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I lived in Manhattan and was in my early 20s. Worked for the "corporate" world, but living in NYC it was very easy to be part of both worlds. 9 to 5 job during the week and danced freelance on weekends in the coffee houses of West Village to still be a part of the "scene", which I did enjoy. Guess I wanted to have my cake and eat it too, which I did.
Wookstock in Upstate? Some young people from work decided to drive up for it. No hotels, just sleep in the car. Remember, these people were not hippies but in the business world. I was invited to go. Sleep in a CAR? No SHOWER? No HAIRDRYER? No, way. I did not go. Needed my comforts far too much.
Do I regret not actually gong to Woodstock when I could have? Nope, and not especially after my coworkers came home and talked about what an "awful" time they had in the rain, mud, and starving.
Like Luzianne, I was a kid in the 60s. I grew up in a University town. What a vivid, colorful period! Hippies setting up camps in the park, the stores smelling of patchouli and leather, wild clothing, musicians playing and hippies dancing in the streets. Such fun!
I also remember the conflict between young and old - there was SUCH a big deal about whether a boy's hair was long or short, and about women wearing pants in public. And I had such fear and worry about what my brother's draft number would be. My father, a WWII veteran, was so very angry at my cousin's boyfriend who publicly burned his draft card. And the scariness of watching the TV news about Vietnam and Civil Rights conflicts.
In fact, for me the 60s was exactly that - the vivid colors and sounds and smells of what was happening down the street juxtaposed against the scary, serious events we viewed in black and white on TV.
For me the 60's really were a "show" rather than a "party".
Many of us who hit our 20s in the 70s felt like we were too late to the party, that all the exotic times had just ended and that we really had just "missed out".
BTW, I have a neighbor now who lived in Haight Ashbury in the 1960s and knew Janis Joplin. She's still a very cool person.
I was just a little bit too young. I was envious watching from the sidelines and very aware of it. If I had been born 3 or 4 years earlier I might have been right there with them. I lived in the rural Midwest when it all started. Then I moved to France so I did get to do the bumming around Europe thing as a student. Listened to a lot of Radio Free Luxembourg. My first 'serious' boy friend was killed in the war.
One of my best friends was a hippie and so were her parents. She was actually raised in a commune. She grew up with drugs and free love all around her. When she talks about it today she thinks her parents were very irresponsible raising her and her 2 brothers in that kind of environment. She went on to school and ended up as a Patent Lawyer after getting her JD from Yale. Totally sold out to the establishment. Her 2 brothers are and were a lost cause and never achieved much of anything in life. Today they own and live in their own tiny repair shop. And still smoke a lot of pot. Both her parents are still alive and I would love to get a chance to hear their side of the story!
My SO lived in NYC and he was very into the music scene. Tickets were reasonably priced and with the subway and the bus he could get anywhere in the city for almost nothing. He went to Fillmore East quite often and went to Tanglewood as well. He was a bit too young for the whole hippie scene too but living in that era left him with a love of all things musical. He saw BB King for the first time at Tanglewood. He was inspired by his performance to pick up a guitar and play seriously. He still plays and writes music today.
SO and I were a bit young but the small part of the 'experience' we lived through did help shape our lives and who we became as adults. Even though my hippie friend sold out and walked the other way, she kept a lot of the values and still does a lot of pro bono work to help people in need. She probably did it the best. She is still sticking it to 'the man' using the skills he taught her.
I could have written that. Nail hit squarely on the head.
More on that, from a generation or two later:
OP: Yeah, that's real...uh, attractive. Gen X here, btw, the Reagan Kids. Today's mid-to-senior management professionals who went to college, made all the right contacts, and (some of us) are doing exceptionally well without a lost decade or so in there. Others are not doing so well, of course, but the Gordon Gecko generation (for those who get the analogy) have the right idea...to a point. Compare / contrast with:
(blank) responsibility!
(blank) taking accountability!
