Hippies

[billybud]

'64??

Are you nuts?

People in '64 were knocked out by the "long haired" Beatles...you know, those cute boys in suits and Lil Lord Fauntleroy hair cuts singing "I want to hold your hand"....Sixty Four was soooo square, man (yes, "man"..before Fast Times at R.H. and use of the word, "Dude")

In '64 Tie-dye was as yet unheard of, Janice hadn't put out a tune...She joined Big Brother & the Holding Co. in '66 and it was that summer that she made her first public appearance...no Hippieness without Janice, the Queen Mother of Hippies all. I still miss Pearl and her wailing "take another piece of my heart"...

The word Hippie first made it into print about 1964 or 1965, but the movement was still mid 60's kids wanting to be "beat"...The San Francisco scene incubated the true Hippie movement..the Grateful Dead didn't get to San Fran until '66, the Haight and the Summer of Love in '67 was the huge event of Hippiedom. Sixty four was not the main event, ibut around that time was the nascent coalition of kids not cool enough for their "beat" elders to accept them...Hippies weren't hippies until the San Francisco scene...and didn't we all want to go there and wear flowers in our hair? I was in the Corps at the time and the whole scene seemed so strange when I wasn't in the world.

I came out in time to go to college and be in school during the summer of 68...the summer America burned and the Hippie movement as well.

[WoVeU]

I'm with you...although from a far, far more ignorant stand-point. I was taken back when I heard the date they gave (64 is what I'm thinking, could be wrong, but it was much earlier than I had thought...I thought the peak more like 68-69.) I think they were drawing (academic folks here gentlemen) a line based on pure politics and totally removing fad and popularity...pop culture growth, not going by mass but pure ideology! And I am not defending them...I think the whole thing was rather ridiculous...but I could say the same thing about many things, in the 70's, 80's, 90's and on.

I see what the whole era produced...we brought attention to many things that were overdue. Other things kindled some crap and laid a baseline for behaviors that went way overboard. As a corollary, individuals, some of the most impressive people I ever met came out of this era. But also, some of the absolute biggest losers!

[Spence]

Yes, but mostly what we are talking about is a bunch of college kids sitting around drinking and getting high and amazing themselves with their grand ideas. This happens even now, except most of these kids don't take themselves so seriously.

[WoVeU]

Yes, but mostly what we are talking about is a bunch of college kids sitting around drinking and getting high and amazing themselves with their grand ideas. This happens even now, except most of these kids don't take themselves so seriously.

I was 29 when I went back to school. These kids just killed me. So many of these 19 year-old "heads", you could hardly find 1 that could get a B in College Algebra, English, and Economics. If you can't get B's in moderate classes (being graceful here.) How in the world are you going to tell anybody about life? What the social and governmental fallacies are in this country? And even more laughable, what spirituality really is? How to fix the aforementioned fallacies? And what the real meaning of life is?



It was amazing!

[donovan]

I am in no way an expert in the hippie era, though I lived through it. Mr. Billybud is right and Fluiddude still lives in the last vestige of Hippies....that is a compliment. Ever been to the hippie fair down there..sure you have...I digress.

I think that the war protesters get mixed in with the hippie movement and though it certainly had support from the Hippies, it was a separate movement. Like Billybud, I was in the military at that time doing my service, so my feeling at the time about anti war protesters and hippies may not be the same then as it is now....we all mellow. At the time...well again I digress.

[WoVeU]

I knew fluiddude was a public servant!

I guess the best thing about the 70's (in hill country at least) some of the more radical drugs fell out of favor. It was pot, opium, and hash. Usually any cocaine floating around made its way into a joint. I don't care for drugs at all. But I can see the attraction to some. But I do not get people doing heroine, pcp, crack, crank...the ones that turn people into junk in just a couple of years.

[donovan]

That is the one. Oregon County Fair. We went down there a couple of years ago...if naked women running around is your thing...that was the place...they were pretty granola...must have slipped over from OSU.

[Spence]

I knew fluiddude was a public servant!

I guess the best thing about the 70's (in hill country at least) some of the more radical drugs fell out of favor. It was pot, opium, and hash. Usually any cocaine floating around made its way into a joint. I don't care for drugs at all. But I can see the attraction to some. But I do not get people doing heroine, pcp, crack, crank...the ones that turn people into junk in just a couple of years.

I don't know what part of the country you were seeing the seventies from, but cocaine was all over the place. Especially toward the late seventies. It was rampant. I lost 3 high school friends to it. One guy burnt himself up, one was in a car wreck, and one over dosed. The drugs were a part of every death. Everyone thinks it is OK until of course it isn't. It seems no one learns. Now the drug of choice is meth and more kids will die and more families will be ruined, then something else will take it's place and more people will die. Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it.

[Dossenator]

I knew fluiddude was a public servant!

I guess the best thing about the 70's (in hill country at least) some of the more radical drugs fell out of favor. It was pot, opium, and hash. Usually any cocaine floating around made its way into a joint. I don't care for drugs at all. But I can see the attraction to some. But I do not get people doing heroine, pcp, crack, crank...the ones that turn people into junk in just a couple of years.

