Oct./Nov. 1983 RAIN Page 7 Steven Ames, }oan Meitl (crouching), Linda Sawaya, Lane deMoll, Lee Johnson (1978). RAIN'S regional and national reputation grew apace with the burgeoning a. t. movement. Still, subscription numbers continued to inch upward, and RAIN staffers managed to find enough outside work to maintain both the magazine and their own "living lightly" lifestyles. As Steve Johnson had noted in the first issue of RAIN, the magazine's geographic emphasis was expected to shift in response to reader feedback. During its first two years, RAIN continued to pay particular attention to Pacific Northwest projects, publications, and events, but its editorial scope, like its readership, grew increasingly national. There was also an evolution in format as catalogue-type entries grew more polished and feature articles became more prominent. Many of the early articles were penned by RAIN staffers, but such appropriate technology luminaries as E. F. Schumacher and Amory Lovins also put in appearances. RAIN'S regional and national influence continued to grow apace with the burgeoning a.t. movement. The magazine became a recognized bicentiennial project during 1976, and that same year, Rainhouse visitors included such well-known figures as California Governor Jerry Brown and California State Architect Sim Van der Ryn. RAIN staffers participated in the planning of a new National Center for Appropriate Technology (now located in Butte, Montana) and consulted with the recently established California Office of Appropriate Technology. In 1977 the publication of RAINBOOK (a compilation of the best from the early RAINs, together with a good deal of new material) was greeted with praise by reviewers for many periodicals, including The Atlantic Monthly and The New York Times. But such widespread recognition raised new questions for the RAIN staff and for the rest of the appropriate technology movement. "We're finding that the field of a.t. and alternative energy is really taWng off," noted Lane deMoll in a 1977 Raindrops column. "When it's legitimized at the presidential level, you know things have changed—we're no longer the crackpots we were five years ago. But so much is happening that we're finding it hard to keep up with.... What's the next step beyond a.t.? How do we keep a fine grassroots movement from being co-opted and ruined by government and big business? It's odd after all these years of pushing to find so many barriers falling rapidly away." If publication of RAINBOOK and emerging questions about the state of the a.t. movement made 1977 seem something of a watershed year for RAIN, the sense of transition was also evident in other, more personal events. RAIN founder Steve Johnson departed on a "sabbatical" that would ultimately stretch into three years. Tom Bender and Lane deMoll began to divide their time between Rainhouse duties and their home- building project on the Oregon Coast. Tom, Lane, and Lee Johnson were all feeling the need (as Lane expressed it in a Raindrops column) "to go back to some real-life hands-on stuff for awhile." Sadly, Tom and Lane were soon faced with a "hands- on" task they never dreamed of. On February 8,1978, their new home burned down—the morning after they completed it. Most of the monetary loss was covered by insurance and the emotional loss was eased by the love and support of many friends, but there was still the prospect of more months of shuttling back and forth between Portland and the Coast to re-complete a once- completed project. In the meantime, RAIN was being infused with the talents and energy of several new staffers. These second-generation Rainmakers (Linda Sawaya, Steven Ames, and Phil Conti among others) were largely responsible for keeping the quality of the magazine high during the period in 1978 and early 1979 when the remaining oldtimers were gradually pulling away from
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