Archives West Finding Aid

This collection contains diaries and miscellaneous personal papers kept by Richard Pastega during his life in Klamath Falls. These papers represent a unique view on rural life, including Pastega's thoughts on the difficulties and rewards of being a political activist and openly gay man in a conservative rural setting.

The diaries document daily life in Klamath Falls including weather, working in the family grocery store, and maintaining a garden. Additionally, he wrote about the irritations of household chores and sharing a home with multiple visitors, as well as reflections on local, national, and world politics. Pastega's home, a converted church he called "the Sanctuary" was open to travelers passing through town, some of whom were fellow gay men who found refuge with Pastega. Many pages are illustrated with sketches, newspaper clippings, and draft layouts for Breakdown, the underground newspaper published by Pastega.

Also included in this collection is a small amount of correspondence and notes, a brief autobiographical sketch of Pastega written in the late 1970s, some documentation from a celebration of life held for Richard Pastega in 2014, photos, copies of Breakdown from the 1970s and 1980s, and a copy of a Life Magazine article written about the Pastega family in the context of the popularity of the television show, All in the Family. The bulk of the issues of Breakdown were donated to the Klamath County Museum. The Life article was written to compare and contrast the similarities of the characters in All in the Family in the urban setting, and those of a "typical" American family in the rural setting. The Pastega family was chosen by the author as representation of such a "typical" family.