Teach Your Children

Children held a very special place in the hearts of hippies.
We vowed never to grow up,
we called ourselves children of the universe, star children and things like that.
Children are pure, clear eyed, and largely unwearied by this cynical world.
We held children in very high esteem.

We knew that sooner or later parenthood would cause us
to have to make many uncomfortable decisions
about our uncompromising quest for unrestricted freedom.
In the movie Woodstock John Sebastion sings about the kinds of things
we might hear from our own children someday:

"Hey, Pop...My girlfriends only three,
she's got her own videophones
and she's a takin LSD.
And now that we're best friends
she wants to give a taste to me...
But hey, Pop...How come you're tuning green..."

From the hippy point of view, everything begins and ends with the children.
In fact the same movie begins with a song from CS&N written about Woodstock:

"I came upon a child of God,
He was walking along the road,
and I asked him 'Where are you going?
'this he told me.
He said 'I'm going on down to Yasquer's farm
going to join in a rock and roll band.
Gonna camp out on the land,
and try to set my soul free."

And of course there's the unforgettable rock classic by the same band, "Teach Your Children":

"Teach, them all your dreams
the ones they pick
are the ones you'll know by."

And then there was one of the very most popular posters
that you would find just wherever you found hippies,
copies of an original artwork painted by a nun.

"War is not healthy
for children
and other living things."

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The Hippy Guy, where cool is the rule.

The Universe

Hippies knew what quantum theorists would discover decades later, that the universe is a singularity, it's all connected. It may be multiple faceted, but that's because it's alive. It's permeated with consciousness.

"To the Native American all things are alive. To the white men, all things are dead already." -Native American wisdom

The universe was our teacher. All you had to do was to attend, in consciousness, to be aware of the fact. Some empiricists might call that magical thinking, but these days we know that the universe is a singularity, is alive, and apparently conscious. Thanks to hippy guy Fritjof Capra for the Tao of Physics, man. If you read such things and aren't hip to how
magical the universe really is, you must be brain dead or something.


Everywhere I went the universe was there to show me something. To prove it's consciousness to me. It was the big Everything, man.

One day after our high school rap session, which was always followed by a wonderful group Om chant, my friend looks at me and says, "I have a mantra for you." Which was wild
because we'd never discussed such things at all, really. But he looked at me and said, "Om kria babji nami Om. It means the absoluteness is the teacher, the teacher is the absoluteness." Heavy, man. Because like, those were my thoughts exactly.

Sometimes the universe seemed to me in consciousness like an ocean. Some people stood on the shore looking at it, others waded in, some even swam. But if you had faith, that was like having a surfboard. Even still, some people would paddle around, you know. But others would make if their life to ride the waves, to remain above it all, and to become a part of the universe instead of being a bonehead that insisted that the universe become a part of their own meager consciousness.

To me it's like, Jesus wouldn't have even needed a surfboard because he *was* faith. He was nondifferent from his faith. That's what happens when your consciousness becomes universal, absolute. Enlightenment. All we need to do is wake up and embrace that greater reality. "Seeing the Buddha walking down the road, a man ran up to him and asked, 'What
*are* you!?' To which the Buddha replied, 'I am awake!' "

And to me the permeation of consciousness in the universe began to manifest all the more in everything because the hippies left the door open on purpose. It manifested itself in our art, in our music, in the clothes that we wore, in our attitudes towards everyone and everything, our attitude towards the universe itself, of which we are undeniably a part. In such a singularity, we never truly escape what we put into it. Negativity will come back to haunt us, just as positive thoughts will come back to reward us. We can't escape the universe, and each and every one of us is part of it's condition. So then the question is who is putting all the negativity into things, and who is making the universe just a little bit more wonderful. Who's being ugly about things, and who's being beautiful.

To me, Universalism is it's own reward. But to be good at it, one has to practice. Just like anything else.

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The Hippy Guy, where cool is the rule.

Quotes

"Everybody in here is wearing a uniform." -Frank Zappa

The fascists are back. Stand up and be counted. Better get on one side or the other.


"Nobody's right, if everybody's wrong." -Buffalo Springfield, from the song, "For what it's worth".

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Counter Culture

Most people today just don't understand how profoundly psychedelics influenced the world. Nothing new about that, really. People have been doing psychedelics from time out of mind, man.

