Hippie Days!

[+ glennnn]

Were any of you also members of the counter culture? Did you march, protest, grow your hair and dream of world peace in the 60's and 70's? What a fabulous time! We were invicible!

 

Did your "free love" experiences include any same sex experimentation? Mine did! A few times the inhibition lowering grass we were smoking led an otherwise straight guy and I into bed. The great thing was we were okay with it the next day, but it rarely led to a repeat. Just the passion of a moment.

[doya66]

I was born in 1966 and so missed the party. I can't wait to see what those of you who were there have to say about it!

[+ quoththeraven]

Yes, although I was only 11 during the Summer of Love, which to my mind makes me a hippie-wannabe, not a hippie.

 

Along with two guys I barely knew who back then would have been described as greasers (lower middle-class, unambitious, probably motorheads), I wore a black armband to school on Moratorium Day to protest the Vietnam War. I refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I was a Black Panther sympathizer who flirted with anti-capitalism and Marxism until I read and wrote an honors thesis on Marx, among other things. This was all enabled by membership in a church that was itself consciously countercultural, anti-Vietnam, pro-social welfare and pro-civil rights.

 

I've mentioned much of my college sexual experimentation previously. During my first year of law school in 1978/79, a fellow student was pontificating about the fact that another student in our section was a gay activist. His diatribe was met with a collective shrug and eyeroll by everyone within earshot.

[+ Funguy]

I was born in 1966 and so missed the party. I can't wait to see what those of you who were there have to say about it!

 

You are sooooooo young!

LOL

[Rudynate]

In the late 60s, I was in high school, and definitely did not think of my self as a hippie. I lived in Rochester NY, which was a fundamentally conservative place, so there weren't many hippies. In the early 70s, I was in the Army. Never saw service in Viet Nam - I spent my entire tour of duty in Europe. While there, I smoked a lot of hash, played with a lot of other drugs, listened to a lot of rock music, had a lot of sex and traveled a lot. But I did all that without ever thinking of myself as a hippie. I've never grown my hair, never joined a commune, etc, etc. The middle and late 70s were devoted to that mad party that gay men of the time were all having. By the end of the decade, it was losing its innocence and I was ready for it all to be over with.

 

Little did I know what was just around the corner.

[BabyBoomer]

Perhaps this thread should have been titled HIPPIE DAZE.

~ Boomer ~

[notforme]

yes to all questions but don't remember so glowingly . also worked for the military (ick) numerous years always been accused of being a left sympathizer. Don't get gays obsession with military fetish.

[bigvalboy]

Never did the hippie thing, though there were romantic notions of heading to San Francisco, but in the end, I could never muster the nerve to end one life and start another.

 

I get a knot in my stomach, every time I hear this song, or see this video, wondering what might, or could have been. No regrets mind you, but just wondering what a different path would have led to.

 

[+ quoththeraven]

Never did the hippie thing, though there were romantic notions of heading to San Francisco, but in the end, I could never muster the nerve to end one life and start another.

 

I get a knot in my stomach, every time hear this song, or see this video, wondering what might, or could have been. No regrets mind you, but just wondering what a different path would have led to.

 

 

I wished I was old enough to head to San Francisco circa 1967. Why else would I long to be Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane, sans alcoholism?

[+ Charlie]

I made my first trip to San Francisco in 1967 during the "Summer of Love." I would have loved to wear my hair long, but it was already getting thin on top and I thought I would look too much like a hippie wannabe. Yes, I smoked weed in the park and listened to the music and cruised all those adorable young men in tie-dyed outfits, and managed to have sex with a number of them. But although I was already quite active in the anti-Vietnam and gay rights movements, I was a little too old and middle-class to be an authentic hippie myself. Still, it was nice to have been there and seen it for myself, before going back East and putting on a tie to go to work.

[+ azdr0710]

was four years old and living 30 miles south of San Francisco during the Summer of Love, so no hippie stories here......though they went into the city occasionally, my parents never had any great stories, were never hippies, but just lived their conservative, upper middle-class lives.....

 

my only brush with hippiedom that I remember was walking down Market (?) in SF at about age eight or nine with my younger brother and Mom, all of us holding hands.....some strikers (would they count as hippies??!!) were picketing in front of Macy's (?) and we cut through their picket line on the sidewalk....some dude dutifully yelled at us that we broke their picket line.....

 

that's all I got, folks!

[+ purplekow]

I was a college student, a 16 years old freshman and while I did get involved in protests, it was definitely not all flowers and sunshine. One night, out on the student common area in front of the dorms, about 350 students protested the war and the presence police on campus. I remember it as relatively peaceful until there was a sudden charge by the police and their dogs. The crowds started running and funneling into the dorms, but once inside, they stopped running and as a result it led to a blockade at each door. I was in the crowd outside trying to get into one of the dorms and I tripped over a bicycle down on the ground. Another student tripped and landed on top of me and he was soon being beaten with a billy club by a policeman as the police dog barked and growled. I could feel the student's body convulsing in the pain of the beating and after what seemed like an eternity, but which was probably a matter of seconds, the beating stopped and both he and I were able to stand up, stagger toward the door and were pulled into the dorm. HIs blood was all over my clothes and his. The doors had cleared due the presence of the police beating people at the doorstep which allowed up to get into the refuge.

