While cleaning up my old home at Lake Tahoe, I came across two photographs and a certificate from September 1, 1985. I believe that this was the first OCON, at that time named The Jefferson School. (Correction: A friend emailed to let me know that the first TJS conference was in 1983.)
This “OCON” was held at the campus of the University of California San Diego from June 28 to August 11, 1985; it included 24 hours of instruction in philosophy, 18 hours in economics, and 12 hours of psychology, history, education, and journalism.
This was a full, two-week intellectual feast containing long courses.
I’m pleased to see that there were 200 or more people attending for a whole two weeks. (Not everybody was available for the photo, so it could have been as many as 250 or 300 people.)
I thought some of you may be interested, amused, and surprised by these pictures from 36 years ago. (Oh my, how young some of us looked.)
Please feel free to share with others.
These were the happiest and friendliest people that I can recall, at the same time as being earnest and dedicated and serious.
Reminds me of the “one summer month” phrase applied to Galt’s Gulch.
Running on exhilaration.
A weird mix of that and a shining serenity.
’83, ’85, ’87 — two luminous summer weeks every two years.
Long enough that this became reality the way it was meant to be.
Not the outside world.
Some of the happiest weeks of my life.
Sometimes I smiled so much that my mouth hurt.
Thanks for sharing these photos, Carl. They are a precious record of the early Objectivist movement.
I never was able to attend these meetings, but I’ll bet I have listened to every taped lecture.
I was at that conference and it WAS great. The two-week format allowed plenty of time for socializing and sightseeing and the UCSD campus apartments were much more roomy than a hotel room. I especially liked that attendees had meals together at TJS and later at Tahoe. So friendly!
Betsy, you capture the value of those two weeks which gave us time to socialize, sightsee, and develop friendships. And those apartments were roomy! They had a large living room, a kitchen, and several bedrooms attached. And I think they actually cost less than hotel rooms! 🙂
The greatest value, however, were the long courses that delivered an intellectual feast.