LSD was a CIA plot that backfired on them big time. Before you knew it, minds were liberated everywhere. Instead of being under the same old propagandist spell of years and years, acid made it seem like you just landed on the planet today and began to look around. Then you couldn't help but notice all the bullshit everywhere. But instead of getting depressed about it, it was like the universe said to you somehow, "Ain't that sumthin'", and it just made you crack up at the enormity of life's absurdities. How can anyone take lieing fools seriously? Well, of course you had to take things like the war, and jackbooted storm trooper police brutality seriously. But that it would win out over the universe? No way, man.
What a joke these fascists are, man. When you get right down too it. Only, you know, when you really think about things like war, it's no laughing matter.

Anyway, acid heads profoundly influenced every kind of art and design work of the times, sometimes in obvious ways, but as often in far more subtle ones. Psychedelics had become part of our legacy, whether fascists want to admit it or not. And according to the Native Americans, part of our heritage as well.

Now, when I'm talking about these psychedelics I'm not talking about the garbage that's been on the streets since the mid seventies which is mostly strichnine and arsenic. I'm not talking about stupid stuff. I'm talking about what was real LSD, but mostly, natural is better. Peyote, shrooms, these days people don't make good drugs. But they should allow better drugs, because then people wouldn't self medicate themselves in this insane society with stuff like speed or sniffing solvents, man. People could, like, you know, smoke some weed or some peyote or something. And for cheap. They wouldn't be turning to all of these drugs marketed by the CIA, man. Meant to make us addicted, stupid, ineffective. No, I like my drugs to be cerebral man. Something I can think behind, you know? And back in the day we educated ourselves about drugs. Everybody knew and accepted the saying "Speed kills."
Which is why we never knew any speed freaks. Or glue sniffers, or heroin addicts, or cocaine addicts, we weren't stupid man. We had self respect. Lot's of pot heads. Lots of acid heads. But none of this other bullshit. Very, very rarely. Out of who knows how many thousands of people I'd partied with, I knew met one speed freak, one heroin addict, and one coke head. All that changed in the later seventies when coke and maggot gagging disco came in as a CIA plot to undermine the counter culture. The "Me generation". Barf, man.

Then they went about their propaganda to make the counterculture look stupid. As for me, I'm proud to have been a hippy. We changed the world, man.

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Quote

All things must pass. - George Harrison

Come to think of it, that was in the Bible too.

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The Rolling Stones

Life used to be so good.

One day I'm sitting around and this other chick calls me and asked me if I want to drop some acid and see The Stones. I was like, "You can't be serious." She laughed. She knew me so well, man. We had a great time. Stevie Wonder opened the show and really was wonderful. I was really, really impressed, man. But the guy behind us who was drinking from a gallon of Spanada wine passed out and didn't wake up until everybody was stomping the floor wanting the Stones to do an encore. I felt sorry for the dude. Afterwards we were standing in the parking lot of The Forum and somebody handed me a lit joint out of their car window. After I finished that, I nearly passed out, man.

But what this really far out chick didn't know was that two days before that I'd tried to get Stones tickets at the forum but failed. I failed even though I stood in line for like two days. It was so sad, man.

More and more people showed up at The Forum box office for tickets. Must have been thousands. Everybody was being cool and partying, you know. But as it grew later people began to like inch their way closer to the front by the box office, nobody wanted to be left out. Since some people were sneakily advancing their way closer to the front of the line, I had this brilliant idea. There was a whole lot of these parking lot dividers, the sawhorse type, sitting across the street doing nothing, so my friend and I lifted a few so that we could establish our area around the box office. Then you needed a password to get back in.
Wonderful, right? But then the people around our cordoned off area were getting invaded, and they went and lifted some partitions. And then the people around them did the same thing. After awhile you had to know a half dozen passwords if you wanted to get back to where I was. So everybody just stayed put and camped out all night, getting high, whatever.

The last of the heavyweight party people were just starting to crash when the sun began to come up. That's when everything changed. Somebody stood up and stretched, then everybody started jumping to their feet and pushing forward, man! As everybody packed in sardine style the partitions all came down. Everybody finally mellowed out until they opened the box office. Then everybody freaked out and started pushing towards the front. It got so bad that they stopped selling tickets to my line until everybody mellowed out. My line didn't move for about an hour. Then, oh, man. They ran out of tickets the couple before me and my friend. Bummer, man!

So, here I am sitting at home thinking, "I guess the universe just didn't want me to go to see the Stones." But when my girlfriend called I suddenly realized, the universe just didn't want me to pay for it man! Far out!

What a cool chick, I think about her to this day. She ended up being a DJ at a radio station in San Francisco, last I heard.

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Quote

"There's nothing new under the sun." Mick Jagger

Later on I found out it was in the bible too.

