Baby-boomer Hippies?

[bongobobny]

Well, lemme see... Boprn in '47, grew up in a lily white suburb but aeround the early 60's thought something was wrong with racial hatred. Too young to be a freedom rider but learned to hate rednecks from the south.Grew my hair long in my senior year, class of '65. Legal drinking age in NY at the time was 18, so became a drunk early in life. Messed up in college and got my a$$ drafted in 67, 1 month before the draft lottery. Never bothered to check what my number would have been. Signed up for an extra year for a year of training in Radar repair thinking Vietnam might be over by the time I was done with the training. Smoked some pot and developed an atitude. After training got assigned to a Nike Herc base in NJ. Had my security clearance lifted and got sent to Viet Nam 2 months before Woodstock. Smoked a LOT of pot over there! Seemed like just one super long bad day there. Came home, stil a stoned head, got married, got divorced 3 years later and then came the 70's. More drugs, another marriage and divorce and then came the '80s. Started playing in a band, and then in 1983, after hitting rock bottom and going down for the third time, turned my life over to Jesus Christ and He turned things around for me. First went cigarettes, held down a job for more than a few months, met a wonderful Christian woman, my wife Becky, and life stil gets better and better.

 

Bottom line, Hippies was really a lifestyle and a HUGE mistake!!! Seemed fun at the time but was a big waste.

 

 

Least that's the best I remember it, I think...

[midnightventure]

In case nobody has figured it out yet I grew up redneck. Rednecks might let their hair get a little long sometimes but they definitely weren't hippies. I did help keep a redneck from shooting a hippy one night though.

[qdude]

Oh give me a hell yes, I have recreated myself so many times since then... they were the best of times and the worst. Hippie, soldier, dad, fireman, union officer, chief, old dude, what a wonderful ride this has been so far.

 

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Photography/Images/Content/soldier-vietnam-peacep119-ga.jpg

[elmicko]

I don't think I'm old enough to qualify as a hippie, but I did follow the Dead around for a while. I also did a lot of acid so I may actually be a hippie. Now the big question is where are all of those flashbacks I was promised???

[Chaharly]

what ya mean-- used to be?? actually i kinda missed the era myself but we had our own hippy wannaB thing going on in the 70's. I still listen to alot of 60's and 70's tunes but the some of the 70's tunes are the best ever made imho I was even in a band in the 80's and we played pretty hard rock n roll. But boy when I pull those pictures out my kids just laugh and laugh

 

I used to be/currently am in a band!

[Chaharly]

I don't think I'm old enough to qualify as a hippie, but I did follow the Dead around for a while. I also did a lot of acid so I may actually be a hippie. Now the big question is where are all of those flashbacks I was promised???

 

Acid? This group is getting cooler and cooler!!!

[BradT]

Interesting thread. Born in 65 I missed the late 60's but I think each generation after that, has had there own thing.

 

Really wished I seen a little more of the 60's muscle car era. By the time I was driving and affording a car these were getting too expensive to purchase or find.

 

BRad

[showmebob]

Came back from viet nam in 1968, grew my hair long and started rideing bikes, got my hair cut and got maried had two boys and started rideing horses, got divorced grew my hair long and started rideing bikes again, lol

Kill em all let god sort em out

Hippy ?( No )!

Long haired country boy( Yes ), some call us red necks

[dingy]

Acid? This group is getting cooler and cooler!!!

 

 

And this is from a kid that earlier said he wanted to be an Arizona state trooper.

 

Pick a direction Junior, I don't think you can have it both ways.

 

 

And yes I inhaled, and held my breath, a lot.

 

Gary

[GaThumper]

was and still am... a Jesus lovin' hippy! YES I inhaled, and held my breath a lot, too. Born just a little too late ('58) to be a "real" hippy, but coming of age in the '70s was not that much different. Still rocking and rolling whenever I can. These were taken last year. LOL

 

http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs020.snc1/3041_1140030053619_1013456981_30434502_4741963_n.jpg

 

http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs020.snc1/3041_1140030093620_1013456981_30434503_2892473_n.jpg

 

 

He turned 35 last Sunday

In his hair he found some gray

But he still ain't changed his lifestyle

He likes it better the old way.

 

So he grows a little garden

In the backyard by the fence

He's consuming what he's growing

Nowadays in self defense

He gets out there in the twilight zone

Sometimes when it just don't make no sense.

 

He gets off on country music

'Cause disco left him cold

And he's got young friends and a new way

But he's just to frickin old.

 

And he dreams at night of Woodstock

And the day John Lennon died

How the music made him happy

And the silence made him cry

Yeah, he thinks of John sometimes

And he has to wonder why.

 

Chorus:

'Cause he's an old hippie

And he don't know what to do

Should he hang on to the old

Should he grab on to the new.