(blank) it, dude: tune in, turn on, drop out man!
Wish Abbie Hoffman were here so I could laugh at his political philosophy in-person.
I suspect the largest group of senior and executive decision makers these days is (still) hippy Boomers, though thank God we're displacing them in the fullness of time. I don't see the outcomes of their actions going too terribly well for the country, Hillary Clinton e.g. as a perfect example. Fortunately, a lot of them are starting to retire or already have. Those in their late 50s into 60s scare me, though, because they're still influencers with schizophrenia-like decision making processes. "If proven wrong and against the will of the people, double-down!" ...is not the wisest way to go as a matter of national policy, btw. We tried that for six years; fair enough. It failed, however.
Next up is us, Gen X, at the most-senior levels and we're already in a number of key roles. "I hope" we have a big swing in the national political pendulum back the other way, back to the values that made this country great. We shall see, however. I'm not worried about Gen Y taking the helm, either, because a lot of them are living through the hippy/schizo outcomes...and some of the overly-enthusiastic business-centric, too-little-control stuff, on the other hand... culminating in 2008-current Great Recession. I'm retiring in 13 years (cross fingers hopefully), not sure Gen Y will have that luxury. Millennials? (shudder).
Nor am I so sure as-yet how Millennials will fare as executive leaders of our national destiny. Those of us still alive to find out will surely do so, in about thirty years, though.
I left a note for my husband I was off to Europe to be a hippie for 6 months, and to take good care of the kids!
Quote:
Originally Posted by armory
What did husband say when you dragged yourself home? I would have divorced you as of that day.
I would not have waited for her return. The day I got the first note I would have replied, "Where would you like the divorce papers sent to?" Spouse and child abandonment plus infidelity are certainly grounds for divorce.
Do I regret not actually gong to Woodstock when I could have? Nope, and not especially after my coworkers came home and talked about what an "awful" time they had in the rain, mud, and starving
That was me too. Everybody came back and said the same thing and I was SO glad I didn't go.
Most of us were not dirty and were not bums. We were peaceful and maybe just a little bit disrespectful of what we observed in society. We had grown up with segregation and (what was the name of that idiot?) McCarthy--he ran a witch hunt throughout the country, calling people Communists, ruining the lives of innocent people. We saw rampant materialism with people always wanting bigger and better and more. Those were the things we rebelled against, those values and the Viet Nam War.
Most of us never progressed to becoming student radicals who would burn down buildings or shut down anything. Most of us thought Abbie Hoffman was crazy. We were not bums, were not dirty either. We didn't take heavy drugs. These were the end results of well intentioned ideas that went way too far. We distanced ourselves before any of that happened.
Long hair, flowers, love beads, those were supposed to represent being natural and even peaceful. Yep, it was kind of idealistic but ya gotta start somewhere.
We were very sorry that some had to take it too far. But at the beginning, it was good, very good, and the original intentions were good. I still think we made a worthwhile contribution.
I jumped into it headfirst, the hippie/counterculture of the 60's/early 70's, being I always have done things to excess. Yup! It left me messed up for awhile, but, given the chance, I'd do it all over again, partake in, IMO, the one of the greatest shows of the century! And I'm still an anti-materialistic, anti-establishment sort of person to this day!
My sister missed out. Got married in her senior years in HS, got pregnant, missed the show completely, as so many others I've talked to did as well. And they're clueless as to what they missed out on!
Backpacking around Europe, LSD/Peyote/Mescaline/Pot parties, Vietnam war marches, the camaraderie, and I even had friends living on communes back then, mattresses on the floors their only furniture!
Ah! Those drop-out of society days!
I was standing at a phone booth in Amsterdam one night, a middle class woman from Miami behind me: I left a note for my husband I was off to Europe to be a hippie for 6 months, and to take good care of the kids!
Does anyone regret missing out on the show, from talking to others who had? And why didn't you partake in it at the time?