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Who's Next

One day I'm just sitting around with nothing to do

and this chick calls me up

and asks me if I want to drop some mescaline

and go to a concert.

She had both the tickets and the mescaline.

So of course we went.

*

It was a really big deal.

The Who

were playing at the Forum

on the day that they released the album

Who's Next

in L.A.

The album was all over the radio on the way there.

For the first time ever.

*

We pull the van in for some gas and this narc with a German Shepherd

a three day growth of beard and dumpy plain clothes

but still wearing his rubber soled police shoes

comes running over to the window and says,

Wanna trade some pills for some pot?

and we're like, yeah, right, get outta here!

*

We decided to park at a gas station and walk across the parking lot

so we wouldn't have to hassle so much traffic coming out.

We ate a second dose of mescaline before we left the van.

*

Our seats were so far up in the back that we should have taken oxygen.

The concert was really bitchen', man!

What a light show!

And could those guys perform. Daltry was swingin' his mike all over the place as Townsend jumped and spun his arms around like you wouldn't believe, man.

And it was the first time I ever saw a laser light show.

It was like, the hippy gods had landed.

*

So, I'm watching the show and hallucinating my buns off, and by the time they begin to do one outrageously long medley for an encore, the floor of the forum had turned into one huge brain, and the music was tickling the brain, and then pulling at it, then tickling at it, then pulling at it, like the music was just too much to handle, then it would get sweet again, then become too much to handle, then get sweet again..........................................................................................................

*

But the chick that I went with suddenly started digging her nails into my hand, man!

She told me that I was turning into a werewolf.

And I said, far out, you know.

But she was like really freaking out because of the music and wanted to split.

Awww, man!

Show was almost over, but well, chivalry knows best and all that.

*

Now, the seats in the sky at the forum are on the steepest incline that you've ever seen.

If it were any steeper you'd be climbing a ladder.

And we stood up to leave, you know, but that's when I discovered that

my legs were asleep.

So, I'm like falling over people in their seats and stuff because my legs wouldn't work.

I'm lucky I didn't break my freakin' neck!

*

So we started back to the van, but, cool, it was nearly as loud outside the Forum!

We weren't going to miss much, maybe.

I think they were playing Magic Bus, but like for an hour, seemed like.

*

So we looked for the gas station sign under which the van was parked.

But in between us and the station was the biggest bunch of riot cops you've ever seen!

Like an ocean of blue, man.

*

So, now dig this, I'm walking on her right, she's walking on my left.

And we're just like, bug eyed at all these cops in riot gear, you know?

And we're trying to be inconspicuous and not talk or anything because,

talking might piss them off or something.

*

But for some strange reason, I'm thinking we'll go left around the swarm of cops,

she's thinking that we should go right around the blue hoards,

and together we ended up pushing on each other so hard

that we made a straight line right through the center of all these cops.

*

And as they're stepping out of the way,

and we're walking through the center of them,

we're looking at them all bug eyed, you know?

Like, "Please don't eat us!"

All the way to the van.

Where we ended up talking about werewolves

and dreams and stuff.

Quote

"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act." George Orwell

Tiny Red Flowers

I knew these really cool people who had a cabin in the mountains

where we all used to go sometimes.

It was beautiful, overlooking a canyon that had a stream running through it.

*

So, one day I decided I was going on a hike

with my room mate's dog,

Alexander Graham Beetle.

*

And because we'd be gone all day,

I took along a bag of trail mix,

and a bottle of Chevas Regal

just in case I got the munchies.

Or if I got cotton mouth

from the LSD.

*

My favorite sport at the time was rock hopping.

I would make a small staff,

and hop from rock to rock as fast as I could,

up stream

and when suddenly the rocks were too far apart,

I'd vault the extra distance with my staff.

The goal,

of course,

to go as fast as possible without getting wet.

*

At about noon day or so I told Alex it was time for lunch.

There was a perfect rock upon which to sit

in a little nook of the canyon covered with little red flowers

all up and down the sides of the rocks,

and all around my philosopher's stone.

*

Chomping on my trail mix,

and taking sips of scotch,

I noticed that Beetle had the tiny red flowers all over his nose.

*

But the flowers were moving.

