Posted on 04/26/2005 3:06:35 PM PDT by Dave123
I was raised off of Rural Route Three,
Out where the blacktop ends.
We'd walk to Church on Sunday mornings,
Race barefoot back to Johnson's fence.
That's where I first saw Mary,
On that roadside pickin' blackberries.
That summer I turned a corner in my soul,
Down that red dirt road.
It's where I drank my first beer.
It's where I found Jesus.
Where I wrecked my first car:
I tore it all to pieces.
I learned the path to Heaven,
Is full of sinners an' believers.
Learned that happiness on earth,
Ain't just for high achievers.
I've learned; I come to know,
There's life at both ends,
Of that red dirt road.
Her Daddy didn't like me much,
In my shackled up GTO.
Oh, I'd sneak out in the middle of the night,
Throw rocks at her bedroom window.
We'd turn out the headlights,
Drive by the moonlight.
Talk about what the future might hold,
Down that red dirt road.
It's where I drank my first beer.
It's where I found Jesus.
Where I wrecked my first car:
I tore it all to pieces.
I learned the path to Heaven,
Is full of sinners an' believers.
Learned that happiness on earth,
Ain't just for high achievers.
I've learned; I come to know,
There's life at both ends,
Of that red dirt road.
I went out into the world,
An' I came back in.
I lost Mary:
Oh, I got her back again.
An' drivin' home tonight,
Feels like I've found a long-lost friend.
It's where I drank my first beer.
It's where I found Jesus.
Where I wrecked my first car:
I tore it all to pieces.
I learned the path to Heaven,
Is full of sinners an' believers.
Learned that happiness on earth,
Ain't just for high achievers.
I've learned; I come to know,
There's life at both ends,
Of that red dirt road.
Most of what the nation saw as hippie-crazed youth was generated and conducted on the coasts. Most of the midwestern kids I knew just wanted to drink beer, find girls, fish, hunt, play sports, drive fast cars, join the military, and listen to rock music...just like many do today. I didn't know any hippies then, and I don't know any now.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
On college campuses, about 90% of the demonstrations were over issues like dormitory curfew hours or campus dress codes (still had 'em back then. My first year in college, women were not allowed on campus wearing pants, or anything other than a dress.)
As far as influencing the public against the war, the hippies actually had a negative influence. They were colorful and produced most of the good music of the time, but they were also a laughingstock, the butt of jokes of Rowan and Martin. No one took them seriously.
Public opinion turned against the war as a direct result of LBJ dropping out of politics after the Tet Offensive. He announced troop withdrawals and peace negotiations, an unmistakable admission of failure. Even Nixon ran on a 'secret plan to end the war'. Note, not a plan to WIN the war, just a plan to end it. That's what the public wanted. That's what they got. When funding was cut off, nobody even cared about Vietnam anymore. The 'ME' generation was getting in gear, and hippies were dropping back in to society in droves.
My summation: the 'mass' demonstrations, the hippie thing, violent campus unrest all PERPETUATED public support for the war effort, galvanizing the hard hats and uncorrupted sons and daughters all across America. But leadership at the very top failed. First they ask you to risk your life for a cause, then suddenly that cause is 'negotiable', and there's still a draft. So Kissinger takes over, for all intents and purposes, the management of the war effort. He invades Cambodia, inflames the situation there to the point of driving Prince Sihanouk from office while utterly failing to cut the Ho Chi Minh trail. Then he tries to invade the DMZ, another dismal failure. Then prolongs the war with mass bombings that almost make Hanoi cry 'uncle', but stops short, caves in to every NV demand, and gets a Noble Peace Prize for his valiant efforts. That's how the war was lost. Not Joan Baez, not even Jane Fonda. Just bad leadership. Hippies on the street? Yeah, real influential, very well financed, lots of media access... what I mean is, are all you hippie-bashers serious?
LOL!!
60's baby ping.
"And now the stupid idiotic liberal Boomers are advocating euthenasia, mercy-killing, etc. They are signing their own death warrants."
And the paper they sign it on will be filed by me, while they are led down the hallway by a Gen Y'r to be evacuated.
Interesting post.
In the words of my mother, a baby boomer, "The rich kids were hippies. I couldn't afford to be a hippie."
Even if they wern't political (as he claims) they were useful idiots for the left.
You forgot one major item...The drug culture. In 1955 I graduated from the 3rd largest 3 year high school in the country and I had never even heard of drugs.
He's kidding, right? He thinks our generation treats Jane Fonda's crowd like messiahs? Puh-leeeze!
I hate hippies, said in my best Cartman voice.
Thanks for asking how Generation X felt about things and how they were affected by all your 'free love' crap, you stupid pig (I'm aiming that comment at the author, not you Dave123 :D )
I'll call those Free Love People what they are : PIGS. They were PIGS and the policemen PROTECTED their right to be pigs.
If its 'bad' things you fear from us, you have only yourselves to blame. Where were you? What did you do when we needed you? Why didnt you teach us if you thought it so important. Just like that man said "[it was all about] getting laid". Hope it was a good lay for you, Free Love People, cause that's all WE'RE going to remember you guys by.
We have watched.
We have recorded.
WE will teach...and there's NOTHING you Pig Hippie people can do about it.
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