Understandably, it was the middle class members who mostly partook in this party, not the poor!
I know very few people with your point of view in my circles. And I'm very proud of my father who served two years in Vietnam as an aviator when he could have easily dodged the draft, burned his card, smoked pot, and a bunch of other irresponsible, un-American things. To think that some of our current politicians who are making important decisions today are some of those who "didn't miss the greatest show" as you call it.....and explains some of the predicaments our country is in now.
OP: Yeah, that's real...uh, attractive. Gen X here, btw, the Reagan Kids. Today's mid-to-senior management professionals who went to college, made all the right contacts, and (some of us) are doing exceptionally well without a lost decade or so in there. Others are not doing so well, of course, but the Gordon Gecko generation (for those who get the analogy) have the right idea...to a point. Compare / contrast with:
(blank) responsibility!
(blank) taking accountability!
(blank) it, dude: tune in, turn on, drop out man!
Wish Abbie Hoffman were here so I could laugh at his political philosophy in-person.
I suspect the largest group of senior and executive decision makers these days is (still) hippy Boomers, though thank God we're displacing them in the fullness of time. I don't see the outcomes of their actions going too terribly well for the country, Hillary Clinton e.g. as a perfect example. Fortunately, a lot of them are starting to retire or already have. Those in their late 50s into 60s scare me, though, because they're still influencers with schizophrenia-like decision making processes. "If proven wrong and against the will of the people, double-down!" ...is not the wisest way to go as a matter of national policy, btw. We tried that for six years; fair enough. It failed, however.
Next up is us, Gen X, at the most-senior levels and we're already in a number of key roles. "I hope" we have a big swing in the national political pendulum back the other way, back to the values that made this country great. We shall see, however. I'm not worried about Gen Y taking the helm, either, because a lot of them are living through the hippy/schizo outcomes...and some of the overly-enthusiastic business-centric, too-little-control stuff, on the other hand... culminating in 2008-current Great Recession. I'm retiring in 13 years (cross fingers hopefully), not sure Gen Y will have that luxury. Millennials? (shudder).
Nor am I so sure as-yet how Millennials will fare as executive leaders of our national destiny. Those of us still alive to find out will surely do so, in about thirty years, though.
Sorry, young man, I think I'm a pretty responsible citizen and productive professional despite having once had long hair, experimented with free love, and gone to more rock concerts than I can remember. Yes I did inhale. (I even voted Democratic way back when.)
Do I regret missing out on the hippie lifestyle, being lazy, immoral, stupid, and irresponsible. No, I don't regret it for one second. For one thing, I had to work to support myself. Not everyone has parents who spoiled them and gave them money to do whatever they wanted. Not only that, but I had a neighbor who went totally off his rocker from drugs, so skipping the drug scene was a great idea IMHO. Instead, I went to college, got a degree, started on a great career, met my wife, and started a family. Sounds a lot better than sleeping on the floor on mattresses with a bunch of dirty, drugged out nuts.
With somewhat less attitude this pretty much sums it up for me too. Never did drugs nor was into how much I could score (free love) with the girls at a party.
No regrets about not participating. I know plenty who did, and I wouldn't exchange lives nor experiences.
the 70's were awesome. it was that little window between the invention of the birth control pill and before aids. ha ha ha ha ....
That was the part that made it truly Special!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by USAGeorge
I remember those days well...Especially being spit on by hippie girls when I returned home from Viet Nam...
Nuff said.....The turn on and drop out crowd wasn't exactly people to be heralded as a bright point. Drugs never made anyone smarter.
I Always called people idiots for doing that and lost a few so-called 'friends' over defending vets though I did naively believe 'if no one showed up they could not have a war'....still I Never put anyone down that choose to serve or did not flee being drafted,
Thank you for your service!
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I did not go. Needed my comforts far too much.
And I'm still an anti-materialistic, anti-establishment sort of person to this day!