*

That's when I looked closer and saw that

we had parked ourselves

in a humongous nest

of

ladybugs.

~~~@~~~

Going on a Freak Out?

"I can't live the button-down life like you. I want it all! The terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles! Sure, I might offend a few of those blue-noses with my cocky stride and musky odors---Oh, I'll never be the darling of the so-called "City Fathers" who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards and talk about "What's to be done with this Homer Simpson?" -----Homer Simpson, quote extracted from The Simpsons and Philosophy, the D'oh of Homer

A Happening

Four of us went to this party in the canyon once,

it was huge!

*

It was out in the sticks, man,

there was a live band playin'

and there were cars parked

all over the north forty.

*

Far out.

*

When the farmer people ended the party

it ended in a huge caravan heading

back towards the city.

*

But, bummer, it was only 10 PM.

*

The caravan was boogiein' down the road

and there was this chick standing on a street corner

waving cars to turn down this street.

So we all did.

*

We all ended up in the parking lot of some apartment building.

Must have been a hundred cars, I don't know.

And it was like, one big party.

*

The only thing was, man, I don't think anybody knew anybody that lived there.

*

So, I'm sitting shotgun in the Volvo, and we just bought a gram of some primo hash.

But we didn't have a pipe, so we were just starting to smoke it by

dropping it into the red hot cigarette lighter.

*

But that's when the man showed up.

Pulled right in behind our car and got out.

So I ate the hash.

*

But the crowd was rowdy and started throwing beer bottles at the cops, man.

Pretty uncool, but the cops got back in their car and pulled back to wait for reinforcements.

We split.

*

But everybody was like, oh man!

Why'd you eat the hash!

Quote

"If you knew what I knew, Sariputta, you'd never let a meal go by without sharing it with someone." Buddha

Nazi Conservatism is Dead

Today I read in the Huffington Post that Neoconservatism is dead.

And I'm like, good, I can take the day off.

*

So, I thought I'd tell it like it was.

*

We've been fighting the storm troopers for a long time.

*

Fascist pigs!

*

Why would we have ever thought that anything good could come from these old Nixon supporters anyway?

*

Speaking of supporters.

At the end of the article about Naziconservatism being dead

some guy made a comment that I thought was brilliant.

*

He said, "Bad ideas never die. Keep your bullshit detector on at all times.

And don't forget to wear a cup."

*

Never again, man, never again.

*

We must always remember.

*

We must never forget.

Quote

Does one need proof of God? Does one light a torch to see the sun? Lao Tzu

Everywhere We Went

Sometimes I'd be sitting around with nothing to do, you know, out of pot, nobody around, and it was like all you had to do was walk around to find something going on somewhere. People would take one look at your long hair and know that you were cool. It wasn't such an uptight society back then, not all this paranoia going around these days. ..................................................................... *...................................................................................................................................................................... One day I was bored and just stuffed a copy of Zap comics in my overalls and headed down the street and these chicks were like, "Hey!" And one of them wasn't wearing pants. But they were like, come on in, listen to some music, so I did. But I was really looking to score some pot, man, so I boogied on down the railroad tracks to see if anyone was hangin' out under the bridge. *...................................................................................................................................................................... There was nobody there so I read my Zap Comic (There's a picture of that particular issue here somewhere) and then decided to keep on truckin'. Now I'm going down the street and some guy is smokin' a joint out in his front yard and says, "Wanna get high?" Oh God, did I. So we talked for a little bit and smoked this number. I don't know what the hell it was, but all of a sudden I thought that I was going to pass out, and so thanked my new friend and began to walk home. But I only got about 20 feet before I had to sit down on the curb because I was going to pass out, man. From there on it was 20 feet at a time, all the way home. But that wasn't as bad as when I left my friend's house after smoking pot, hash and peyote. I mean, at least I could find my way home. I didn't even know that you could smoke peyote, man. Anyway, I made it home before I passed out. Alright! *...................................................................................................................................................................... Things were just that way, man. They were cool. One day me and some friends are sitting on the sidewalk in the Village and my friend Stoney sees this beautiful chick walking by and says, "Let's f**k!" And she stops and looks at us and says, "No. But I'll have a cigarette with you." And just sits down and visits with us. Far out, man. Not everybody was like that, but Stoney was from Detroit. *....................................................................................................................................................................... In those days it was so easy to just hook up with other people. Everybody was cool, man. A whole different attitude prevailed in our society. I mean, you know. One night I'm hitch hiking home from L.A. back to Pop's house in Downer about 10:30 PM and I got picked up by this beautiful chick driving a '67 Corvette. And she was, like, an erotic dancer, she told me. Worked at the Classic Cat. And she drove me all the way to Pops house. She was waiting for me to ask her in, but, well, ah jeeze, man, I just left my GIRLFRIEND's house man. I was like, 16, and didn't need any bad karma. Besides, how the hell would I explain that to Pops? He'd been cool about my girlfriend, but you know, that might have been too heavy. *....................................................................................................................................................................... It was an adventure anywhere you went back then. It was sort of like an adventure that everyone was taking together.

