A BRIEF HISTORY OF TOMPKINS' COUNTY'S COMMUNES PART 4



	Mitch Bobrow lived at Yeah God commune on Beech Hill Rd. in Danby. He says, "If you looked at
my life at 17, you wouldn't have said, that's how my life is going to be at 24. It was a time of
great spiritual and cultural exploration."
	Yeah God was probably the most spontaneous of all Tompkin's County's intentional
communities. According to Bobrow, "This man named Gil was an old hippy who had travelled in
India. He then sat down on a bench on the corner of Central Park West and 86th Street in NYC.
He wouldn't speak to anyone and only spoke through sign language to an interpreter. People
brought him food and he became a guru for many people"
	"When it became cold we bought a bus. Gil got on the bus. Forty of us got on with him. The bus
went south and we made it as far as Mexico." 	Eventually thay decided to come back up North
and settled near Ithaca because "Somebody knew someone who had land on Beech Hill Rd."
	"We called it an ashram. We would get up in the morning and sing to God. We would work the
land for the day. At night we would eat in a silent circle and after that we would meditate." 
	"Gil was the spiritual head of the commune. After three and a half years he left. Some say he
was kicked out."
	"Some people thought that Gil was mad. The boyfriend of the owner of the land even said to
him, 'Why don't you leave.'" 
	"Gil converted to Christianity somewhere near the end of the familiy's history which some of
the evangelical Christians in the area got excited about. Some of Gil's followers became
permanently converted as well, Some didn't."
	"We had no running water or ammenities. We ate simply but fairly wholesomely." Although,
"We ate better in the summer."
	Despite the trials and tribulations, Bobrow has positive things to say about Yeah God. "It was
a beautiful place to live for awhile. I woke up in the morning in the woods. Your material
needs were simple, but they were met."
	"There was a hard core group of people who lived there who loved the place. I was very young
and it was a place where there was a deep devotion, freedom and joy. I loved living there. The
whole thing was quite ideal."
	"It took one year to get it going, for two years it thrived and it took about 6 months to fall
apart."
	"My first child was born during that period in 1974. My second child was born there on the
land as it was breaking up. There were other kids who were born there. Children just kind of
integrated into our life."
	Joanie Spielholz of Dawes Hill says of Yeah God, "They were good neighbors."
	Bobrow says, "If I were to do it again I wouldn't do it in the same way exactly because so
much of that commune had to do with living with a spiritual teacher." Also, "I wouldn't want
to freeze again." Right now I live with my wife and children. There are spiritual communities
now, none that have grabbed me. I wouldn't mind when I'm older living in a spiritual
community and singing in the morning.
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE