"It's a hippy thing, and I don't understand."
I can't TELL you how glad many of us baby boomers are to hear this. For those of us who endured the 60s in our formative years and then grew up to become responsible adults, all of this anti-war, anti-establishment, tie-dyed, narcissistic kumbaya BS is just that - BS.
Unfortunately, for us 'Gen-Xers' that is all we ever hear about the Baby Boomers....
To add insult, they dominate my marketplace by sheer force of numbers.
Ugh... I've been through the malaise of the late seventies in my teens, yuppy angst and acquisitiveness in my twenties and Clinton and the gay 90's in my 30's.
They were my teachers, my professors, my president (Clinton).... They read the news to me and write all the newspaper articles.
Now, they think it's the '60s' all over again and give me grief for my uniform and short hair. I've been acosted in airports or bars by the same stinky old hippies who pestered Vietnam vets.
I'm sick to death of it.
In reality there were far more like my older brother who served in Vietnam, hunted, played sports, drank beer, avoided drugs, got jobs, had children, and got on with their lives. That image holds true for even most of the Dems I know from that era. I NEVER met anyone at that time who was considered to be a hippie. Hippies like the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers were in the extreme minority where I come from or almost nonexistent.