The Evolution of the Revolution

*We began with brightly colored mod clothing, flowers, cheery upbeat music, psychedelic colors everywhere and a great attitude. But as the war dragged on, as the fascist attempts to squelch the direction of the nation became obvious, things began to become more serious.

* The underground became synonomous with authenticity. Being on the road, living the non-materialist minimalism meant that the whole movement had become much more sophisticated, earthy, and grungy.

Quote

So, one day a few months ago my auntie takes me out to lunch. I love my auntie, but she's never really known what to make of me, The Hippy. She's very conservative. We're in the fast food place munching down and she looks me over for a moment and the says something like, "You know. One time we went out on a picnic in the woods and there were a bunch of hippies there having a picnic or something, and they weren't hurting anybody or anything!" I just looked back in stunned silence and said nothing. But what I was thinking was, "Great, auntie. You mean just like real human beings."

Hippy Head

Smokin' in the Boys Room

*

One Toke Over the Line

Sweet Jesus

One toke Over the Line

*

2007 *

Back in continuation school they let us smoke in the boys room.

All the time.

Not like they didn't know what we were smokin', either.

Just that they were paid to have students there.

So they couldn't kick us all out.

*

It was the strangest thing, that I would be elected student body president.

And the faculty came to the student body one day with a problem.

Nobody was showing up on Fridays.

So we devised a solution.

We made it Happy Friday.

*

On Happy Friday, which was every Friday, they showed old movies.

Marx Brothers, Refer Madness, anything funny.

They had a drawing for new albums too.

Which was even better for me because some of us on the student council got to go to the record store/head shop called Middle Earth and pick out albums. Then it was just a matter of finding our way back to school again.

*

We had two official school sports.

Ping Pong and Chess.

And because it was continuation school you didn't have to do anything but attend,

unless you wanted an education.

They could help with that.

Quote

"War is a racket!"

General Hershey Bar

*

*

The General would show up to protests, concerts or wherever in his Army Class "A" uniform, carrying a tennis racket, and giving Naval salutes from his naval. He wore huge plastic toy Jet fighters on the shoulders of his uniform, and passed out free newspapers with the headline, "War is a Racket!"

Quote

"Don't you talk to me that way.

My friend is King Cong, and if he doesn't like you, he'll kick you out of the universe!"

Swami X

*

*

Swami X used to give comedic rants from park benches on Venice Beach, California.

The Village

Living in West L.A. was really cool back in the sixties and early seventies, which I typically lump together with the sixties. From where I lived next to University High School one could easily take the bus down Wilshire to Santa Monica Beach, or take the route down Santa Monica Blvd. to Venice beach where I actually met General Hershey Bar and Swami X. * If you went the other way down Santa Monica Blvd., you'd run into Emerson Junior High where I went to school with Tito and Germaine Jackson, who I met but didn't really get to know. Their band, The Jackson Five was popular back then. But if you took the Wilshire route eastwards, you'd run into my favorite place to hang out, Westwood Village.

*

There you could browse the Import Shops like Pier One, get lunch at the Hip Bagel (or Alice's Restaurant which came later), or spend time reading at the Free Press which had every alternative publication in the world if it made any sense.

*

Westwood Village is located just South of UCLA and in the sixties the campus was a happening place, especially whenever counter culture heroes like Jerry Rubin of The Chicago Seven showed up to speak.

*

We walked up to the campus that day and there were riot police lining the streets everywhere, and walking along looking at these guys I stumbled over a curb and caused some of the cops to get a bit jumpy like I was going to jump them or something. One cop looks at me hard with his Adrenalin gushing and just says, "Cute." As if I'd meant to scare him or something.

*

After dark was always cool. Movies are often released in Westwood Village first. There's was this little corner of old world looking buildings where people used to huckster their hip jewelry and odds and ends, and one night I heard a band start up there and went inside the little court yard to have a look see. The band played from a balcony and even had a light show going, and something told me to turn around. When I did I saw Telly Savalas looking back at me with this enormous grin on his face. Really blew my mind. But in L.A., where there are so many entertainment people, everybody is very cool about celebrities and treats them pretty much like anyone else. So I gave him a look like, if only you knew who I was, even though I was a fan of his. Same thing happened when I saw John Austin of The Addams Family fame when I took my niece to the little amusement park in Beverly Hills. L.A. is just like that, everybody had stories of seeing someone somewhere. "I saw Tommy Smothers smoking a pipe load waiting in line to see Performance, man. But even though I was the one from a small suburb, my sister was an actress and I knew that to be cool you just went, "Oh." Even though I was really a big fan of his too.

