I lived overseas on military bases in the Pacific for a good part of the mid-Sixties and early Seventies.
I was always a very conservative kid, living in a military family and such, so as a military brat, I read and watched accounts of what was going on back in the USA with a large degree of trepidation.
I detested the hippie culture and anti-war culture. Not because they were anti-war, but because they slandered people like my dad and others in the military as “baby-killers” and such, so I grew to despise them.
I saw the reports of the protests and unrest. I read accounts of school kids having LSD secretly introduced into their food and drink at lunch, and the concept terrified me. (Truth or urban legend-I have no idea, but this is what my perception of the USA was during those years)
But when we did return to the States, and we landed at JFK in New York, when we deplaned onto the tarmac (that was what was often done in those days) I literally got down on my hands and knees and kissed the asphalt. I was that happy to be back in the USA after more than five years overseas.
That was in 1971-72.
I had a great time in the Seventies, but again, half of it was spent in the USN, so military life then was a bit different. We spent more time at anchor than warships do now (I think) we flew and steamed less, supplies were tight and we often did not have what we needed to operate on, didn’t even have adequate cold weather gear when we went up above the Arctic Circle in November (issued jackets good to 40 degrees, so we stuffed cleaning rags inside them for insulation when we worked on the flight deck) but...like so many in the Seventies, that was the way things were, so that was how we did them.
I, on the other hand, was terrified of returning to the State and contemplated remaining in Europe. I only returned because of family.
I was horrified, as you were — we apparently share that memory, living abroad at the time. (See my #96)
When I first saw the hippies in Vondelpark, Amsterdam, I was so shocked my eyes got big as saucers. This angry hippie came over and got right in my face imitating my big eyes and making fun of me and being a major jerk. I was just a 12-year-old girl at the time (1970 or 1971). Which horrified me even more. The hippies were all drugged out, many passed out, very sad scene.
I,too, was worried about returning home to hippies and yippies, but so happy to be back in my homeland, too. Although the food turned out to be not as good as I remembered lol.