Hippie Overload

“Wondering if anyone has any favorite hippy stories to tell. Were you once a hippie? Are you still? Did you ever hang with the hippies temporarily? Ever been to a hippie town? I just got back from N. CA-Hippiesville USA
too funny”

“Hi Back! Once, back in the early 70's, I was at the University of South Florida in Tampa. My roommates and I worked with the student government at the University on their concert productions. This particular night, the performers were the Billy Cobham/George Duke Band. It included members John Scofield on guitar and Alphonso Johnson on bass. As was always customary, we invited the band back to the house for the after-concert party. As was always customary, we never had a band comply with this request. We didn't get back to the house till after one AM. At about 2:30, a knock came at the door. One of the guys went out to answer (his reasoning was that nobody ever knocks at this house). He came back and said it was a couple of black guys. I went out to the living room and there were Billy Cobham, George Duke and John Scofield. Anyway, they stayed for most of the night. We had a great time, but the real point of the story was ahead. I soon realized that I didn't know about 70% of the people in my house. This didn't phase me out of the cannabis fog I was in, until later. Before I crashed for the night, I went into the bathroom. As I was relieving myself, I suddenly heard some movement behind the shower curtain. At once, a long haired blond guy emerged, said 'Excuse Me,' and walked out of the bathroom behind me. I shrugged my shoulders, finished and went to sleep. In the morning, (or afternoon, I should say) I woke up and found some guy I never saw before washing my dishes. I found out that he was a guy that was hitchhiking through and stopped in when he got wind of the party. We let him stay for most of the next week (he had some goodies that we found appealing). However, he became too mysterious for us and , just prior to our decision to ask him to leave, he disappeared on hids own, never to be seen again.”

“One correction. I said this was early seventies. Just for the record, it was 1975.”

“that was my dad!”

“I have a t-shirt that says "Hippies Smell" on the front. It's pretty cool.”

“Hippies do smell. They also have all of the other senses.

Being from a small midwestern town, I do believe the "hippie" movement lasted into the later 70's after it had all but disappeared on the coasts.

It was cool how you could just drop in un-announced and hang out with your friends just about any time of the day or night. There was always something going on, and our house was one of those places people frequented.

We were lucky to be in the "sticks" because you could rent an old farmhouse ten miles from nowhere for fifty bucks a month and throw parties unlimited. There were some good things going on back then, besides the negatives that seem to get more air time these days.”

“What do you all consider the definition of a "hippie" to be?”

“Slacker?”

“Bell Bottoms? Check

Long Hair? Sort of.

Flowers on my shirt? Check

CSNY, Country Joe, and The Dead? Check.

Hated Disco when it came along? Check

Recognized The Dooby Brothers as the first inkling of Disco? Check.

Anti War Movement? Well, I was a little young for the large part of it. I had a peace symbol decal on my bedroom window. May Dad the USAF LTC never said a word about it.

Free love and mind altering substances? I guess my mind was never altered enough for the free love.”

“Little publicized fact about hippies: They were the true "conservatives", wanting less government control in their lives and willing to sacrifice material wealth for greater social well-being and peace of mind. Who were their greatest oppressors at the time? I would say it was the paranoid Republicans who used government to infiltrate their grassroots movements toward greater self-rule.”

“I have some hippie ideals...
I had looooooong @ss hair from 1984-2000...was a metal head for the 80s and whatever for the 90s!!
I aint into the dope trip but outside of that, hippies have some good ideas...they should wash more frequently tho...
When is long hair gonna be back in?IM tired of seeing everybody look like nsync victims!!”

“The dope thing helped define something of what hippies were, but ultimately contributed to their demise.”

“I like hippies and according to stanlee I am 100% hippie! :) I don't think that we can have a hippie thread and not bring up...
Missoula, MT!”

“ya the dope discredited the whole thing...too bad,missed opportunity.I do remember smoking hash in the early 80s,listening to Hendrix records and hitting dunkin donuts.I also remember i would fade out on the couch and wake up to snow vision on the tv or that damn fkin Indian guy.Remember him?”

“COOL... I saw George Duke with Zappa at least twice (I think, LOL).

I believe Alice Cooper made one of the most definitive statements about disco...

"They're gonna dance themselves to death!"



(and watch out for them POjama People)”

“that damn fkin Indian guy

You mean Ravi Shankar? ;-)”

“No,that damn Indian head...Geronimo with full feather headgear-i beleive...and he had a target scope superimposed over his image.”

“Oh, the screen test guy. Came on right after the National Anthem.”

“NO, Pathman, the test pattern. It used to be a favorite TV program of stoners late at night. Better plot than most sitcoms, also.”

“Although Ravi was great. Hippies helped bring some great music to the US.”

“yup,the test pattern dude...
Man, too bad they didnt have all the wacky infomercials back then.That would have been a blast watching that all stoned out...hahahha...”

“Of course, this is all stuff that I read in books. I never really inhaled.”

“Did you know that Norah Jones is Ravi Shankar's daughter?”

“Anyone ever heard of the band Gong or Steve Hillage?”

“No way,I like that biootches voice...they kind of overplayed that song of hers at Starbucks tho...”

“I am way out of the loop. Are Norah Jones, Gong. or Steve Hillage worth looking up at the local CD store?”

“Thanks, Path. I will check her out, if you know what I mean.”

“Was Gong your cup of Tea Sass?

Hare hare supermarket !
Hare hare supermarket !
Hare hare hare supermarket !
Hare hare London bus !
Hare hare ladies' lavatory...
Hare hare hare hare hare hare...”

