[Jim W N]

This was the age of “weed”, “grass”, marijuana and they were right in the middle of it.

Common, “Puff” the magic dragon who Jackie “Paper” loved in a misty place? It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see it.

Nevertheless, I’m glad that at least Peter and Paul if not Mary, came to Jesus and that Peter is in Heaven right now.

[Jamestown1630]

Sorry, I never saw it; and still don’t.

[OldGoatCPO]

You are entirely off base; there is no reference, veiled or otherwise, to drug use, and the poem it is based on was written in 1959. Not during the hippie era. The song uses the poem almost verbatim. Leonard Lipton wrote the poem lamenting the loss of innocence. Only a child could see Puff because only a young boy's imagination could create Hanalee. Yes, it is about little boys and our imagination at play.

The whole drug use angle was a write-up in a paper based on some anonymous hippie reporting the real meaning of the song. Peter, Paul, and Mary, along with Lipton, have denied any references to drugs until their deaths.

I love the song but hate it as well. Knowing the real meaning behind the song is sad. Puff represents innocence lost.

They made a TV movie based on the poem and song. In the poem, Puff finds another playmate and does not die. Innocence never dies. That is how the TV Show ended. There will always be another child.