The 60's.....a crazy, searching time for all of us. The establishment had no idea how to deal with this new breed of youth. Long hair, experimentation with drugs, and free love for all. Just the things that drove our parents crazy.
I was fourteen years old in the fall of 1969. Not old enough to be considered a bona fide hippie. Still under my parents thumb.....but in my mind, a hippie to the bone. My dream? To be a member of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) The most dramatic movement short of the Black Panthers.
The most expressive part of the 60's for me was the music. From the moon landing to Woodstock, from JFK's death to the British Invasion, and from the Byrds to The Birds. It seemed everything revolved around music. And the hippies dove into it head first. There were city hippies, suburban hippies, beach, mountain, Indian, neo-polynesian, desert, river, musical, and poetic hippies. They basically included anyone that fought constraints, conventionalities, and hypocrisy. Also work, status, and power. And the drug scene gave a lot of them a well deserved bad reputation. It wasn't uncommon for my dad or any other adult I knew to point at someone with long hair and say, "look at that drugged up hippie". The only ones proud of hippies were the hips themselves.
But if you look far back into the very beginning of hippiedom, you can actually see there was a time of innocence and selflessness. I think they gave birth to the original liberal ideals. You know, back when liberals felt it was their duty to help the poor and needy, unlike the ones that now think it's the government's job. Timothy Leary said the only thing I think that was worth a damn.
He said the hippies started the ecology movement, combated racism, liberated sexual stereotypes, and stopped the Vietnam War. Leary also said some things such as "tune in, turn on, and drop out" and "grass is the staple and LSD the caviar". He was a complete moron as far as I am concerned, but I digress. One of the main quotes I will never forget is the "don't trust anyone over 30" So what do I do now? I guess not trust anyone over 60......haha!
There was so much happening in the 60's I can't begin to cover a fraction of it. This is mainly my perspective on them. And I promise not to go into my Monkees phase! Well, if anyone has anything they would like to add to this feel free to email me. There are tons of groovy stories to be told and lots of opinions to be shared. Peace.......V.......
The lighter side of Jim Morrison........
The Rest Remembered
A man rakes leaves into
a heap in his yard, a pile
and leans on his rake and
burns them utterly.
The fragrance fills the forest
children pause and heed the
smell, which will become
nostalgia in several years.
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