 

Later that night, tear gas filled the dorm and the students living on the lower floors climbed up the stairs to escape the noxious gas. I lived on the tenth floor which became the Yippies Student Protest Headquarters as it had a great point of view to oversee what was happening below. Sheets with curses and anti war and anti police slogans written on them were hung out the windows. The medical school and science building which was across the parking lot from my dorm was set ablaze. William Kunstler made an appearance in the lounge and gave a rousing speech to the assembled students. That semester, the school was closed more than it was open. War protests. Kent State protests. Police on Campus protests. Mayhem ruled. Police cars were vandalized on the campus (which as it turns out was the trigger for the police charge I described.)

 

My father was a barber, so no long hair for me. I grew up in a very conservative lower middle class family and was the first to attend college and did so at age 16, so I was politically even more naive than most of the other students. My politics were always more left of center but I never took the far left politics of the time too much to heart. Most of the people that did are probably now voting for Trump, at least most of the ones that I know now are very much right of center now. I have really not changed my stances. I am sure I disagree with this quote. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/24/heart-head/

 

The protests at my school closed classes down for weeks at a time and ultimately the entire year was shortened and all of the classes for the entire school was graded as pass/fail in order to allow the progression of students through the four year programs.

 

It was a crazy time. The country was as divided as it is now but not just along racial lines; but along the lines of age, sexual orientation and political orientation. Lots of people were just there getting stoned and doing destruction. Some were honestly and intelligently protesting the actions of the government. Most of the students were merely caught up in the swirl of protest and were flexing their new independence muscles.

[+ glennnn]

I ran from the police in Berkeley during a Free Speech rally? demonstration?. I didn't really know why I was running. I had done nothing illegal, but I still ran. It was a crazy time, but in spite of the divisions, I have never felt more connected to my fellow citizens. I miss the activism and sense of purpose of that period of my life......... And the sex!

[body2body]

I turned 16 in 1967. My Mother had been ill for several years and I assumed many household duties, cooking, shopping, getting my sister to school. My Dad appreciated all I did, and how it cut into my social life. When he came home on Friday night I'd give him the keys to my VW, and he'd give me the keys to his T-Bird, and $50 (a fortune in 67). I'd pick up my girlfriend and some friends and we'd go to the Sunset Strip. We'd dance at The Galaxy, Gazarri's, Kaleidoscope. We would be dressed in Nehru Jackets, bell bottoms, and the ubiquitous love beads, reeking of Patchouli. I got wire rimmed glasses like John Lennon. Drugs were everywhere, an ounce of Marijuana cost $10. Acid, mushrooms, speed, Seconal, hashish, opium, were all readily available. You could buy "poppers" (real Amyl Nitrate in glass ampules) at the drug store. If we weren't on The Strip, we'd go to The Cheetah on the Ocean Park Pier, with it's Stainless Steel dance floor and Leopard Velvet Sofas to catch Sam &Dave, or The Ike and Tina Turner Review. Or, we'd head to the Shrine Exposition Hall for a Pinnacle Dance Concert for an evening of BB King, Iron Butterfly, Buffalo Springfield, Canned Heat, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Credence Clearwater Revival, and yes QTR, Jefferson Airplane. There were "Love Ins" in Griffith Park near the Carousel (imagine riding on an Antique Carousel on Acid). The high point of that year was hitchhiking with two girls to Monterey for the Monterey Pop Festival. I had a car but hitching was considered cool. We saw The Animals, Otis Redding, Laura Nyro, The Mamas and the Papas, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and more. There were cute guys everywhere, and I was starting to notice, but I was not ready to do anything yet. It was a very magical time, I was very lucky to have experienced so much. By the next year everything was becoming more serious, or maybe I just became more aware of the greater world. I will always treasure my memories of that time.

[bigvalboy]

I turned 16 in 1967. My Mother had been ill for several years and I assumed many household duties, cooking, shopping, getting my sister to school. My Dad appreciated all I did, and how it cut into my social life. When he came home on Friday night I'd give him the keys to my VW, and he'd give me the keys to his T-Bird, and $50 (a fortune in 67). I'd pick up my girlfriend and some friends and we'd go to the Sunset Strip. We'd dance at The Galaxy, Gazarri's, Kaleidoscope. We would be dressed in Nehru Jackets, bell bottoms, and the ubiquitous love beads, reeking of Patchouli. I got wire rimmed glasses like John Lennon. Drugs were everywhere, an ounce of Marijuana cost $10. Acid, mushrooms, speed, Seconal, hashish, opium, were all readily available. You could buy "poppers" (real Amyl Nitrate in glass ampules) at the drug store. If we weren't on The Strip, we'd go to The Cheetah on the Ocean Park Pier, with it's Stainless Steel dance floor and Leopard Velvet Sofas to catch Sam &Dave, or The Ike and Tina Turner Review. Or, we'd head to the Shrine Exposition Hall for a Pinnacle Dance Concert for an evening of BB King, Iron Butterfly, Buffalo Springfield, Canned Heat, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Credence Clearwater Revival, and yes QTR, Jefferson Airplane. There were "Love Ins" in Griffith Park near the Carousel (imagine riding on an Antique Carousel on Acid). The high point of that year was hitchhiking with two girls to Monterey for the Monterey Pop Festival. I had a car but hitching was considered cool. We saw The Animals, Otis Redding, Laura Nyro, The Mamas and the Papas, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and more. There were cute guys everywhere, and I was starting to notice, but I was not ready to do anything yet. It was a very magical time, I was very lucky to have experienced so much. By the next year everything was becoming more serious, or maybe I just became more aware of the greater world. I will always treasure my memories of that time.

 

Great post!! Two thumbs up...