the same time feels just like yesterday. The details are a bit fuzzy, but as I remember the Big Things, the ghosts of detail begin to drift back into memory.

BK – When I look at Volume 1, Issue 1, and Page 1 for The Advocate, I immediately recall the huge sheets of blue-lined paper that we used to carefully lay out each issue. Dot matrix printer, long fabric shears, glue stick, all spread out on a light table (or was it a drafting board)?

SB – No light board and no drafting table. I didn’t get a drafting board until ‘94 or later. This first issue was laid out on layout sheets from columns of text printed from a word processor on an Atari 1040ST. Can’t think of which one it was right now. The 1040ST was the first personal computer to have 0.001G of memory and retail for less than $1,000. Those annoying singing birthday cards you have stuffed in the back of a drawer somewhere probably have more memory. Still it was a big deal.

JH – I was so touched by how, whenever we needed a graphic element that we couldn’t make with the computer, we just drew it as best we could by hand. Onward!

SB – A big piece missing from this first issue is photos.  Even back in the dark ages of the 1980’s photos had been in newspapers for nearly a hundred years so we looked pretty bleak without them.  I don’t remember if that was a creative oversight, a technical issue, or a lack of money. Putting pictures in significantly drove up the cost of publishing.

BK – We toiled late into the evening, bringing the issue to life fueled by Mountain Dew…

SB – …and music…

BK –  …and a spirit of rebelliousness and angst that come with the territory of being a teenager growing up in a rural state like Vermont (or anywhere, I suppose).

SB – There was rebelliousness and angst but also a simple desire to contribute, to participate as citizens.

BK – As I scan the front page, I am reminded of the irreverence of the work: the pseudonyms, the Anarchy A in the masthead, the suggestion that the paper was “Currently Free.” What comes through is the blend of irreverence, rebelliousness, and (embarrassingly) a self-righteous attitude about the state of the world around us at that time.

SB – Pseudonyms were common place in the bylines of The Advocate not so much because of anyone’s strong desire to remain anonymous but more so an attempt to not have ever other article by-lined by either Brendan or myself. That just seemed so boring. Indeed, pseudonyms quickly became standard operating procedure and one of the more fun parts of putting together the issues.

BK – It became part of what made The Advocate irreverent and fun. There must have been many pseudonyms that got left on the cutting room floor, but I can’t seem to remember any.

SB – Alex P. Laslow was Brendan. I don’t know who Alibaster Johnson, credited with “Questions I Have” is.  Maybe that’s the missing link to Alexi? Regardless, Alibaster (21st century spell checking suggests that perhaps that should have been Alabaster – Ed.) manages to sneak in the “ozone layer” which we were told had a huge hole blown in it from all the hairspray we used in the eighties. Thankfully, an aggressive campaign to end big hair allowed the ozone layer to heal itself. Only downside is that with the hole in the ozone closed up there is nowhere for all the heat to escape and now we have global warming.

BK – I am Alex P. Laslow. It’s hard to really claim authorship of nearly any piece in The Advocate, however. I remember torturous editing sessions where Berkey would question every other word, or challenge how to say a particular phrase. Mind you, he’s horrific at spelling, but to this day I carry his voice in my head as I edit anything from brochure copy to a grocery list. I’ve internalized the back-and-forth between writer and editor and it has made me a much better communicator.

SB – In 1988 it was hard for teenagers to get their voice out. There were publications about kids, and publications for kids, and publications by kids for kids, but in the pre-Internet late eighties The Advocate was certainly the only publication in Vermont by kids for everyone and probably one of only a handful in the country.

BK – As you can see on Page 1, November 1988 was a time when I was exploring politics and notion of political parties. I was heavily influenced by my friend David Atkinson, the first-ever Libertarian I met, who challenged my more, um…Democratic sense of the world. The friend I reference in Part II of that article is almost certain Michael Jaminet. He was my conservative foil with whom I debated each day during study hall. He challenged nearly every word that came out of my mouth about politics and played a key role in my political thinking during these formative years. He also taught me that people can disagree in a civil way, and still be friends!

SB – Brendan and I were both keenly interested in politics at all levels and we also loved to write creatively as well. Jamie Hill was recruited by Brendan and contributed to the early issues primarily with his sandpaper dry wit.

BK –  I actually posted flyers around the school asking for contributors/co-conspirators. I remember my 10th grade social studies teacher taking one off the wall and scolding me for littering but then wishing me good luck under his breath.

SB – I believe that Roger Ennis characterized it as a cross between Mad Magazine and High Times.

BK – It would be easy to dismiss the writing in The Advocate as juvenile and sophomoric. Some of it is certainly embarrassing, especially as the waters of 30 years have flowed under the bridge. But in context, it’s a revealing look at our society during this period of time, viewed through the eyes of 17 and 18 year-olds trying to make sense of it all. I think without realizing it, we published the mission of The Advocate on the very first page of our very first issue:

“…I’m going to try and make a better democracy through change.”

JH –  I’m struck most by how sincere we were, under all the joking. We were attempting, in what feels like an honest way, to grapple with some pretty heavy issues. Issues I’m still grappling with 30 years later.

BK – Amen.

Click here to read Part II of this Commentary…