Sex, Drugs and Free Love

SEX! DRUGS! ROCK N ROLL!

Are you paying attention?

TUNE IN! TURN ON! DROP OUT!

Did these words catch your attention? How about…

MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR!

Welcome to the Love Generation, a time when we burned our bras and draft cards and were tear-gassed, shot and beaten, while demonstrating against a war that killed so many of our brothers and sisters. Innocent, gentle, idealistic romantics, we collectively believed in Flower Power, gathering with our guitar-strumming companions to sing folk songs and hand out daisies to bemused old people, which included anyone over the age of 30. We’d pass around a bottle of Annie Green Springs wine, share some weed, love each other A LOT, whine about “the Man,” and make big plans about how we would fix the world. Everything was far out and we were feelin’ groovy.

As a culture, we had extremes and evolutions. Some of us so feared the “military action” in Vietnam that we ran to Canada and other foreign shores to evade being drafted. Self-proclaimed peace-seeking pacifists turned malignantly militant and wreaked havoc on an already insecure and restless America. Soldiers returning from combat were met with general apathy or scorn, as if they were to blame for the country’s problems. Marijuana opened doors to mood-altering, narcotic and hallucinogenic drugs. Free love became increasingly freer, aided and abetted by the advent of THE PILL. Despite that medical marvel, the number of unplanned pregnancies, illegal abortions and sexually transmitted diseases exponentially rose.

On a lighter side, fashion trends kept up with the times – tattered bell-bottomed jeans, dashikis, granny dresses, peasant blouses, mini-skirts, midi-skirts, tube tops and butt-baring shorts – we wore them all. Our hair – from head to toes – went through stages of total absence to entirely au’ natural; every length and consistency from chemically-produced Afros to ankle-length locks painfully home-ironed into arrow straightness. Some of us bathed regularly, used cosmetics and paid attention to our personal hygiene; others, not so much.

As we aged chronologically, the world grew along with us. Events, both wonderful and heinous, occurred which impacted the entire global community. Social revolutions and evolutions took place that shaped and reshaped humanity and the known universe. Political regimes came and went. Wars were fought, battles won and lost; horrific diseases were obliterated until new, monstrously horrendous ones took their place. Countless animal and plant lives became extinct before mankind took heed of its inhumanity and launched an effort to cease and desist the decimation of Planet Earth.

Wait a minute…weren’t we taking about the 1960s?

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Chris R.

6:27AM PDT on Oct 12, 2011

Thanks Janet!~

send a green star

KS G.

3:06AM PDT on Aug 22, 2011

Thanks for the article.

Errol M.

4:36AM PST on Nov 15, 2010

the guys that went so loved their country that they gave their lives for it, they deserve more, they died or are living with pain we can never know.

Brian M.

1:55PM PDT on Oct 28, 2010

I never thought this nation would go so far to the right and into the pocket of corporations as it has. I remember feeling so hopeful in the sixties. It seems so long ago, lost.

Leslie R.

7:23AM PDT on Oct 10, 2010

i caught the tail end of Nam, people still frequently ask me how bad it was over there. it sucked bad. i was just a scared kid watching my comrads die feet away from me. im still a believer in the flower power movment, my home is all organic and solar powered, i guess i was 1 of the lucky 1,s. i came home without a body bag, and did find my soulmate before i went. we have been married for over 40yrs. life is still good and so is freelove.LoL

Christina B.

5:50PM PDT on Oct 9, 2010

Although I was born a little more than a month before Jimi Hendrix died in 1970, I was allowed to watch the news on a daily basis and discuss what was going on in the world with my parents. I remember watching the news and seeing the end of the Viet Nam war. More over, I remember having a teacher who was a hippie around 1980. She made certain that each of her students understood the impact that the Viet Nam war had on the world. Some of what we had to view was horrific, but I'm certain it was nothing compared to what the soldiers had to face on a daily basis. My teacher had us students do a lot of free thinking and gave each of us a better appreciation of our world.

The other thing I learned about during that time was my aunt by marriage was Vietnamese. Sadly, she's a product of the war and has had some times that have left her mentally scarred for life. Her eldest daughter was also a product of the time but has since ceased to live on due to her own doing.

It saddens me to think that anyone had to go through the horrors of war only to come back home to being ridiculed for what they were left without choice to do.

The 60's may have been an era of innocence that eventually was lost. However, even though I may have been too young at the time in the 70's to understand fully what was going on, the 60's has it's ups and it's downs just like any other era in time.

Randall U.

11:49AM PDT on Oct 1, 2010

Bruce.....I joined the army in 1971, as a medic to help folks, mainly our own troops...but anyone that was injured in the VietNam War , we helped. I"m an olehippy13....I hate war, its pretty stupid if you think about it.....VietNam , and Iraq and Afganistan....they are all alike, its not really our war...but WE as Americans are dying in them....thats pretty stupid, eh? Dont misunderstand me, if someone attacked the US, I'd say give'em hell....but we shouldnt be the police force for the world...other countries hate us big time...they use America for what they can get...Peace baby....and think before you throw another war....
Peace Sign Dude.....
Love live peace,
olehippy13
former vietnam medic

Sally M.

11:30AM PDT on Oct 1, 2010

Glad to see this article is still alive and well...and as for the comments by Adam and Bruce....we "bloomin' idiots" can at least spell correctly...our education being at universities not a battlefield.
What communism? Are you 'self congratulating red-blooded Americans' so dumb that you don't read the real history of Viet Nam?
And, oh yes, we supported the troops, even hippies like me who lived in San Francisco. We supported our hijacked youth who trustingly went over there, or were drafted over there, to be used against SE Asia to flex our muscles, show the world who was boss, and set the stage for our future position as a war machine of unparalleled and undisputed sovereignty. Aren't we proud?
My husband has had cancer twice from being in Viet Nam...do you remember us using Agent Orange on villages, and our own people too? How noble we are.
Do you wonder why the world hates us so? Could some of this be our very self-righteousness?
We are a young dumb country who thinks that "might makes right". Some of us need to grow up and act like responsible adults and quit whining and blaming those of us who respect the lives of all people, and happen to believe that love and peace is the ideal; not war and killing.

Adam D.

8:51AM PDT on Oct 1, 2010

THANK YOU BRUCE!!!!!!!!!! im 36 never fought in a war but ive always hated hippies! cuz of what you may have just read. wasnt that way and if they were there or even know a vet they may understand the real thing. sorry for what you had to go through. real americans love you for the support. and for the idiots that believe the media. you know where the rainbow will end after a vet slaps you with american pride. cleaned it up a bit. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE

Thomas C.

6:19AM PDT on Oct 1, 2010

Bruce seems bitter that He missed the make love not war era .It was glorious and I'd do anything to go back there and do it again .I'm proud of Him that He defended our Country or so to say . But we had no sense being there in the first place . That was a war between South Vietnam and North Vietnam and we had no right or sense being there in the first place . Killing innocent Women and Children is nothing to be proud of .