I've thought about this a lot lately. Am I the last hippie standing?
It seems like I am the only one of my friends who still wants to stay up late, drink a little, and maybe even smoke some pot. I didn't used to be alone in this.
Was it only yesterday that I would put on something stylish in the fringe and bell way, go out, and never think twice about what people thought? Perhaps I was too stoned to care. But at least I remember having a whole lot of fun. Meeting lots of people, going to concerts and parties, and feeling rather cool.
Nowadays it seems as if everyone turns into a pumpkin with no warning. Since when did 9 p.m. on Saturday night become an acceptable time to end parties? And why is "I have to get up tomorrow at 4 a.m. to go kayaking" an excuse that makes me want to pull out my hair? I understand that everyone is so terribly busy these days, but when I'm having fun, I want to prolong it. Be spontaneous as it were. Apparently, I have overstayed my welcome.
Apart from a few old hippies in Kitsilano, and a few more in the wide bohemian world out there, I am the last hippie standing. Sure, I have friends from that era, one of whom unwittingly gave me the idea for this story, but they are stuck in slow motion. They own property and have responsibilities, and while they have happy memories, they aren't flying their freak flags high.
They have "matured," accepted the limits of their bodies, examined what's left of their minds, and slid into middle-aged complacency. But not me. My spirit is still kicking up a storm.
Maybe I'm a perpetual adolescent in need of constant stimulation and recreational, er, pursuits, or maybe I'm just a deluded slacker. I'm not sure. What I do know is that I am a child of the 60s, a flower child at heart, and I will be true to the ideals of my coming of age, however flawed they may be. It feels right to me.
I'll continue to fly my freak flag high.
UPDATE: When I wrote this post the other night, I had no idea that it would touch such a chord. Who knew there were so many "old" hippies on OS? I'm referring to people to whom their youth, or maybe even their present, still encompasses their ideals, even if that ideal is just staying up late and listening to old music once in a while.
One side effect of posting this cri de coeur to my misspent youth and perhaps even my present, are the many definitions of hippies that keep surfacing. From Greg Corell's account of young hippies in New Paltz to Cindy Ross's realization that hippies come in more than one flavour, the comments make for fascinating reading.
My purpose in writing this was to explore some feelings of disconnection I've been having lately with friends and acquaintances. I seem to have more passion, more fire in my belly, or just more angst than they do because I still get worked up about things that they tell me I should "let go." Sinking into an abyss of apathy is not a place I ever wish to go again. I've visited there, and it damn near killed my soul. I'll continue to be spirited, or just plain messed up as the case may be, but at least I'll be me.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment. And for the record, I've always hated tie dye, granola, and people who don't put filters in their joints. Peace out. :)
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Rated.
Yes, Emma, I'm up - we aren't alone - this will always be our night to claim and do whatever the hell we want with,
and the flag can fly or flutter - we actually f'n made it, man !
Your post is wonderful. I remember those days. What I miss most is the passion of those days; the passion for change, life, love. In America today, it's missing. Dennis Hopper's death has made me think of this.
Nothing says this more to me than the music. I recall so many wonderful hours listening to and taking in the music of that time. It spoke what so many of us were thinking, believing, hoping.
And, while I don't party like I used to - but, thanks for encouraging to do more of that - at heart, I am and remain true to what the 60s were about: peace, love and longing for a better, more just world.
Thanks for this wonderful post.
I hear ya Emma; fly that freak flag proudly!
great freakin' post, especially "fringe and bell way."
~ waving the flag ~
rated
So that you dont feel so all alone (everybody must get . . .) I will share with you a little slice of my world. Was a teenager in the 60s and quite the slacker. So many of my friends of that time are dead or scattered to the winds. Yet through the magic of Facebook, we the remaining have slowly reconnected. Because of this, there will be a 3 day reunion in our hometown this summer, (properly permitted of course!) with the survivors of that era. Will include peace love and music, even if it will be 45 miles outside of Woodstock.
So you are NOT alone!
@geezerchick: I don't think I said there was only one way to be a hippie. This is a personal post about me, and me wondering what happened. If what you do reflects who you are, that is all that counts.
@stellaa: I do believe that you are right.
Rated.
I'm a lot soberer now too, but I have always had the hippie jean and the politics to go along with it. I didn't live through the era, but definitely aligned with its essence.
Excellent post Ms. Peel - my freak flag is flying high (glad to know yours is, too!)
Now---can't mix alcohol with the meds, barely remember drugs, clean, sober, but still have hearing damage from satnding a couple of feet from Marshall double stacks.
Enroute, since fireworks were verboten in Florida, I picked up a giant star shell at a tin-roofed shack in South Carolina, and if you happened to be on that sloping hillside on Saturday night - well no you weren't hallucinating. Six months later I just said no to a greetings card.
