Toad Hall Bookstore

The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. Although one is tempted to characterize it as a reawakening of America's environmental conscience, I would argue that it was the awakening of America's ( and the World's) environmental conscience, presaged by writers/activists such as Rachel Carson and Also Leopold.

The Environmental Protection Agency was created as a result of the first Earth Day; the Clean Water and Clean Air acts soon followed. The environmental movement had begun.

In the spring of 1970, an Assistant Dean of Business Administration at Northeastern University in Boston, I was a young man in search of a cause. I was ready for the next step, and, when Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, I knew where to plant my foot. At that point I "dropped out" I resigned my university position, sold all my possessions and honed my life down to a BMW motorcycle and a suitcase. That Fall I sailed into Rockport Harbor with two friends, and decided to spend the season in Rockport (who wouldn't?).

Then one day, when I was walking down Main Street I saw a sign in the window of the old Granite Savings Bank building that said the building was for sale. I bought the building, cancelled my future plans, and opened Toad Hall Bookstore in 1972. Sometimes life works in strange but wonderful ways.

-Buck Robinson, March 28,2000