THE FAR OUT REBIRTH OF A
VERY GROOVY THING:

The original hippies started off as disaffected young people who weren't happy with the greedy materialism of the post WW2 era, ushered in by television. They were a generation prepared as children for a communist-inspired holocaust. They were unhappy with a government controlled by the military-industrial complex. They were against the war in Vietnam, a voluntary conflict to "liberate", based on a theory (the Domino Theory). They felt the government lied to the American people about this war. The new hippies are also disaffected young people, unhappy with the greedy materialism of the post Cold War era, ushered in by the internet. They are a generation prepared for a terrorist-inspired holocaust. They are unhappy with a government controlled by the military-industrial complex. They are against the war in Iraq, a voluntary conflict to "liberate", based on a theory (preemption). They feel the government has lied to the American people about this war. Both groups see the similarities between the struggles then and now.
Once again, peace signs and protests have become common, but with one significant difference. The original hippies are now older, wiser, and wealthier. The are sympathetic to the new generation, who are often their own children. At peace protests this past spring and summer, old and new hippies showed solidarity against what they consider a government gone mad. There were protests in Houston and all over the country against the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, and other perceived injustices. Now a whole movement of young people are interested in the original hippies, and emulating them.
Hippies named their kids funny names. Sunshine, Brook, Moon Unit, Chastity, Mary Jane, Roachclip, and other unusual names were given. This creates some humor nowadays, when you may be treated by a Dr. Roach Wilson. Hippies had bumper stickers and buttons with smiley faces and peace signs on them. They rode around in vans, especially VW vans like the one on our cover. Inside the vans, sex orgies were always happening.
Hippies experimented with drugs, but it is important to draw the distinction between hippies and druggies. The hippies believed in non-addictive, consciousness-expanding substances like psilocybin and LSD (and of course pot). As Abbie Hoffman said, "The only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon". Their drug experimentation was part of a quest for understanding their inner selves, not the escapism sought by narcotics users, who had been around for centuries.
Hippies had communes, love-ins, sit-ins, laugh-ins, waterbeds, lava lamps, and crash pads. They freaked out, tuned in, turned on, toked up, and dropped out. They grew lots of hair and marijuana. Hippies hid their "stash" in secret places, like metal tins sitting on their coffee tables. They wore home-made jewelry. They respected the planet and raised hell about pollution. They put flowers in gun barrels.
Hippies weren't just anti-war, they were pro-peace. They didn't see any reason to send young Americans overseas to die in a country where even the loyalists wanted us to go away and let them be. Hippies listened to eight track tapes of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. They had blacklights on the walls of their "pads", which were decorated with beanbag chairs, stolen traffic signs, cable spools, and day-glow posters of cartoon characters smoking weed. On the west coast, hippies had lots of "acid" to go on trips. In Texas, the hippies found a natural substance that provided the same results in a more organic form. Psilocybin mushrooms (shroomz) were common in this part of Texas, and the hippies used them to get their "pilots license". A favorite local spot was where the Dog Track is now located, at Gulf Freeway and FM 2004. A farm on Red Bluff Road was called the Mushroom Kingdom by local hippies. There was a lot of burning going on too. Draft cards, bras, crosses, and Buddhist monks were all set afire. In Texas, hippies mostly burned their "stash", often in corncob pipes.  A lot of us can remember not being able to get a job because of the hair. There were constant "hassles" from "the establishment". The "straight" guys would do crazy shit like hold you down and cut off your hair with a hunting knife. A lot of this was based on the fact that the chicks were attracted to hippie guys. In my high school there were two of us, and we had all the chicks to ourselves. We also got our asses kicked pretty regularly by the straight "goat ropers". The local cops were zealous about hassling is.
In spite of the fact that hippies were oppressed and ridiculed, they were secretly admired for opting out of a paranoid world in which the Kennedy brothers and Dr. King were murdered, and J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon were considered the good guys. They came into a world where they were given instructions about what to do when the impending nuclear attack occurred. They rebelled against government-inspired paranoia. People respected them for this, even as they made fun of how they looked and spoke.
Most hippies were just good people who were compassionate and colorful. Because the beginnings of the hippie movement were mostly pure and peaceful, the hippies were soon considered "cool". This was to become the downfall of the hippie movement. Popular culture soon invaded and marginalized the ethics of hippiedom. The original hippies were soon joined by tens of millions of "fad followers". These people later put on platform shoes and danced the "hustle" at disco clubs. The real hippies never sought approval. When it became "groovy" to wear flare-legged pants and sport a mullet hairstyle, the real hippies were embarrassed and chagrined. Their efforts to make a better world had been turned into a fashion statement. The world had missed their message completely. Hollywood portrayed them as Charles Manson types with heroin addictions. The same Hollywood portrayed actors with leisure suits, pants suits, bandanas, scarves, and "somewhat" long hair in order to attract young viewers to a sanitized nonpolitical hippie motif.
During the late 70's, the hippies had to get jobs to raise the children of all those van orgies. It wasn't easy to survive for hippies, many of whom had a hard time finding employment. In fact, it took them about 20 years to get the kids raised, and another decade to assert some financial independence.
Now they are back, with bucks, and the kids love them. Look out world.           GATOR