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Fat chance. When the college campuses were taking over, and black studies courses demanded, of course, it was the middle class. It was subsidizing this nonsense.
I was looking thru my brother's High School yearbook - he graduated in 1969 - his friends would sign off "peace" or "love" - they drew "peace signs" - also references to Viet Nam and all the great music.
The 60's hippies drug addicts are todays politicians.
One of my close friends keeps saying that till he's blue in the face.
Quote:
Originally Posted by V8 Vega
I graduated HS in 61, drugs then were unheard of, way down in the underground few. The explosion of hippies drugs begain the downfall of society and the US in so many ways still today.
I don't know which is the chicken, which is the egg. Contributors may have been the "establishment" that did its level best to shatter its own credibility.
I was looking thru my brother's High School yearbook - he graduated in 1969 - his friends would sign off "peace" or "love" - they drew "peace signs" - also references to Viet Nam and all the great music.
Exactly. We didn't want the Viet Nam War. We drew peace signs and we had flower power stickers all over our cars. Our parents were for Nixon.
If you are speaking of hard drugs (we did smoke weed) and extreme feminism or extreme black studies or extreme deletion of interesting college classess, that was not done by hippies. Hippieism died out around this time and radical extremists took over and took things too far. Violence occurred. If there was violence, then it wasn't hippies. The hippies were just into being cool and getting back to nature, taking care of the environment, being kind, playing around with astrology (first thing you would say to a stranger was, "What's your sign?"), being anti war, eating and growing organic foods, trying to live in a good world, taking an interest in India and religions like Hinduism with their gurus. What took over after that is similar to what's happening today with all the extremism like pronouns or banning books--the age of the hippie was dead by then.
Whatever year we went to NYC and marched for peace and Martin Luther King was there, that was about the last year of the hippie. Idiots threw bricks at us while we chanted for peace. After that it got too weird and even violent and the end of the hippie era was proclaimed. No hard drugs for most of us either.
After I was fired from my factory job for fooling around, a friend convinced me to go camping with him that August. I went with him and about 250,000 others to Yasgur's farm to hear some music and watch the freaks. There really was peace at that festival since all sorts of greasy types were riding Harley's through crowds of hippies, some clothed and some not. Most of the three days I spent at Woodstock I was wet and miserable, a state which caused the NY Daily News to be blazened with the famous head: "Hippies Mired in Sea of Mud".
I was three years old in 1969, so I remember nothing about Woodstock. But from everything I've ever heard about it, I'm very glad I missed it. Your remarks only serve to reinforce this opinion. (I had absolutely zero desire to attend Woodstock 1999 when it came around, and I'm glad I missed that one too.)
I was three years old in 1969, so I remember nothing about Woodstock. But from everything I've ever heard about it, I'm very glad I missed it. Your remarks only serve to reinforce this opinion. (I had absolutely zero desire to attend Woodstock 1999 when it came around, and I'm glad I missed that one too.)
That one featured the meteorological event of extreme heat. If they had waited a year it would have been like 1969, extreme rain. Climate change </sarcasm>
I was three years old in 1969, so I remember nothing about Woodstock. But from everything I've ever heard about it, I'm very glad I missed it. Your remarks only serve to reinforce this opinion. (I had absolutely zero desire to attend Woodstock 1999 when it came around, and I'm glad I missed that one too.)
It was one of the most memorable events of my youth. I was a parochial school student at that point and really had never seen naked folks prancing about in public. It also was the first time I had eaten granola, brought to the throngs for free by the Hog Farm. It was the first time I skinny-dipped.
Significantly, many folks of my generation who live in the midwest have expressed jealousy to me due to the fact that I was able to attend that historic event and they did not.
Its gratuitous for you to say you are glad to have missed it. If you were old enough and did not want to go, don't rain on my parade.
Its gratuitous for you to say you are glad to have missed it. If you were old enough and did not want to go, don't rain on my parade.
Relax, I'm just expressing my opinion. I said nothing about your experience or enjoyment of the event; I merely said that it wouldn't have been for me, and the things that you experienced there would not have been enjoyable to me. I'm glad you enjoyed it and remember it so fondly.
While 1969 is hardly the earliest year from which I have personal memories, (I was twelve at the time) it probably is the first year of which I have end-to-end recollection, including:
Nixon's inauguration
The lunar landing;
Chappaquiddick;
Woodstock's love-fest;
The Tate-LaBianca murders;
An event I did not hear of till later, the Altamont fiasco.
I was 21 in 1969 and frankly, I have no recollection of most of the things on your full list. The previous year, 1968, was so awful that 1969 seemed like a walk in the park. The events of 1968 still stand out as the worst calendar year I can remember as a comparison to later years.
In 1969, Nixon/Agnew ushered in a new era of politics. Both careers ended in disgrace. I was too young to vote in 1968 but attended McCarthy rallies. The Humphrey/Muskie ticket was a loser following powerhouse effort and somewhat tragic ending of LBJ's years. Things ended badly for Nixon but there were some bright spots amid some horrific events. We studied his administration in grad school.
The lunar landing was and still is a wondrous event -- especially considering all of the country's attention and resources directed to the war in Vietnam, the war on poverty, and the anti-war movement. There was a gradual and cautious progression to the moon -- fulfilling JFK's goal for the moon landing.
I was against the war but working making howitzer shells that summer between school years. Go figure. Somebody else does that now... Some things never change but time marches on.
I recall Chappaquiddick. Ted Kennedy got a pass on that maybe as the surviving Kennedy -- Bobby had been killed just a year earlier. The story was very muddled at the time. Bad decisions all around. Sex, drugs, and alcohol wrapped up with a bow?
Woodstock is a generational landmark. I was not there but my brother was trapped in the traffic jam trying to get there from New Jersey. It is in vogue to offer a lot of disparaging commentary now after 50 years, but the event stands out as a one-off amazing success amid so much failure. That is more psychological than factual. It was chaotic but nowhere near the mess that it could have been.
Back in class, I was not aware of Altamont on December 6th. Woodstock was never billed as a free concert. Altamont was "free" and was not a spontaneous sort of event as Woodstock turned out to be. It was a failed attempt to recreate Woodstock. December 1st was the first military draft lottery since WW2 and had most of my attention, so I was not thinking about Altamont.
The Manson Family murders were big news. It was sort of viewed as a west coast weirdo cult sort of thing and added to the notion that California was attracting peculiar people. That notion was reinforced by Altamont and the rise of People's Temple and other occurrences over the next few years. The national opinion was that that could not happen "here". That was a false impression. I was living in Missouri where there were a number of right-wing nut-case groups living under the radar.
I recall that the My Lai Massacre trial got underway in late 1969. That story had been in the news as a carry-over from 1968. The student unrest at various universities was also a continuation from 1968.
The 60's hippies drug addicts are todays politicians.
Bernie Sanders is one. I think he was a hippie, but I doubt he was an addict.
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I graduated HS in 61, drugs then were unheard of, way down in the underground few. The explosion of hippies drugs begain the downfall of society and the US in so many ways still today.
I still remember when I saw the episode of Dragnet when the cops were called out because a guy was acting like a loon. On the show, they were puzzled and I was puzzled because they were puzzled. Obviously the guy was on drugs.
But then I realized, there was actually a time in America when there weren't people on drugs, when it was so rare that it wasn't recognized when someone was high.
That was an eye opener.
I agree, drugs really started the US on a downhill slide.
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