*

While we were poor where I was I had lots of friends because my crash pad was two blocks away from University High School where I sometimes condescended to attend. So, I ended up with some friends from Beverly Hills and Bel Air, and even though they were rich and I was poor they wished that they could be me. I lived with my sister, and she was really cool, man. And my friends from Bel Air told me that when they were younger, they used to see Red Skelton driving by in his Rolls as they waited at their bus stop, and he would always slow down and wave. I loved Red Skelton. I finally lost my cool. "You saw Red Skelton!?"

*

Anyway, I turned on to pot, tuned out the media, and dropped out of much of my High School experience, which I did by making sure that I wrote my own first excuse note. That's the one that they compare all future excuse notes to. So, it was Carte Blanche on the freedom scale for me. Anyway... Oh yeah! The Village, man! * When I first moved there from Downer I went to a party held by a fellow classmate from my drama class. She was very specific. No drugs, she said. But I was smoking at the potheads house up front and he rolled me four joints to take with me, and I was new in town then, and wanted to be as hip as possible. That was like my second time getting high, man. Anyways, so I take a cab to the party, and right away this guy asks me if I had any pot. What, I should LIE? "It just so happens...", and so in order to be respectful of the ban, him and me and these two chicks split cause he says he knows of a place where we can toke up. He then led us into the village where we scaled to the second floor of some high rise under construction and had a great time. The weed was really good, he said. I was proud. I was hip in L.A., man!

*

When we got back though we were interrogated by our hostess. "You didn't do drugs, did you?" My new friend explained that we did, but technically, we were no longer at the party when we did. While all of this is going on this black chic just looks at me and gives me a big french kiss out of nowhere man. And I'm like, oh my God! I love L.A.!

*

Anyway, the Village was really hip, man. Sometime I'll have to tell you about our psychedelic Halloween that started off in the botanical gardens of UCLA, where my friend was turning into Tarzan and the shrooms made me think that I'd become a big orange head with green hair, no trunk, legs or arms, but hands and feet. Just a big, orange talking head.

Head Shop Wisdom

"A woman scorned hath no fury like a rival vexed."

Local Head Shop Guy

Quote

How to relax:

*

Plant a carrot and watch it grow.

*

Whole Earth Catalog

Life on the Road

One day my best friend and I are sitting around the pad of our mutual bud, and he's telling me about all of his road adventures, hitchiking around the country, which was really fairly safe back then. He told me that he knew of these hot springs on some Indian reservation in New Mexico, and that he really wanted me to see them. Sounded great, I said, but I'm not going without the refrigerator.

*

He talked me into it anyway, so I loaded a backpack with stuff, and we were off hitch hiking to the Jemez Hot Springs.

*

It was fun until we got from L.A. to Bakersfield. We arrived about 9:00 PM and found about a dozen or so other hitch hikers stranded there at the onramp to the freeway. We bought some wine, smoked a little pot, traded stories about where we were from and were we were going. The only short haired guy was AWOL, but he was just like anyone else there, and we felt for him.

*

The next morning it was unGodly hot. It was about 115 degrees and we were at the end of this long line of hitch hikers who began to look more and more like lobsters as the hours went by. One of the reasons that it was so hard to get a ride was that, well, when a car would stop all these people would run towards it, trying to escape the hell they'd found themselves in.

*

But my friend and I got really, really lucky. Some guy in a big motor home stopped at the end of the line and gave us a ride straight through to Albuquerque, which was only about 60 miles from our destination. On the way he let us drive so that he could take a nap, and he even bought us lunch at a coffee shop along the way.

*

From there we hitched up into the mountains with ease, then stopped at the General Store to pick up some food for the campout. Along the way hippies were stopping their cars to hand us a cold beer or a joint as we made the hike up to the trail that lead to the springs.

*

It was a beautiful hike, and we were warmly received by the dozen or so hippie types who were camping there next to the springs. One older guy, Richard, had just taken to living there. He managed to prove his worth to people who had food by being an expert gatherer of firewood.

*

Everybody soaked in the hot springs naked, which was all just fine, except for the day an older lady turned the corner and saw us there and went off screaming like she'd never seen a naked body before. Really. Just like the movies.

*

I brought my copy of Be Here Now, and was feeling pretty spiritual about the trip anyway. But one night we were all sitting around the fire and two hippy guys come out of the woods and really blew my mind.

*