“It's a hassle you know to make rocket ships go to infinity
And I'm so sick of God and these bishops that talk of divinity
Now my head's feeling strange and my codpiece is starting to tremble
And that head in the sky there is starting to look like the devil...

Look out, we're being invaded !
Hang on to your hat, we're being raided !
Demons of the mind coming to get you
Until you're clean, the devil won't forget you...

Hang on to your head”

“Whoopeee! I haven't thought about Gong for quite some time. I think I'll post some lyrics (just found a web site, as you might guess)from Angel's egg... if I can find the album, maybe I'll listen to it while I finish grading papers.

If my students find bizarre comments on their papers Sass, it was all your fault!”

“Got to see a lot of hippies here in California in the 60s & 70s. My cousin still looks like one and is wasted most of the time. (Not too cool for an ironworker, I suppose). I was definitely not into that, but it was fun to watch. I saw a sit-in once and it looked pretty stupid. The advantage of the hippie era was lots of cheap concerts to go to. The "Free Speech" movement was big here in CA also. Lots of those idiots went on to create political correctness in our university systems here....Go figure! An girlfriend became a "flower child". When I saw her at our 10 year reunion she said she was into "accu-massage" and erotic dancing.

One of my fraternity brothers came back to school raving about his trip to Woodstock. When he was telling us about it we thought it was just a big concert. Turned out to be legendary. He had gotten there early with lots of food, water and supplies...he traded that for drugs and sex for 4 days.

Don't forget, we had bikers here also. I rented a room from a guy who had one of the first kicked-out Harleys in So. Cal. I borrowed his other bike and we would ride around...met some scary dudes. (The only reason to wear a long coat in So. Cal. is if you are packin' a shotgun underneath.)

Mix all that together and you have "Hollywood Blvd" any weedend.

The worst thing you could do was walk around wearing your fraternity shirt...NOW THAT WAS WEIRD.

Yep, go out into the boon docks and the retired hippies still live there...Northern CA, desert, Mammoth, etc.”

“Kool,
i wish i got to experience the 60s insanity...I was born in 66(the age of Aquarius-remember that song?)my mom played a lot of beatles,dylan etc...remember blood sweat and tears-that one song they did(what goes up...).That song drove me nuts as a kid.”

“Isn't hippies (baby boomers) the richest segment of the population now? Seems like they all wised up and bought into stocks way back then.

I saw a photo of Bill Gates and his partners when they just started up Microsoft....they were all hippies.”

“Not all long haired people were hippies in the 60s & 70's. Long hair was pretty commonplace. In my case, it was curly hair...then.”

“groovy shorts,man...I looked like greg allman up til 2000.”

“davex - Me in my striped shorts? or my wife in her hot pants?”

“the stripes man!!!!!!the wife looks fiiiiine!!!”

“the stripes man!!!!!!the wife looks fiiiiine!!!”

“I dig your wife in her hot pants.

Phil, I hope you're not crushed.”

“It's OK stanlee.

Hard to believe that was over 30 years ago. We were still just dating at Purdue when that pic was taken.”

“I was a hippie teenager in the early 70's & was against the political Vietnam war. I am still against political war.”

“Well, I was born in May of 1970, which means I was conceived at about the time Woodstock was going on, but Mom and Dad weren't there. Dad was wounded in 'Nam in 1968 and came back and married his high school sweetheart (Mom) in 1969. With the disability checks rolling in and a weird vibe for vets, Dad bought a Fender Bass and a Twin Reverb Acoustic amp and started playing in a band. By the time I was 5 we were living on a Mountain outside of Roanoke, VA with an outhouse and no running water. My hair was as long as my back and I didn't fit in all that well with the "mountain kids" but what do you do to a hippie kid that is a foot taller than you - not much.

Eventually Mom and Dad rediscovered their Christian roots and Dad ended up teaching children's chruch and bible classes in a private christian high school (where I went to school).

Epilogue:

I ended up getting an MBA - I figured if I'm gonna work hard I might as well get paid for it. I have a deep appreciation for God's world, and receive energy and joy by being in it.

My parents are no longer married but live together on 20 acres of wilderness/farmland in Ocala with my youngest sister and her husband. Dad lives out of a school bus and Mom lives in a barn that dad converted into a rather comfortable shack.

My life has made me what I am - and I'm pretty happy with it. I love the Hippie in me - it evidences itself in my spending, my recreation, my voting and what I teach my own children.”

“*I got long hair
*I'm known for using the words, Cool, Dig, and groovy.
*I call people Dude, Chick, & Cat.
*I dig Rock music.
*I don't trust people that wear a suit & tie.
*I love the outdoors


But, I don't do drugs or drink alochol”

“i ain't rippin on my parents
despite their lifestyle, they are very cool poeple”

“I was one of the long-haired kids in the '70s but I always had a job(when I wasn't travelling) and bathed regularly.

The whole "hippy thang", with all its variants loosened up tight-ass America for the better.

You just can't put the genie back in the bottle.


"Right on, right on, right on!"
Righton Washington

"I wanna go one-on-one wid duh world!"
Tyrone Shoelaces”

“Hippies are "Beat Generation" wannabes.

Just joking.

We owe a lot of our freedoms to past generations. Do some research and you'll find out all kinds of cool stuff...civil rights, women's rights, free speech in books, magazines, and film, etc.

Anyone wanna help me here???”

“I had dread locks for 4 years, and smoked lots of dope........nah my wife beats me!!”

“Dreadlocks?!?!?!?


How dreadful!”