# Were You Ever A Hippie



## Ina (Aug 9, 2014)

There were many reasons why Hippies came to be. Many people were trying to see the world in a better, newer, and more peaceful way. We were trying to come away from our parents life of wars, and poverty.

My first 15 years taught me fear, duty, and a harsh religion. Around 1964 I began to hear to some young people that wanted to change the world. What they were saying sounded like a better way of life to me. From that time on, I decided that I was a Hippie, and I have remained one.

Now I now most hippies ended up changing their life to become lawyers, doctors, executives, cowboys, bus drivers, or what ever their circumstances lead them to. All good people.

What if anything did that movement mean to you? Did it have any lasting effects on any of you? 
Peace be with you.:anyone::magnify:


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## MrJim (Aug 9, 2014)

I was a hippie in spirit although at the height of the movement, I was way too young. In '67 & '68, I was 10 - 11 y/o. By the time I was a teenager & had grown my hair long, it was the early 70's & though there were still plenty of hippies around, it wasn't like it was in the 60's.

But I always considered myself kind of a hippie. More of a surfer-hippie, actually.


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## SeaBreeze (Aug 9, 2014)

I grew up in the 60s and I'm happy I did.  I was never a "hippie", no flowers in my hair, head bands, tie-dyed shirts, etc., but I lived in jeans and casual clothes, much like I do today.  Everything sounded good to me too Ina, I like the idea of peace, equality, and the music was the best.  I think being a child of the 60s has made me what I am today, and I'm good with that.  Wouldn't want to change a thing.


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## hollydolly (Aug 10, 2014)

MrJim said:


> I was a hippie in spirit although at the height of the movement, I was way too young. In '67 & '68, I was 10 - 11 y/o. By the time I was a teenager & had grown my hair long, it was the early 70's & though there were still plenty of hippies around, it wasn't like it was in the 60's.
> 
> But I always considered myself kind of a hippie. More of a surfer-hippie, actually.



I was the same Mr Jim, just too young to be a proper Hippie, but by the time I got into my teens in the early 70's i definitely wanted to be one, so I wore a headband and cheesecloth, and maxi skirts...and loved the whole thing. Never smoked any illegal substances tho'...but like you Ina I just wanted some peace in my life so I embraced the whole genre

Over time I may not have continued to dress in Hippy style,  but I've remained one in my head..


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## Steve (Aug 10, 2014)

I have had both hips replaced in the past few years............

DOES THAT MAKE ME A HIPPY  ??????

Most likely I am a real hippy under today's standards ....


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## oldman (Aug 10, 2014)

I was in the Marines in 1969-1973. I remember seeing a news clip of a Naval ship entering San Francisco harbor with all hands on deck in dress whites as it was passing under the Golden Gate Bridge and the hippies were standing on the bridge and some of them (the hippies) dumped cans of red paint down on them.


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## SifuPhil (Aug 10, 2014)

Like MrJim and Holly I grew up a bit too late to be an authentic hippie, but I submerged myself in many of their principles and practices.


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## GeorgiaXplant (Aug 10, 2014)

I was already well into my 20s and a wife and mother when the hippie movement started. I wasn't a bit interested.

When I was in my teens, there were beatniks, and I wasn't interested in them, either. 

Then we had yuppies. Remember them?

And Goths...OMG! One of my g'daughters thought Goth was definitely the last word. 

Was there something in between them and the hipsters of today? 

Guess I'm just old and crotchety and narrow-minded, but hipsters? Gimme a freakin' break.


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## Falcon (Aug 10, 2014)

I've always considered  most cultists being social losers for whatever reason. Quite similar to

Jehovah's Witnesses. Something in their past that makes them turn to groups with like thoughts.


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## Ina (Aug 10, 2014)

I love all you answers. I think being a hippie was and still is a mind set, so age or clothing weren't that big a factor. In 1964, I was 12. But the message I heard was "The world can change."  It has done that, some for the good, and yes, some for the bad.  Because of that movement I was able to start believing in a better world. 

By 1967, I was a divorcee with a child and another on the way. I was 15 and running from an era that needed to see an ending. I grew up with my hair at my waist, barefooted, an wearing a style later called granny gowns, so all that had to change was my geography.

Now all we need is a national hippie day. NOT!!!   :lofl:


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## Athos (Aug 10, 2014)

My friends were hippie types and I fit in with them, rather naively.
It didn't last long, looking back. (1967-70)

That period of my life is dead to me now.
I was another person. I do not miss it except
I miss my youth very much!


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## oakapple (Aug 10, 2014)

No I was never a hippie, they would have had a hard time in Yorkshire in the sixties! Think 'It Shouldn't Happen To A Vet' country [James Herriot.]Somebody would have said 'What dost tha' think tha' looks like eh lass?' Hippies always seemed a rather glam lifestyle though, swanning around with flowers in your hair, and saying things like 'Peace!' It was of it's time, like most things.


