I wish I was around with the hippy dudes and dudettes :(. Tell me what it was like.

OH We also had sex with whomever we wantted because there was no AIDS and even herpes was rare. Yeah good times. Plus they had just introduced the pill.

And had quotas of how many dead Vietcong were required each month...

a reply to: AutumnWitch657

Did you have a great feeling of optimism at the time? I dunno I think my generation missed it .

That wasn't most of us or even a large number of us. Being a hippy didn't mean you were lazy or dirty. It meant you had a different point of view. The EPA wouldn't exist without us calling constant attention to pollution. We didn't want to inherit a world that was toxic or fight in a war we didn't belong in or even wear the same clothes of previous generations. Today a man can wear his hair long or skin head short. A woman can wear a skirt with the same dimensions. We rallied for more freedom of choice and hey...you got it. reply to: Advantage

I got a feeling of non stagnation. Of moving towards a goal. Even the introduction of eastern ideas and religions like yoga and meditation was because of us. We broke the status quo on one nation under God to one nation under many God's. We believed in the constitution of freedom of religion freedom of speech we challenged it. . . reply to: boymonkey74

Ah remembering the divine Miss M... a reply to: grandmakdw

Not in NY. In NY we organized the first earth day. I wrote a song my friends and I sung. We had sit ins to protest the war and a celebration when a cease fire was finally announced by Richard Nixon. A hero before Watergate. And incidentally the next to last Republican I ever supported. Ronald Regan was the last.
a reply to: douglas5

a reply to: boymonkey74
We were free, free from all the political lies that had been handed out over the years. We hated war, we wanted peace but most all we wanted truth. Truth from our government, parents, professors and each other. We wanted a better world for everyone.

It wasn't all about drugs though I would be liar if I were to say we didn't do our share and more. But we had a code, we wanted truth, love and peace to be the priority in our lives, not just for us, but for future generations. We shared everything, our food our clothes, our lovers and our weed and wine. We wanted to buck the status quo, god forbid if anyone even resembled our parents or anyone of authority.

We reflected all this in our lifestyle, our music and our dreams of the future. But reality is a b... . We couldn't keep crashing at other peoples apartments, the communes were constantly getting scrutinized and shut down by authorities even our co-ops were becoming suspect and we couldn't live on love, it didn't pay the bills.

Slowly the dream faded, hard drugs took over such as meth and heroine and for most of us we moved on orgot married had children and once again joined society because we had responsibilities, children and jobs. We discovered Utopia doesn't come free.

I don't believe that time can be replicated, those that tried in the 80's couldn't bring back what had been, everything has it's season and ours had forever changed. But I will tell you true, I would not ever exchange my time in the 60's for any other time, I feel it was a special time in our history and I'm glad I was part of it.

a reply to: boymonkey74

You weren't there. What do you define as a Hippy?

Just because my politics were conservative, didn't mean I wasn't a hippy.

That is pure bigotry and prejudice on your part to assume that.

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
Ah remembering the divine Miss M... a reply to: grandmakdw

Wasn't she?

And going to her concerts with the "theater" students made it even better. My dates were always the handsome gay guys from the theater department, dressed to kill, like I was.

This is an ugly version of what I was looking for, but the History of Laurel Canyon by David McGowan does go into the sordid details about how 'manufactured' much of the hippie scene was;

Laurel Canyon

Myself, I've always felt that in some way, the movement was backlash against the days when as kids, we were put through 'Duck and Cover' drills by our idiotic teachers, who apparently thought wooden school desks would protect us against nuclear blasts. We grew up being lied to so thoroughly, so completely, that only the kids whose parents were military themselves swallowed the lies and offered to go to war. Most of them wised up quickly, if not without trauma. 55,000 didn't come back home alive including three kids I went to school with and had known since kindergarten. The 'smart' ones went to Canada and they were called traitors.

There was a LOT of angst back then, father against son (some relationships irreparably torn by things as simple as hair length) but the hippies were right. Most of us were pacifists in a time when the global war agenda was ramping up into what it has become now. The WWII generation thought that the government would never lie to them. Unfortunately, the pull of money and profits won and we have the result that we see now.

It's such a shame. The world could have been so different. If the environmentalists were listened to, there would have been no Chernobyl, no Fukushima, no Gulf spill...no wars since 1968.

Thanks to whoever posted the Jimmie Hendrix version of the Star Spangled Banner. The first time I heard that, I remember thinking, 'this changes everything', and it still stands as one of the greatest guitar solos of all time.

One of the more impressive Psy-Ops ever undertaken.



Controlled opposition.



Everything that enters into the public consciousness is controlled folks. Even your precious idols.