First they told us how they had been lost and hungry for a long time, but how they ran across some cactus with edible fruit, and how they were crying in thankfulness as the cactus juice dripped down their faces. The one of them came up to me and recited a long biblical verse from memory and from deep in his heart somewhere, "Go ye into the mountains and beat your swords into plowshares" or something like that. And everybody was just stunned silent.

*

We had a great time partying at the springs, had a feast in a cave and shared the rest of our food with everyone there so that we wouldn't have to carry it down the trail, said our goodbyes and began the long trek homewards. Using up our food wasn't the wisest move. We were going hungry, but my friend knew how to ask restaurants at closing for whatever they might be throwing away. The KFC didn't have any leftovers, but the manager was really super cool, and bought us each a three piece dinner. We were so hungry that we didn't leave anything for the ants.

*

My friend had cut himself on a rock back at the springs and ended up with an infection which was turning into blood poisoning, and so we tried to flag down some cars in Kingman Arizona, but they wouldn't stop. My friend was hurting pretty badly by then, and so I went and knocked on someones door about 10: PM, and we were met at the door with a shotgun. I explained about my friend, and the owner of the house turned out to be a cop. So he made a call and a squad car transported us to the hospital so my friend could get medical attention.

*

Then my old sneakers finally gave out from all the hiking and walking, which wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't so hot. But my friend had an extra pair of moccasins with him that he'd made along the road somewhere, and they worked pretty well, so we kept on truckin'.

*

We got good rides coming back into the L.A. area, and man was I glad to be back home where the refrigerator was still waiting. Was quite a trip, and I got to see first hand that life on the road was exciting but not without some sacrifice. It could be done, and something about doing it made me feel that much more capable in life. And I learned all of that in just over two weeks.

*

That was the thing in those days, there were so many beautiful people everywhere you went. People were kind. They were hopeful. They were generous. They were caring. And they were prospeous times, people on the road would give you rides, food and money just to help out another human being. Those were great old times, and I think that America needs to go find itself again.

Love and Peace

People these days sometimes wonder what all that peace and love stuff was all about, as if peace and love were just a couple of words that didn't really mean anything anymore. This is what it was, that everybody everywhere needs food, shelter, and happiness. When there is peace, and when there is love, there is more food, shelter and happiness for everyone. And that's what all good people want for this world. Of all the things in this world, there is no shame at all in love.

Love one another, even as I have loved you.

Jesus of Nazareth

Easy Rider

Of course, Easy Rider was a great and popular counter culture film of the era. And here I am, with some friends of mine smoking a doob in Santa Monica and listening to the album In the Court of the Crimson King, which is like all one long song... I saw my first pot plant there growing by the front door.

13

And some long hair bearded guy knocks at the screen door and asks if Michael's around. Our host said, "No, Michael lives in the back house." The guy peers thrhough the screen door and says, "Can I have a token?" And our host said "Fer sure! Come on in." And while we finished off the number we were tokin', the long haired bearded guy tells us that he just got back from Peru.

Then he said that he had to split, thanked us for the smoke, and boogied on out the door.

13

We all looked at each other silently for a moment and then my friend says, "Was that Dennis Hopper?" And we were all like, yeah, man, that was Dennis Hopper. Hopper played Billy the Kid

in the movie Easy Rider, as if everybody didn't know.

13

So, later on we decide to head on to the back house where some people had grown the best freaking pot I ever had in my life. Dennis had already left, and so I sat at this table in the kitchen while somebody rolled a joint of this homegrown dynamite. Let me tell you, by the time we finished it I thought that I was going to pass out, so I had to sit there for awhile and adjust. Just try, you know, to maintain.

13

So, finallyI notice that everybody went out into the backyard but me, and I'm looking just too wasted and pathetic sitting there by my lonesome just because I thought that if I stood up I'd pass out and really look like a light weight. Finally I got up the nerve to try out my legs and went outside. And everybody's laughing and having a good time, and there's this beautiful chic sunbathing butt naked in front of everybody. The thing is, I'm only 15 years old right then, and just totally ripped, man. And I'm trying to be cool, but, well, I must not have been that cool, or somebody thought, hey, there's a kid here or something, 'cause she got this disturbed look and put on her towel. She was getting ready to perform in Oh Calcutta! which has a nude scene.

13

And all I could do is wonder why it was that people were so ashamed of the clothes that God had given them. Must be because of the dirty old perverts, I thought.

13

Star People

So, one night we're all tripping on some really good LSD and this chic says to me, out of nowhere she just says, "I feel like one day they're going to come and take us up into space!" "Everybody?" I asked. She shrugged and said, "Whoever wants to go, I guess." And that just really blew my mind, man. I had to think about that for quite a while.

That the birds of worry fly overhead, this you cannot prevent.

That they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent.

Lao Tzu

Hippy Recipes

Hip Recipes

