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THE HIPPIE ERA WAS COMING TO IT’S END
I guess it’s true what they said back in the days about…
“FLASH BACKS”
While walking this morning I had one.
It was about Woodstock and the Hippies.
I found myself wondering “How did that all end?”
“What happened to all the “Love and Peace Man?”
“What happened to the Hippie way of life?”
Well here’s what I came up with as I walked.
Woodstock was over and for some reason so were the Hippies.
The Hippie life style started to change after that three days of…
LOVE – PEACE
– and –
MUSIC
We all knew that nothing else could top Woodstock?
Nothing!
It was the final Hippie moment.
The final statement.
Who knows what the real cause was for the demise of the Hippie Movement?
Maybe it’s was because we were getting older.
The next generation was approaching us.
They made us look and feel pretty silly as we tried to hold onto our youth.
My first awareness of the change was one night at a Club in Massachusetts.
I was at the “The Do-Wha-Ditty”.
A real hot-spot.
So many great bands played there.
All of them were just starting out…so young…and so awesome.
Van Morrison, Jay Giles Blues Band were just a couple of the groups that entertained there.
Every Friday and Saturday night.
$1.00 admission.
I remember my friend and I hanging around outside bumming money.
As Hippies this was required of us to never have money but to always be bumming for it.
Inside the club was like an empty warehouse.
Nothing but a large stage, and a concession area.
No alcohol.
Soda Pop and Water only.
The walls were covered with splattered day glow paints and lots of day glow posters.
Black lights, strobes, a light show.
Everyone sat on the floor.
I’m not kidding.
“It was a happening man!”
People would stand up and groove to the music or dance in an area chosen for that night.
Around one hundred fifty or so people max.
It was always a hell of a night when you went there.
After Woodstock and a stay in the local prison system I went to the Do-Wha-Ditty expecting to have a great time.
WRONG!
First off…$3.00 cover charge.
Now Beer and Wine were on the menu.
No sitting on the floor digging the music.
Not any more.
You’d only be sitting in spilled Beer and Wine anyway.
There was a ‘Cover Songs’ band playing.
People were dancing and having a good time.
What can you do?
Things change.
I joined in the fun and danced.
I wasn’t old enough to buy a beer though…I was only nineteen.
What I noticed was that as the evening went on people were starting to get drunk.
Some people …really trashed.
Two fights broke out.
One of them was started by the girl I was dancing with.
We were dancing when another girl innocently brushed against the girl I was dancing with.
Bamm!
The girl I’m dancing with turns around and pushes the other girl to the floor.
Didn’t say a word.
Just nailed her.
She then proceeds to attack her verbally.
Then they both started getting into it.
Pushing.
Slapping.
Hair pulling.
Actual fists blows.
I walked away.
I remember right before I left the now ‘Bar’ I guess…I turned and took a hard look at the joint.
In such a short period of time the place had changed so much.
And in so many ways.
The people had changed also.
Any evidence that this was a place of Peace and Love was completely gone.
No more splattered day glow walls or posters.
No more black lights.
No more strobes.
No more light show.
Now only Beer and Wine advertisements decorated the walls.
No more was there the fragrance of incense and the occasional smell of pot.
Now it reeked of spilled Beer and Wine.
In the bathrooms it reeked of spilled Beer and Wine, Urine and Vomit.
I left saddened.
Little changes like this started to happen everywhere.
In all aspects of life.
It was like a memo was sent out to all the Hippies stating:
“Party’s Over Man”
We all knew it.
You could sense it.
Hanging around all day.
Doing nothing.
No money.
Places you use to hang out didn’t want you there chasing away the real customers anymore.
Or your buds girlfriend didn’t want “a bunch of free-loading bums” mooching off them all day either.
Peace and Love were fading fast.
They were now being replaced with a little thing the ‘Straights’ called…
REALITY!
The LSD started fading from everyone’s minds and yes…reality did start to set in.
And boy did it suck.
Life was turning into every Hippie’s worst nightmare.
Conformity was knocking at our front doors.
The reasons that started the movement.
Sex and Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll.
NOT!
Seriously…
The Truth be we were tired of being told…
“Children are to be seen and not heard!”
And…
“Because I said so”
And a lot of other comments I won’t mention here.
Under today’s standards these acts would be considered Child Abuse.
We were also sick of a senseless war.
A war that was being fought by us, the youth for a bunch of ‘old fart politicians’.
The Youth were dying.
Coming home in boxes.
All the while the Politicians sat back on their butts over here and did nothing.
I lost some dear friends to those times.
We weren’t old enough to have an opinion but old enough to die for a political cause.
It was a Black and White world back then.
By that I mean there was no deterring from the norm.
Business suits I believe were only Black or Dark Gray with White Shirt and Dark Tie.
It was the ‘Standard Issue’.
The uniform of the day.
There was color in the world.
It just wasn’t ‘Bright’ color.
I’m serious.
The colors of the world had ‘No’ color.
That came later after the Drugs.
Everything was either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
No in-between’s.
Either ‘Right or Wrong’.
No other possible outcome.
‘Up’ or ‘Down’.
No thinking sideways.
The youth of the world didn’t matter.
Life had nothing in store for us.
Our turn will come…later we were told.
When we grew up.
We were to be good little girls and boys for now.
Obey all the rules and don’t be a smart-ass and some day this will all be yours.
And so we did.
We kept our mouths shut and our minds closed.
Until!
Timothy Leary.
San Francisco, CA.
Haight Ashbury.
The 60’s.
And of course…
The HIPPIES.
We wanted our freedom from all the rules.
The restriction.
Our own space.
To be FREE.
Free of responsibility.
Free from the “MAN’S” world.
We would return back to nature.
Live off the land.
Buy an old school bus, fix it up and live in it.
We’d travel the world spreading our…
Yeah right!
I almost started believing it again.
Ain’t gonna happen!
Yes the Hippie was now coming to it’s end.
These things didn’t seem applicable anymore.
Now it’s to be…
WORK
RESPONSIBILITY
MARRIAGE
A FAMILY
These were the “Realities” that Hippies were now being faced with.
Women wanted to have babies.
Men wanted to start families.
And everyone wanted all those little luxuries in life that we had given up.
Electricity.
TV.
A Dish Washer.
A Car.
A Real Hamburger.
MONEY.
Not Love-In’s nor Peace Symbols.
Drugs or Free Love.
None of these things would pay the rent on a place to live.
Definitely not for a good enough place to raise that family you want.
Yes Hippie Life was coming to it’s end.
Real Life was just beginning.
In closing I would like to give you an update on where my life went after Woodstock.
Got married.
Had two children, boys…now 38 and 40.
Went to night School studied Printed Circuit Board Designing.
Went to work for MIT Lincoln Laboratories, Hanscom Air Force Base designing guidance systems.
Then onto Honeywell Space and Avionics Division designing Printed Circuit Boards for the Space Shuttle.
Yes the Hippie Life was over…
But not the memories.
What did you do after Woodstock?
PEACE
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