As one who grew up in the 60s, while many who are on this Board were toddlers or just a gleam in their parents eye, I don't know what it means when we say "hippie culture." The 60s were a time to rebel against the conformity of the 50s, the Eisenhower years, which was probably a reaction to the escalation to near armageddon of the 40s and 30s.
So, a lot of us were into rebelling and doing different things, myself included, growing hair long and doing the things older people (like me now) complained about. The more they complained, the more we wanted to do it and we knew we were on the right track. Youth is for hell raisin' and we were determined to do it and we were trying to upset the old order in any way we could.
But we all didn't do the same thing or we did it differently. Some people went to Haight Ashbury, which what I think Louis is alluding to. Dude, if you don't like the Dead (and I don't consider myself a dead head), how could you like the Airplane or you could reverse that also. You had to like to like Big Brother and the Holding Company. What about the Doors. The Beatles begat the Stones who begat the Doors. Still love them.
Anyway, we didn't like how things were and tried to change it. Some dropped in and some dropped out. I worked for Bobby Kennedy in '68 and I'll still never forget the night he died. Whether you liked him or not, it was a terrible thing, something I hate to dredge up from my memory.
What happened to the vets was terrible. They were unfortunately a symbol for what many Americans, not just hippies or yippies didn't like. My draft number was 24 but the draft ended when I graduated college in 1973 or otherwise I would have gone and I wasn't about to run off. I may have thought I was a little rebel but I still obeyed the law
There were hippies but there were also yippies and there were just middle class kids looking to find their way in a world that seemed pretty crazy and seemed like it needed a lot of changing.
Sorry to ramble but I don't think about those days too much anymore but you know people change so maybe all those counterculture types became selfish and what we now call "self absorbed", pc talk for just selfish, but that's the way of the world. When you're young, you're one way but as you get older, you change: you get married, you have kids, etc. So all those people who went to Woodstock (I didn't go; I was away or something or I don't remember what, probably my parents wouldn't let me
) are probably now self respecting people. Hey, maybe they're King and Country collectors!