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## Falcon (Aug 10, 2014)

Oh yeah, free love, drugs, unsanitary conditions, sexually transmitted disease, walking around in a daze.

Probably trying to forget their troubles.  Glad I escaped the era.


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## JustBonee (Aug 10, 2014)

Never a hippie ...
I was too busy trying to figure out motherhood in the 60's.. with three babies in 5 years, I was preoccupied at that time..


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## GeorgiaXplant (Aug 10, 2014)

Yup. What Bonnie said!


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## hollydolly (Aug 10, 2014)

Ina said:


> I love all you answers. I think being a hippie was and still is a mind set, so age or clothing weren't that big a factor. In 1964, I was 12. But the message I heard was "The world can change."  It has done that, some for the good, and yes, some for the bad.  Because of that movement I was able to start believing in a better world.
> 
> By 1967, I was a divorcee with a child and another on the way. I was 15 and running from an era that needed to see an ending. I grew up with my hair at my waist, barefooted, an wearing a style later called granny gowns, so all that had to change was my geography.
> 
> Now all we need is a national hippie day. NOT!!!   :lofl:



Ina divorced by aged 15????  how could you have been married before aged 15 much less divorced....?...I am agog please do tell more!!


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## Ina (Aug 10, 2014)

Holly my father decided that women should be married at 13, so their husbands could control their wives wanton ways. He chose someone 40 years older than I. My mother forged my birth certificate for $500., (then she promptly left and ran off with my stepfather), so I was married shortly after my 13 birthday in a little town in backwater Texas. Eleven months after that I became  a mother. Just before I turned 15 someone informed me that my husband didn't own me. Slavery was over. Shortly after that I ran.


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## SifuPhil (Aug 11, 2014)

Falcon said:


> Oh yeah, free love, drugs, unsanitary conditions, sexually transmitted disease, walking around in a daze.
> 
> Probably trying to forget their troubles.  Glad I escaped the era.



And also questioning authority, becoming aware of the environment, raising equality issues ... 

You label them as cultists, but I wonder if they were more just a temporary division of society. True, they had their "stars" - from Carlos Castaneda to Bob Dylan - but cults don't share leadership; they usually have only one charismatic star. Hippies had dozens.

Cults tend to imprison their members, either through psychological or physical means; hippies didn't do this (although communes may have borrowed some of the psych techniques).

Good or bad, the effects and ideas hippies brought about have changed our world.


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## Justme (Aug 11, 2014)

Ina said:


> Holly my father decided that women should be married at 13, so their husbands could control their wives wanton ways. He chose someone 40 years older than I. My mother forged my birth certificate for $500., (then she promptly left and ran off with my stepfather), so I was married shortly after my 13 birthday in a little town in backwater Texas. Eleven months after that I became  a mother. Just before I turned 15 someone informed me that my husband didn't own me. Slavery was over. Shortly after that I ran.



That is TERRIBLE, how was that legal?


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## Ina (Aug 11, 2014)

It wasn't, that was the reason for the forged birth certificate.


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## Ina (Aug 11, 2014)

Phil, your totally correct. That's why it impressed me so much. I never was in a commune, unless you consider my father church as one. I do. :wave:


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## taffboy (Aug 11, 2014)

The nearest I have been to Been a hippie was wearing dried melon seeds on a string round my neck  hair on my shoulders and playing a guitar on a beach in North wales


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## MrJim (Aug 11, 2014)

As was said, being a hippy was a state of mind, or even just a way of seeing life & the world. The hair, clothing & music were all just the trappings & window dressing. Things that created a kind of common bond & told others of like mind "This is who I am. I'm one of you". 

I remember how when I was around 10 in '67, I idolized hippies. And even though my hair was only slightly shaggier than most kids, I got called "hippie" fairly often. A couple of times by a mean, a-hole PE teacher in 5th & 6th grade.

I had this friend in my neighborhood who was a couple of years older than me, who I tagged around after, & who was a very talented artist/hippie wannabe. This kid could really draw for someone his age. His "thing" was drawing little (8½" x 11") "psychedelic posters". He'd draw something like a rock & roll guy playing an electric guitar in the center, then do all these pop culture words like peace, love, LSD, acid, pot, The Beatles, Doors, Jefferson Airplane etc etc all around it in wavy interlocking block lettering. 

This type of thing:









Really cool looking. Of course, I was always trying to copy him & do my own. They weren't bad, but I never could get mine to look quite as cool as his.


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## SifuPhil (Aug 11, 2014)

Jefferson Airplane at the Fillmore - wish I could have been there to see that, it must have been quite an experience. 

Would those posters be considered Op Art?


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