The word "hippy" used to conjure up some very strong emotions. WWII veterans would snort with disgust at the idea of a bunch of smelly, pot-smoking longhaired kids who dared to defy Uncle Sam by burning their draft cards. Why, such yellow cowards would have been tarred and feathered back in the day!
Youngsters had different point of view. Many admired people who would dare to live an unconventional lifestyle. And the idea of protesting a war that made less and less sense every day was easily related to. And long hair was decidedly cool. And you didn't HAVE to smoke pot. Beer was easily obtainable in those days for Saturday night fun.
So many small towns sported their own versions of hippies. My parents were quite strict, so no long hair in the Enderland household. However, many kids' parents were quite tolerant of their children's appearance, as long as they stayed out of trouble. So Miami, Oklahoma had a few kids running around in tie-dyes, jeans, sandals, and sporting long, glorious hair.
We didn't have any organized Vietnam protests in our cozy town of 10,000. But there were plenty of peace signs on t-shirts. There was lots of graffiti like "Draft beer, not our boys" scrawled prominently in places like the nearby Baxter Springs drive-in theater (The back side, of course. It wouldn't be very neighbortly to ruin the movie screen). So while we saw "unkempt" youth wandering the streets, we watched the classic hippies on TV or viewed them in Life Magazine.
But hippies were hated by many who were not young. They were viewed as a serious threat to the very fabric of society. And they felt slapped in the face by these young, mouthy protesters.
It's not like their point of view didn't have merit. Hippies weren't known for tactfulness. It wasn't unusual for outspoken hippies like Abbey Hoffman to deride anyone who didn't agree with their views by trashing their opposers with obscene language and call them things like baby burners (or parents of baby burners, that hurt even more).
Of course, many hippies were simply kind, peaceful folk who didn't like the turn society was taking. But they were lumped in with the loudmouths by the right-wing Hawks.
This led to bumper stickers like "You don't like cops? The next time you need help, call a hippy!" But nobody was tarred and feathered, to my knowledge.
Hippies made their way into TV and the movies, besides the big weekly pictorial periodicals. Easy Rider featured the hippies on the commune out in the desert, cultivating the ground in vain, in Billy's opinion. But Captain America assured him that things would work out well for the gentle rebels. Dragnet would frequently feature mouthy hippies being taught a tough lesson by Joe Friday. And Mod Squad attempted to meld youthful idealism with more traditional values with three cool cops (who also crossed paths with hippies from time to time, but attempted to relate a little more than Friday).
The Summer of Love in 1967 put hippies front and center. As they gathered at Haight-Ashbury at San Francisco, the rest of the world watched nervously. The previous year, opposition to the war was sparse. But in 1967, every peace sign was seen as a nose-thumbing (once considered an obscene gesture) at The Powers That Be. Suddenly, there was organized resistance to Vietnam, led by these long-haired freaks.
Well, society didn't crumble. The war mercifully ran its course. We now do business with the same commies in Vietnam that many, many brave young men and women died to eradicate. Life is pretty weird.
Maybe the hippies who began living their lives in such an unconventional manner so long ago had a better grasp on reality than we thought.
Comments (3)
Heehee! I've got news for you! Hippies are still with us...my second home of Austin, Tex. is reeking with them(I live Dec.-May in Austin,
which lets me see the south by southwest conf.
and Eeyore's birthday in the spring, and get out of the horrid Chicago winters, and enjoy Chi-town in the summer and fall). We have a monthly
party out by Zilker park that has been going on
for 35 years, and you will see more tie-died
shirts and pachouli than a whole week-end at Woodstock and Monterrey combined. I must admit
it is a bit sad to see a 58-year-old bald dude
in tie-die. Maybe we should modify the phrase to
"Don't trust anyone over 60" for the baby boomer hippies still left. The party has always been pot-luck, they have impromptu acoustic sessions
with mandolins and stand-up bass and such, and it is the funkiest Austin backyard with strange gnome lights and strands of lantern bulbs.
The entrance has a claw bathtub planter, and a
old jar for donations. Eeyore's birthday is THE
classic hippie event in Austin, however. Last
April they had this guy screaming about Abbie
Hoffman and the Chicago 7 at the egg toss game
(honest, this really happened.) I'm thinking
(mind you its 2007) what the hell, am I back
in Grant Park at the '68 convention or something?
What did I miss? What does Abbie Hoffman have to do with introducing an egg toss game? What
was Abbie's position on lawn games? Did he favor
lawn darts or bean-bags as his preferred method of toss? Was the hoff a family guy?
Also, the main point of conversation with the old hippies in Austin is granola food. You would think they would ooze with political kant, but no, its always organic food topics. If you haven't guessed yet, old hippies are really boring, and old female hippies STILL don't shave
their armpits. Yes, like the old joke, they DO
look like they have buckwheat in a headlock.
Nair products are as rare as "Vote Rupublican"
bumper stickers in that crowd. They bang a gong
for silence at 10PM, and they all gather to
read current protests going on, volunteers for this and that hippy-dippy thingie, and that they
have a really cool ranch for rent in the woods for someone that is ambiantly cool and respectful of their stuff, can feed their cats
(most hippies in Austin have cats or dogs with free rein on their property. Austinites in general bring dogs with them EVERY freaking where
they go. Every hippie place in Austin has the stereotypical friendly cat that wanders at will, and loves people), and really needs a cheap place to live. Again, hippies are quiet, and really boring, and its a shock every year when I get back to the "HEY, HOW YA DOOOINNN" loud-mouths in Chicago. Now that the Cubs are in the
playoffs, the whole nation will be subjected to
the Chicago-y boisterousness of the cub fans fot the next two weeks. BTW, if the Cubs win the world series, folks, the world as we know it will end. Just as we KNOW it. I didn't say it would completely end, as that would defy all the laws of physics(conservation of matter stuff).
It would just be a different, more loving place, and we would all live forever.
Nuff ramblin'. Gotta go walk the mutt(no, not my wife)
Posted by Scott | October 3, 2007 3:49 AM
Posted on October 3, 2007 03:49
Its not hard to understand why so many kids rebelled.Assasinations,civil rights protests,Vietnam and the draft,no less the ongoing Cold War.I rebelled in my own small way.Joplin High School had a dress code in which you could be booted if hair touched your collar or ears.So of couse many of us wore T shirts and combed our hair behind our ears.I was sent home more then once and was not allowed back until I'd cut my hair. We weren't hippies.We just wanted to look cool.
Posted by Steve | October 4, 2007 12:19 AM
Posted on October 4, 2007 00:19
I was too young to be a hippy in the 60s. I remember in my cleancut middle class suburban Maryland, my clean cut nextdoor neighbor who was starting college in Berkley! He was well liked and thought he would go far! Well, he went to California and became the perverbal Hippie! Lived in a commune, the whole nine yards! Long hair and very little clothing! It was like night and day! Unfortunately, he was condemed and considered no good by so many! Looking back at the hippie lifestyle, I probably would have done the same! There was good and bad examples of the generation! And yes, hippies still exist today! Funny, after 1970, mainstream was starting to ease into a more Ok, well this isn't so bad attitude! Note the hairstyles started to get longer! Facial hair showing up more! The wild fashions statements of clothing in the seventies were prevelant! Even mom was wearing macremae vests! The music of the hippie generation was the best! Doors, Airplane, Hendrix, Joplin, Who, Beatles! I look back at the hippie scene with fondness!Now don't trust anyone over 30!! Lol! Wait a minute, I am 49!
Posted by Rivers End | January 6, 2009 3:59 PM
Posted on January 6, 2009 15:59