I don't know what part of the country you were seeing the seventies from, but cocaine was all over the place. Especially toward the late seventies. It was rampant. I lost 3 high school friends to it. One guy burnt himself up, one was in a car wreck, and one over dosed. The drugs were a part of every death. Everyone thinks it is OK until of course it isn't. It seems no one learns. Now the drug of choice is meth and more kids will die and more families will be ruined, then something else will take it's place and more people will die. Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it.

I think the drug of choice is still marijuana. My wife is an assistant principal at a high school and they are always catching kids with that stuff. Actually, I think alcohol is the number one drug of teenagers. I am amazed at how many kids come to school dances wasted and they know ahead of time that security officers will be present at the dance with breathalyzers. My wife always comes home after a school dance to tell me they caught 10-20 kids drunk. Of course the parents these days say the breathalyzer has to be wrong my kid does not drink. They can be so wasted they can barely walk and smell of alcohol and the parents will insist that their child does not drink. Of course this is in Southern CA....meth was definitely a bigger issue in Arkansas.

[WoVeU]

Meth is over West Virginia like a rug! These fools are killing themselves in more ways than one!
It is awful cheap compared to some drugs. Cheap to make...and was much cheaper. I'd like to see the Gov't just make it by the kilo-ton and give it out to anybody who wants it. Run this whole cycle out in one fell swoop!

[Spence]

Meth is over West Virginia like a rug! These fools are killing themselves in more ways than one!
It is awful cheap compared to some drugs. Cheap to make...and was much cheaper. I'd like to see the Gov't just make it by the kilo-ton and give it out to anybody who wants it. Run this whole cycle out in one fell swoop!

I've always thought this was the answer to the drug problem. Give them all they want. Pick them up and bury them on Saturdays. Let people see what happens when the money problem doesn't get in the way. They will act like mice in the lab.

[WoVeU]

Meth is over West Virginia like a rug! These fools are killing themselves in more ways than one!
It is awful cheap compared to some drugs. Cheap to make...and was much cheaper. I'd like to see the Gov't just make it by the kilo-ton and give it out to anybody who wants it. Run this whole cycle out in one fell swoop!

I've always thought this was the answer to the drug problem. Give them all they want. Pick them up and bury them on Saturdays. Let people see what happens when the money problem doesn't get in the way. They will act like mice in the lab.

I've been around and through this my whole life (an pproach to drugs that is.) And watched so many go down to this mess. That I just don't see another way. Look at the ludicrous money involved. Think of what could be done with all the money, people, and resources redirected to winnable fights.

Oh, and BTW, if the answer to individual drug problems, alcoholism, and other things is to let them hit bottom...well this puts an entire system bottom in. If that argument is even close to valid, then this approach is valid. Take our losses (if you'd call it that) and spare another generation to 10 from growing up in this mess!

[Spence]

I think the big problem with how drugs and alcohol are handled is parents and role models tend to lie about them, or at the very least give kids the worst case scenerio. Then the try them and they don't die on the spot. They go back to a normal life. Some drugs don't have any more effect then alcohol. Some gradually pull them in. Almost none of the time does something bad happen the first time. If people would talk straight with kids about the topic I think we would have less problems. Kids tend to think they know everything and if they try things and prove their parents wrong, they go that much farther.

[WoVeU]

Great Point. We've told our kids about drugs with this method. Somethings go fine...but we always submit (similar experience I guess) that drugs are way over rated, pot---yeah a real dry mouth and 4 Big Macs later you are asleep. And note some seem to enjoy it more...and some a good bit more. These latter groups are the ones who run into problems. Ironically, we note, the ones that thought pot was alright or pretty good. You know where it goes from there.

Parents get a good bit of blame. But I've seen parents that do about as well as you could expect and still fail to keep thier kids safe. The peer pressure, thugs, millionaires, and a poor government system are huge factors. Pile the stuff up the latter 3 go away nearly immediately, the peer pressure would be gone in weeks to months! Mary and Johnny don't look so cool very dead! Not to mention the James Dean effect is gone already...nothing rebellious about it. No chase, game, nervous worries to fight through and "conquer"!

[donovan]

When you take the money incentive out of anything, the problem is exposed for what it is and then there is often a solution.

Drugs, most every political issue, college football...etc.

If you use alcohol for an example, there are tons of problems with alcohol usage. We fight this daily and enable it twice daily. But we have none of the problems associated with prohibition.

The solution to alcohol, I think, is to not allow it for an excuse for bad behavior. Drink, but you drive and drink, you do not get a license again. Period. Drive while suspended and you go to jail. Hit your wife while drunk, you go to jail. Well you go whether drunk or not...but you get the idea.

Firm unwavering codified punishments for bad actions is the solution. People either accept and wake up or they go to jail. And there will be plenty of jail room when we get all the drug money incentive criminals out of there.