Posted on 01/13/2007 11:22:27 AM PST by SmithL
Their hair, once a symbol of youthful rebellion, is mostly gray. Bodies that writhed with wild abandon when a guru invited them to "Tune in ... turn on ... drop out" now sport stiff knees and age spots.
"How many of you are on acid right now?" rock critic Joel Selvin asked an audience of former hippies who turned out this past week to mark the 40th anniversary of the Human Be-in, the counterculture event that unofficially launched the Summer of Love. "How many of you are on antacid right now?"
In many ways, the '60s as we now know the era was born Jan. 14, 1967, when musicians, poets, visionaries, student radicals and wayward youth gathered in Golden Gate Park. It was the unofficial birth of the counterculture movement that defined San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, a prelude to the social and political upheaval that followed.
Those who were in the park that day agree neither they nor San Francisco have been the same since.
Part rock concert and literary event, part protest and mass consciousness raising, the Human Be-in was billed at the time as a "Gathering of the Tribes" meant to unite and stir up the various wings of the counterculture movement. Estimates of the number of people who cavorted on the park's Polo Fields that day range from 10,000 to 50,000.
The speakers and bands who appeared reads like a "Who's Who" of 1960s icons: LSD advocate Timothy Leary, poets Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder, comedian Dick Gregory, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane.
By all accounts, psychedelic drugs were in plentiful supply, courtesy of a parachuter who tossed free doses to the crowd.
"Over the years, probably a dozen people have come up to me and said 'You guys were fantastic!' I say 'We weren't there,'
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Losers then.
Losers now.
How timely. On my way to work this morning, I drove past a very slow-moving, old beat-up van with plastic letters taped to the back windshield saying something like "Mother Earth Shakes When We All Dance." I glanced at the driver - she had long gray hair and looked as though she hadn't showered in a long time. I laughed to myself - didn't know people like this really still existed!
Personal knowledge, that.
Good grief--hippies make me sick.
When I read articles like this it makes me more happy that I grew up in the 80s.
Let me tell you,young lady,that it was my generation that gave the world Hendrix!
And head lice. ;-)
If things like that amuse you,come on up to Massachusetts and I'll take you for a drive through Harvard Square or Brookline (Mike Dukakis' home town).They're a dime a dozen up here.
They'll be dead soon enough. What a blessing.
Oh boy, a hippie bashing post. Well, I was a hippie freak...acid, mescaline, pot........you name it I did it. Had the Volkswagen van and the long hair and plenty of chicks!!!!!!!!!
But that was a long, long, long time ago. My life took a hard right turn at age 24 when I married, had three kids and started my construction business.
We're not all losers Pal!!!!!
I am, thanks to these antiquated moonbats who, with the support of their politicians and the drive-by media, are dragging our country down daily.
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