From: David (freedum.proxy.lucent.com)
Greeting: Vegan Redneck!
Date: October 05, 1999 at 00:20:23 PST

Hello all. I'm a 26 y/o from the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania.
I love backpacking, reading, and music. My music interests is quite
diverse or as some people have told me “Weird”. For example Def
Leppard, Metallica, Korn, Alan Jackson, Dixie Chicks, and Sarah
McLaughlin, and Sixpence None the Richer. Though I have to say Led
Zeppelin is my absolute favorite. I’m also into simplicity/frugality
and in the process of adopting a frugal lifestyle.

Originally I grew up in a rural town in northwestern PA, called
Russell. I was your average backwoods redneck. While growing up there I
used to hunt and fish, like many of the people around me did. In
late ’98 I began to look at websites on health to help me lose weight
and eat better. This lead me to some sites on vegetarianism, and from
there I quickly ended up here on Joanne’s board on veganism. I had
never even heard of a vegan before March of ’99, yet alone knew how to
pronounce it. I began to read many of your posts and perused over
Joanne’s essays. I ended up buying Vegan Sourcebook and on July 7, 1999
decided to make the jump from carnivore to vegan.

This was an extremely difficult decision to make since I used to hunt
and fish. In the past I used to say, “The only people I’m prejudiced
against are animal rights activists!” Now here I was, adopting a
lifestyle that supported animal rights. Making that decision somehow
made my transition much easier than I had anticipated.

Without the advice, support, and friendship I’ve found here from
everybody, I doubt that my transition would have been as easy. For that
I am truly grateful and thank everybody. Most especially I thank
Joanne Stepaniak, whose book inspired me to make such a drastic change
in my life.

VegSource
Part of the StartPath Network.