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Another piece of OUUC History....
Coffee is more than a tradition for UUs in Olympia. Once, it was even an institution.
Remember 1961? Well some of us can't because we weren't born yet. Others of us can't because… well, we won't go into that….
That year two young couples in their 30s met in Seattle. One, Pete and Pat Holm, had just been married in the Seattle Unitarian Church and were looking for something meaningful to do. Pete was an adventurer, a reader of Jack Kerouac, and was looking for a "happening." Pat was a performance artist, and was looking for a stage.. The others, Bonnie and Bonnie Gillis, were artists at the UW, and were looking for a place to present their works.
The result of their meeting was The Null Set, a coffee house they opened on the West side in 1963. Pete was the front man and made the espresso, Bonnie and Pat cooked, and Bob… well, Bob created art. Open from 7-11 in the evenings, the Null Set presented poetry readings and live musical groups (paid at Union wages) like the pH Factor Jug Band, Pat Holm did Puppet Theater that performed plays by Bertolt Brecht. The coffee house was a place where people met to foment political action as well. It became the Olympia office of the ACLU, and the headquarters of a political action committee for the Mississippi Project. The Holms and Gillises were active members of the Unitarian Fellowship, and so support of the coffee house, and its activities, was seen as a duty by other members of the Unitarian Community.
Alas, no one was in the business to make a profit (in fact, Pete Holm kept his day job with the state), and sure enough, it didn't. Three years later, the Null Set folded, and our adventurers went on to other things. Olympia sank back into political conservatism, awaiting the day when Evergreen would open, and UUS once again take up the mantle. Today, the OPAS is located where the Null Set used to be.
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