My son loves the 60s and 70s, the Beatles, the fashions of those decades---just like I loved most things about the decades before I was born. I guess every era in time has its sad, violent, less than perfect moments, but I like to think we can always look back at what made us happy about these times in our lives. I'm still looking for peace rings and bell-bottom pants to use in our high school reunion next year (we're the jubilarians and the theme is the 70s) while my son's in the market for a brown suede vest in 70s style with the long fringes like Jimi Hendrix wore : )

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Great article and intersting posts.

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How well I remember those days! Enormous influence on my life. I have worked for a wildlife NGO for the past 20 years ... till my husband and I were phased out due to poor economy. Now I'm mid-50's, looking around wondering what we are going to do for health care and old age, no pension, no social security (we were paid "stipends" instead of real salaries and thought ss was going to fail anyway), no benefits or 401k's and own very little -- not even a house. Yeah, we planned for the future with saving and investing ... and then lost more than 30% in the 2008 stock market crash. Although we've enjoyed our lives and acted on our ideals, it has certainly left us in a precarious situation now that we are looking ahead to our "golden years."

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Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock!

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I think a lot of people have misconceptions about the "hippie" generation. As an aging flower child, class of '63, I know there was a lot of drug use -- a lot -- but not all of us opted to get high, sit in or drop out. Neither my husband nor I, or any of our friends, ever did any kind of drugs. Never did, never will. We may have been the only members of our generation who never smoked pot, but I don't think so. We were not a "self-pleasing" generation to the extreme that the "me" generations of more current times have become. We cared -- about people, animals, the environment. We wanted to change the world. We decried the injustice and injury inflicted on people by authorities. Sadly, nothing much changed except that the fiery passion for change is gone.

The one thing many of us regret is the treatment of our dear Vietnam veterans by some misguided people. Many of us loved our soldiers but never had the chance to tell them. We were overshadowed by those who equated the soldiers with the government and who thought those who honored the Draft were somehow the enemy. They simply tried their best to do ugly jobs they did not choose and only wanted to survive so they could come home. They were classy in the midst of insults and sickening displays of ignorance. May they all, one day, reap the rewards they so richly deserve.

Those were the days. A special place in time. There was never a generation before that so greatly impacted the world and there never will be again.

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I guess now that the majority of the aging Americans are now have experience close or near 40 or so years of experience as adults. There are many pros and cons about this generation. Along with being admired for their open ways or being the terror of our generation for being money grubbers who led us into this financial meltdown. I can't be proud of some of the things our generation has done. When I think about the likes of Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney, I think of them as older men. But really, they are part of my generation, and I know they were not a part of the "Flower Power Explosion".

But Ron, what about those who criticized us for not supporting the Vietnam War or smoking marijuana? When the G.I's came back many of them felt betrayed, yet many of them came around and joined us. We were going through a phase of mental revolution that happens when bad forces that control our lives dominated and controlled. Most G.I's realized this and some didn't. Today we have a problem. Too much war, not enough peace! But America is numbing itself about death and destruction. Those G.I's who come back, know about
these tragedies that are occuring. The rest of us either can confront it or believe our system is doing the right thing.

I make no big deal about marijuana, yet the government makes a big deal out of it! Smoking it was nothing more than a form of rebellion. It proved not to lead us into harder drugs. Yesterday's attitudes have nothing to do with today's attitudes!

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Ah the impetuousness of youth. We thought we were infallible, and although our hearts were in the right place, the fact is, we are living in a petri dish. A test if you will. We can see peace as a viable option, but we weren't able to see the devil (and there are legions) laughing behind many of the curtains.
I for one never dissed a soldier. Except for perhaps Lt Calley and those who fall below the decency of humanitarian ideals. What we did was remember Eisenhower's warning about the military industrial complex. Too bad many in this country still refuse to accept it's repercussions, choosing instead to allow "a killing". Greed is the monster that will destroy capitalism and has a hand in the destruction of good will on earth. I enjoyed my time as a hippie, and will hold dear the idealism, but I have to be realistic now that I'm 60. We were dreamers in a world of real nightmares. Many of us haven't given up the quest for the truth, but I doubt we are willing or able to face up to our own shortcomings. It is a dull ache that settles over our consciousness when we realize there are those who see the world as a place to be abused. Be it either in our dealings with each other or our own inner battles we have to understand what the most enlightened among us had to say, and I believe it was "Do unto others, as you would have others do unto you." A right on, groovy, far out, peace to all the peeps. Keep on truckin'.

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When you think in terms of "action/reaction" (and let's do something very logical here, for fun) then you can see that all this love and freedom thing was - and still is- completely terrifying for those who cannot "let go" of old ways and stiff habbits, so as to gain more freedom, less stiffness, etc...
That is what the world became, didn't it ? Stiffer, full of new anti human rights laws (but let us not see it too much) and so on.
And what comes from this ?
More money makers, always with more "moralistic" speaches to their mouths, that teach their kids they need to "be the best" in every field, or at least "do their very best" because they say "life is a competition"...
Thejn they have created very frightened, frustrated, and like all beasts fighting for the water in the desert, more violence.
This is always the same story : The contrary of love, is not hatred.
It is fear.

And every hhorrible aspect of our modern society, as well as those from 1000 years ago was born out of just that.
Fear.

Now, try something you have seen in 2001 on every wall, in enlightenned words :

"DO NOT FEAR. GO SHOPPING."

Or is it possible without money ?

Ah. Then, it will have to be more fear, right ?

Then try this one :

"DO NOT FEAR. TRUST GOD. GO SHOPPING."

And if it still doesn't work by giving you more money to distract yourselves from fear by buying stuff...

Remember the hippies had a solution.

Ask them...

Love, sex, drugs and rock'n roll.


Sophie

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Thanks for the trip down Memory Road! I remember those days well.

I wore brocaide pants, satin shirts with huge bell sleeves, red boots, capes and a round fitted red hat with mirrors sewn on it. Of course, my hair was beyond my waist and I wore granny glasses.

What I remember most, though, was the unity and solidarity that existed among our "class" of people. I always felt accepted and safe in the coffee houses that smelled of incense while drinking Jasmine tea and listening to the folk singers (doea anyone remember Pearls Before Swine?).

Yes, there were drugs, and yes, I dropped acid and smoked pot, but I don't remember the violence that exists today. Then, I could walk into a coffee house alone and talk to anyone without fear of who they were. In todays society I am careful around even those whom I know because it is dangerous to be too trusting.

Even though I am much older and do not do drugs I really haven't changed that much. My ideals are the same and my attire is still "eccentric". I guess you just can't take the "hippie" out of some of us!

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I was one of those soldiers who came back in 1969 after a year in Vietnam. I was one of those scorned and called hideous names. As a reward for serving in Vietnam I was assigned of all places to San Franciso on a missile site keeping Haight and other places safe for those who I sometimes envied. Near my missile site the Black Panthers had a shootout at the Marin County courthouse and killed Judge Haley when Angela Davis was on trial. Yes, those were the days, I remember them well with malice toward no one. You see they grew up too, the ones that made it unlike those I left behind.

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