Marcia Diehl

     In the spring of 1974, I was a freshman at UNC, trying to think of an exotic (to me) music-related summer job.  I ended up at Rounder Records, which at the time was still a collective (so the job didn't pay anything but room and board).  Everybody lived and worked in the same house on Willow Ave in Somerville.  One of the housemate co-workers was Marcia Diehl, who died on Wednesday when she (on her bike) was hit by a truck on Putnam Ave.  I hadn't seen her for ages, but I vaguely knew that she was still around, still making music. I didn't realize until this morning that she had been contributing to WBUR's cognoscenti blog.  That summer was formative for me in many ways, but part of it involved Marcia and her circle of musician/feminist friends.  She was part of the New Harmony Sisterhood, and I followed them around on gigs, including one at a lesbian bar, another first for me. Without knowing it was anything but a group of friends hanging around the kitchen, I sat in on a discussion for a class sponsored by the Cambridge Goddard Graduate School for Social Change (which only existed during the 1970s; I just looked it up).   Marcia was the first person I knew who made her own yogurt.   I'm sorry now that I didn't keep in touch, but I'm glad she looked back on her life (not knowing it was about to end) with satisfaction.
https://cognoscenti.wbur.org/2015/03/12/reflections-on-a-good-life-marcia-deihl
Right now (Friday morning), I have my hair like hers, in a tiny tribute.  I don't know that anybody on the T later today would understand the reason.
New Harmony Sisterhood.  I have this LP on a shelf downstairs.  Marcia played autoharp and sang.  That's not them in the photo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihnKDpzVjHM

In an additional  "in the midst of life we are in death" way, I happened to cross from Charles/MGH station to the hospital and back on Wednesday at times that just bracketed a pedestrian death by truck  (I was there at 11:45 and 12:50.  She died at about 12:30, I think).  When I was on the way home, there was police tape blocking off part of the crosswalk, many officers, and the truck was pulled over to the side).   Be careful out there.