 

He's and old hippie

This new life is just a bust

He ain't trying to change nobody

He's just trying real hard to adjust.

 

He was sure back in the sixties

That everyone was hip

Then they sent him off to vietnam

On his senior trip.

 

And they forced him to become a man

While he was still a boy

And behind each wave of tragedy

He waited for the joy

Now this world may change around him

But he just can't change no more.

 

Chorus:

'Cause he's an old hippie

And he don't know what to do

Should he hang on to the old

Should he grab on to the new.

 

He's and old hippie

This new life is just a bust

He ain't trying to change nobody

He's just trying real hard to adjust.

 

Well, he stays away a lot now

From the parties and the clubs

And he's thinking while he's jogging round

Sure is glad he quit the hard drugs.

 

'Cause him and his kind

Get more endangered everyday

And pretty soon the species

Will just up and fade away

Like the smoke from that torpedo

Just up and fade away.

 

Chorus:

'Cause he's an old hippie

And he don't know what to do

Should he hang on to the old

Should he grab on to the new.

 

He's and old hippie

This new life is just a bust

He ain't trying to change nobody

He's just trying real hard to adjust.

 

Yeah, he ain't trying to change nobody

He's just trying real hard to adjust...

Edited March 11, 2010 by GaThumper

[Zfrebird4]

1958 - 1962, College.

1962 - 1967, Graduate school, clergy school

1971 - 1979, Graduate School, Gerontology.

 

LUVED the gerontology much more! Heard little of the Hippies; just a straight guy; no promises now though, ... LOL: Retired.

 

JackZ

Ft Collins

 

[oldgoat]

sorry but for some reason i cant remember the 70.s? but i sure did love brownies for some reason. ? i was born in 58 so cant be considerd a true hippy. but at age 14 i did try to make it to woodstock. with my brother and some friends got caught. hidding in the van

[davecb]

Just a thought....While the "hippies" were getting high and having a ball at Woodstock....109 soldiers died in Vietnam..

 

Rest in Peace My Brothers....

[Gamecock]

Well, lemme see... Boprn in '47, grew up in a lily white suburb but aeround the early 60's thought something was wrong with racial hatred. Too young to be a freedom rider but learned to hate rednecks from the south.Grew my hair long in my senior year, class of '65. Legal drinking age in NY at the time was 18, so became a drunk early in life. Messed up in college and got my a$$ drafted in 67, 1 month before the draft lottery. Never bothered to check what my number would have been. Signed up for an extra year for a year of training in Radar repair thinking Vietnam might be over by the time I was done with the training. Smoked some pot and developed an atitude. After training got assigned to a Nike Herc base in NJ. Had my security clearance lifted and got sent to Viet Nam 2 months before Woodstock. Smoked a LOT of pot over there! Seemed like just one super long bad day there. Came home, stil a stoned head, got married, got divorced 3 years later and then came the 70's. More drugs, another marriage and divorce and then came the '80s. Started playing in a band, and then in 1983, after hitting rock bottom and going down for the third time, turned my life over to Jesus Christ and He turned things around for me. First went cigarettes, held down a job for more than a few months, met a wonderful Christian woman, my wife Becky, and life stil gets better and better.

 

Bottom line, Hippies was really a lifestyle and a HUGE mistake!!! Seemed fun at the time but was a big waste.

 

 

Least that's the best I remember it, I think...

 

Awesome!

 

Ben

[Bummer]

Met a whole bunch of Hippies at the San Fran Airport when I came back to the world from Nam. They made my homecoming something I try to forget every single day.

 

Boomer.....who would have called in a airstrike on that airport on that specific day.

A friend of mine was met as you were and it still haunts him. I make no excuses for the bad behavior of some. I guarded military property during one of those protests. When I came home from duty in the spring of '74, I was met by nobody at all. Most of us saw neither protest nor parade.

 

Today those who protest call themselves Christians. I have every reason to believe that most Christians want to distance themselves from these people, just as most hippies wanted to distance themselves from the protesters of that time.

 

Chief, I'm a member of the Patriot Guard Riders and the Warriors' Watch Riders to do what I can to prevent what happened to you from ever happening to another. It is unfortunate that there was nobody doing it then.

[Bummer]

Just a thought....While the "hippies" were getting high and having a ball at Woodstock....109 soldiers died in Vietnam..

 

Rest in Peace My Brothers....

None of the hippies who were getting high and having a ball at Woodstock killed any of the soldiers in Vietnam. There were quite a few rednecks in the US who were getting drunk and having a ball at that time who also didn't kill any of the soldiers in Vietnam. Perhaps you should take this up with the North Vietnamese, and perhaps those politicians still alive who sent men to war in Vietnam.