Were you of the Hippie era and did you participate as such?

I fell victim in my youth to loose morality which seemed to be the norm at the time, but was too uptight to just let go and live that way. Tight bell bottoms, Dingo boots, clunky shoes, all that - yes. Using pot did nothing for me (even though it was easy to come by, and I tried it). No injections ever. However, those were the days when certain "feel good " prescriptions weren't hard to get, and I did use those. Fortunately, there were people who cared about me and made it hard to stay in that lifestyle. Had it not been for them, I may not have made it through my many blunders.
 

I was 18 years old in 1971 and went off to college and immediately adopted the hippie identity. Or so I thought.
I had the long hair, the vocabulary, the ostentatiously patched bellbottom jeans and oh yes, weed and acid.
My bourgeois friends and I lived off campus and pretended we were a commune.
Looking back on it now, I went through the motions but never really made it to authentic hippie.
But I was pretty good at being a plastic hippie.
 
Since it was 4,968 miles to get to Woodstock in 69, didn't consider the attempt.
The normal dress on the island was so laid-back, I didn't notice the 'counter culture' too much.
High school footwear was flip Flops or sandals, shorts, Surfboard company shirts.

The Island cultures was already in tuned to the natural environment, so we saw the hippy movement in a different light.
 
I was 19 in 1969. Within a year, my hair was practically near my waist and I was travelling around the country, hitchhiking and riding on Trailways and Greyhound. The police and people seemed to think that if you had long hair, you must have drugs.

I and this other kid with long hair who was heading for Seattle, were standing outside of the Butte, Montana bus depot. Word must have got around. Cars filled with young people kept driving by the depot. One girl yelled out, "Hi Hippies!". Some guy yelled out, "Hey! You got any of that Montana Green?" I turn to the other long haired kid and said, "That must be the local name for marijuana.
 
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Paladin1950 said:
I was 19 in 1969. Within a year, my hair was practically near my waist and I was travelling around the country, hitchhiking and riding on Trailways and Greyhound. The police and people seemed to think that if you had long hair, you must have drugs.

I and this other kid with long hair who was heading for Seattle, were standing outside of the Butte, Montana bus depot. Word must have got around. Cars filled with young people kept driving by the depot. One girl yelled out, "Hi Hippies!". Some guy yelled out, "Hey! You got any of that Montana Green?" I turn to the other long haired kid and said, "That must be the local name for marijuana.
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The movement was just getting started in 68-69. But long hair then was still a novelty and brought attention. I was in my second year of grad school in Missoula, Montana in 1971, and by that time I had grown my hair moderately long, just long enough to fit in on the fringes. I had actually quit using any drugs by then, and I was in a grocery store, when three guys my age with clean cut short hair approached me and wanted me to sell them some pot. I told them I didn't do drugs, and they actually started to argue, insisting that I did drugs, and knew where to get them. I was taken aback by the aggressive attitude, and they finally stopped arguing an left.

I certainly was around people that smoked pot, and there was so much of it in Missoula that most everyone on campus at least dabbled in it. I'd even been in gatherings around strangers, who would light up and ask me if I wanted a hit, and when I would tell them I didn't do drugs, the almost universal non-judgemental response was, "Hey cool, Man."

Later I thinking about the grocery store incident, and thinking about the weird aggressive insistence that I must have pot, I thought maybe those guys were just from out of town, or maybe they were undercover cops.
 
JustDave said:
Later I thinking about the grocery store incident, and thinking about the weird aggressive insistence that I must have pot, I thought maybe those guys were just from out of town, or maybe they were undercover cops.
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I think it was everywhere, Dave. Looking back I'm amazed at what a big deal hair length was at the time. It was an entire political statement. My husband had long hair and was listed as a subversive by the local FBI branch for that reason alone. Fathers and sons had arguments about it that caused life-long estrangements. Young men who had to have short hair for jobs or military had trouble getting dates.
 