Country Joe and the Fish got it right the first time!
I just punctuated it over Yasgur's farm!
But Kris and Rita, they were cool. And I still remember singing Superstar to mom's Mad Dogs and Englishmen album. Good times.
what are we fight for
don't ask me
I don't give a damn
next stop is
buy me a mercedes benz
my friends all drive porches
i must make amends
ah yes i remember it well---
It may not be so visible by day but by night the cork is popped and the spark is lit. My freak flag is flying over here blowing n the wind between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.
You might like my piece on St. Joni, and the picture (3 graces part 1)
And Robert Young, if you were there and weren't a Hippie, what were you, one of those guys threatening me with his bayonet at the rally I played at???
Otherwise, you were just a kid in comfortable clothes listening to great music and --if you were lucky-- smoking great dope and dropping real acid.
@Robert Young: I'm well aware of Hopper's "fascist nutball" behavior, I met him more than once, and have referenced it elsewhere on OS. I invoked him and by sub-text, Easy Rider, as a symbol of the times, nothing more. I was definitely there, albeit younger than most.
You are more than welcome to your opinion of hippies and in fact, I skew more toward your latter, kinder definition, which I believe my post represented clearly. I knew many worthwhile hippies, and in fact, still call some of them my friends. They were not all greedy freeloaders, then or now. That may have been your experience, it was not mine. Most of my friends have contributed greatly to the society they live in, and very few are wealthy because they valued money less than their social and political ideals. It should be noted that freeloaders come in all shapes and sizes and are not specific to hippies.
@Bob Sloan: There was nothing comfortable about my childhood. As for my political activism, you know absolutely nothing about me, but thanks for the assumptions.
I say keep on being spontaneous and keep on having fun!
As "George Hanson" told his riding buddies the night he was beaten to death in the woods, Ya know, this used to be a hail of a good country...sssssssssssssssssp.
You are NOT the last hippie standing. Your doppleganger in NJ is virtually standing right next to you. Don't ever forget.
REALLY great job.
. . . still sounds like fun to me (though I tend to fade a little earlier in the evening, and "a little" is about what I drink these days, but there's nothing wrong with pot)
Come see New Paltz. All of it is still here: the good, the bad, the sitting on the streets playing guitar with a hundred other tie-dyed souls.
And almost all of them under 25.
When our mayor (the youngest mayor in America at the time) married gay couples several years ago in our town park it subsequently attracted those Phelpian God Hates Fags types. Several hundred people showed up at the counter-demo, turned their back and sang Beatles songs.
With you, Emma.
My friends who have kids are the ones who are boring. There are a few exceptions, but it seems like once they start having babies, my services as a friend are no longer needed. I don't know why they can't have a little bit of fun.
Oh well. I still know how to have fun.
RATED
And we're voting on legalizing marijuana in California this fall. Not just for medicinal purposes (we already have that).
There may be a reason I am up here on the side of this little mountain by the lake in the middle of the night commenting while the cat sleeps nearby.
Thank you for posting this.
Just because I've a non-nostalgic memory of hippie-dom, New England division, doesn't mean that I did, or do, play with bayonets. How you got from one to the other says more about your state of mind than my memory.
For extra credit: compare and contrast the 1970 Hippie with the 2010 slacker/stoner.
That spirit has not died, it has however changed greatly. The ideals of peace, togetherness and raising consciousness has not changed though.
Case and point: the immortality of The Legend John Lennon.
I stopped smoking joints, more than less, after the 60's because like lots of others, it made me paranoid. Smoking is not a big part of my hippie-ness, openness of spirt is.
I have frequently been confused by those who call our generation--selfish, and worse. We were extremely idealistic and most of us who made it thus far still are. But I HIGHLY recommend either the book or the article in NYBR by Tony Judt called, "Ill Fares the Land." He is dying of ALS as I write but in his first chapter he showed me for the first time, what we in the 60's did wrong. However he is writing for his kids and other youngsters about what was natural as breathing for us, what they don't understand. So he celebrates us an gives the best critque of what we did wrong. I am sure the article is online at New York Review of Books, and truly I finally saw the flaw, which is not the one we are usually accused of.
Growing up in the nice but conservation 50's, we who came of age in the 60's really did --in alll kinds of ways, many radically different depending on place ie: New York v. Haight Ashbury, vs. Weatherman, vs Black Pathers etc etc--we hippies were not uniform--we mostly did have excellent values and a lot of love and passion for social causes. If you were the type who hated the 50's even if you, which is me, now value that time of stability, and if the 60's led to an inner freedom and an outer freedome, I for one believe that I was formed by that time, forever. Really so. Rated Emma and for all here who won't read this, Deborah Young had another excellent piece on post-parental hippie-ness, which Lisa might remember. Rated and Pm'ing you Emma.
Musing on wonderful then, with a tear.
R