~~~~~~~~~~~~

There Has to Be a Morning After

Granola and Fruit of your choice. Milk.

~~~oOo~~~

Struggling Artist

Spaghetti noodles, Ketchup.

~~~oOo~~~

We Got Food Stamps

Use favorite quiche recipe, top with assorted vegetables of your choice.

~~~oOo~~~

Love Animals Don't Eat Them

A really cool restaurant in Laguna Beach in the sixties conveniently located near the Laguna Hotel where Krishna people served vegetarian food for a donation of any kind. Served with complimentary Krishna literature.

~~~oOo~~~

Do you want a love potion?

I can show you how to be loved,

without spells,

without potions,

without any witches magic.

If you want to be loved,

then love.

Lao Tzu

The sixties began an era when music became politically relevent.

It all became about social conscience.

Ask The Hippy Guy

Ask The Hippy Guy

*

If you ever really wanted to know what the hippies were really like, or what the sixties were like in Southern California, here's your chance.

Simply post your question to comments.

And if you don't, I'll be forced to ask my own.

I'd love to hear from folks.

One joy dispels a thousand cares.

Lao Tzu

Deja Vu

It's like Deja Vu all over again. ~ End the war! ~ Impeach! Impeach! The whole world's watching! ~ No more cover ups! ~ Free the Press! Free the Press!

So, the thing is, what is a hippy anyways? A hippy is somebody who isn't fooled by the establishment, man. Somebody who thinks for themselves and knows that materialists and militarists are only in it for the money, and that has little to do with true humanity. The only rule to being a hippy, really, is that you're not uncool. Uncool is like, you know, to be a jerk. Now telling jerks where to get off is cool. Acepting that everybody is different and that's ok, so long as they're not uncool. That's about it. The rest is all about counter culture. Hippies were big on creating a world that made sense to them. Living in a world that could destroy itself at anytime was insane. Listening to so much establishment propaganda everywhere you went was insane. War is insane. The government is insane. America was, well, just insane. Once all of that became clear there was a turning away by a whole generation looking for better, which meant different ways. We simply wanted to put as much distance between ourselves and the insane people and try to find sanity again. For a lot of us that meant back to nature. Nature is sanity. It also meant that a lot of people began to find new drugs of choice, which were, let's face it, better drugs than alchohol, and, well, better drugs than kids use today. We didn't sniff fumes, man. Eeeyuh! Everybody knew that speed kills. Throughout all of my sixties drug use, I met thousands of drug users, only two of which were addicts. Nobody wanted to hang out with those loosers. They'd rip you off, man! No, no. We accepted pot as a sacrament. Not that you had to smoke it to be cool, you just had to be cool about smoking it. Everybody realized that the established Powers That Be were lying their butts off about pot. And it was like, um, breaking bread. Something to do. And better still, you wouldn't fall on your face or hit anybody or anything like what happens with that whiskey stuff. Not really likely to vomit or get hungover from smoking pot, either. Back in the day we did a lot of psychedelics. Man, we tried everything. There were more varieties of LSD than could be counted, mushrooms, peyote, mescaline... just about every kind of psychedelic imaginable. With regard to drugs the wisdom of the day was that if it was God/nature made it was probably really cool, but if it was man made be extra careful. Heroin, coke, speed, pills, booze. All bad drugs. Bad for you! Acid? Well, be cool about it, man. Heavy stuff. Pot? Get real? My Grandmother smoked the stuff, but she called it Asthmador. Politically, of course, we didn't just lean left, we leaned hard left. Hard left because there seemed to be some trace of sanity remaining on that side of things. Everything else was BS. Just a few thoughts of the moment.

Hey Everybody, Just was hangin' out and decided, you know, I need to do a blog.

Some young gang type told me, "When I think of hippies I all I can think of is drugs".Psh! The kind of drugs you do, man, it's a wonder that you can still think at all.

~

Some other conservative pinhead told me, "Hippies. Yeah. Love, peace, dope." Psh! Well there are at least four things about which you're clueless, man. You know, some of us grow hair on the *outside* of our heads.

~

Well, I'm here to keep the faith, baby! To keep the dream alive! We won in the sixties. Nixon was out, the Vietnam war was over. And we're winning again. But this time, lets not cheese out by becoming a "me" generation again, ok?

~ Alright, gotta boogie....

~

Laters,

The Hippie Guy