The "Hippie" culture was not only normal youth rebellion and establishing their unique identity, was also a force for social change. I was [of course] attracted to the teeny bop fad clothing when I was 15, by age 15yr 3 mo. I was over it. I joined the Army at 17, went to Vietnam, came back with a real-life education in Geo-politics, went to collage / went to work and brought with me the lessons of life.
 
I was in Junior High during the Hippie era so I didn't participate as such, but I did have Nehru jacket, a pendant and occasionally wore a suede vest with fringe to school. The neighbor asked my parents if I was a Flower Child. I didn't understand why that so upset them at the time! :ROFLMAO:
 
Ronni said:
I was a hippie for a while. I wasn’t hugely into the political side but I did march a couple times.

I wore bell bottoms and A line or maxi dresses, peace symbol jewelry, round glasses, beads etc. Went barefoot. Burned incense. Wore tie-dye.

It didn’t last long. I discovered Twiggy and became heavily influenced by her fashion style.
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Side story. I was with an upscale cruise line in 2010, and we were looking for a godmother to launch a ship in London. When my boss mentioned we were looking at Twiggy, I said "Is she still alive?" I didn't get a laugh from my boss because she was British.

Twiggy did indeed become our godmother in 2010 and I got to chat with her during a cocktail party. I had just seen a TV bio on her so I got to ask her a lot of questions, some funny. Again, my boss was mortified that I would joke with her but Twiggy laughed and was absolutely charming. I believe she had just turned 60, and she was still beautiful. Each time I would see her in the hallways she would say hello. She was an excellent godmother. Sorry, I digress!

British fashion icon and model Twiggy (Lesley Lawson) christened the 450-guest luxury vessel Seabourn Sojourn on June 4, 2010, during a ceremony on the River Thames in London. She was selected for her elegance and support of charitable causes, including breast cancer research. The ceremony featured fireworks and marked the start of the ship's maiden season.

Twiggy.jpg
 
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Back in 1968 or so some girl gave me some hippie beads so I hung them from the mirror on my dresser. My mother saw them and started crying saying that I was a hippie so I threw them out. That's as close to being a hippie as I ever got. I have no idea how she knew what they were.
 
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Della said:
...When I was young the term was usually used by older people to describe anyone young with long hair or bell-bottom jeans...
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Real hippies were like those shown in communes in the film Easy Rider. News media applied the term to anyone with long hair and Counterculture clothing that included a long list of types of Counterculture persons including many late comer wanna be posers. So a media abused term. Many Counterculture folks in the SFBA of my world rarely used the term "hippie" though I can imagine that was very different in some distant regional youth cultures. Gradually the rock music FM AOR radio and college rag paper culture homogenized many facets of Counterculture young people though by that time they were not hippies except in the media term sense.

So many young people across the world due to the rock music culture adopted the original hippie look and clothing and what they though hippies were about, but were really just flavors of a broad range of mixing Counterculture youth culture types from across the world. For instance groups like bikers and drug dealers of the late 1970s in the club/bar coke, whiskey, drugs, and sex, musician world were rather different in culture than those of the early hippies.

Actually in the late 60s a lot of real SFBA hippies of the late 60s like Wavy Gravy etc moved north into Marin County and further north, haha. The only prominent group that closely still culturally resembled the early hippies by the 1980s were Grateful Dead and the like followers. That is why they along survive worlwide so to this day.
 
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I was still in high school when the Hippies were at their height. I graduated in 1971 and the movement was sort of dying down by then. I never got into it because my family was so straight laced they never would have allowed or even understood it. I kind of wish I could have been part of the movement due to their freedom of expression. At that age, I always felt stifled to express myself. I liked their mission to spread peace and love. I wish our country would get back to that, unfortunately it is so divided right now. Who knows...maybe another group with similar messages will arise from all of the hate going on right now. History does tend to repeat itself.
 

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