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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Uniform

The hippie dress code was the talk of the town. Most school authorities disputed the style and numerous cases went to court. To school authorities, their nonconventional appearance implied defiant dress and grooming as a rejection of authority. Long hair was the most popular symbol of the young people’s right to look the way they pleased. Following that were beards, headbands, miniskirts, tie-die, and many other bohemian looks. Their need for individuality shook up the Middle American dress code.


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The hippie look went even further with patched and torn blue jeans, fringed jackets, funky dresses, ragged T-shirts, desert boots, and sandals. Even more controversial, were the women going braless and the people walking barefoot. Hippies also enjoyed painting their bodies and faces with psychedelic colors and wearing flowers in their hair and behind their ears. The more shocking they dressed the more they outraged adults- and the more they enjoyed the commotion they created. Soon fashion designers were manufacturing the counterculture’s style of dress.

Haight-Ashbury: Hippie Headquarters

Haight-Ashbury played a huge role in the 1960’s hippie movement. It is a district of San Francisco and attracted random runaways and high school dropouts. Early in the sixties many long haired, bearded hippies flocked to Haight-Ashbury because of high rents in other San Francisco neighborhoods. Known for its vibrant colored “head shops,” stores that sold psychedelic art and drug paraphernalia, Haight-Ashbury soon became hippie headquarters. LSD, a favored drug, was openly available in the streets because California legalized it in 1965.

This explains it all




Have you ever heard of the “Summer of Love?” Little did I know this occurred in Haight-Ashbury, in 1967. Summer of Love transpired because earlier that year the “World’s First Human Be-In” was organized in Golden Gate Park, right by the district. Twenty thousand costumed flower children rang bells, danced ecstatically, chanted, consumed drugs, and handed flowers out to police officers. This event later drew a hundred thousand people to Haight-Ashbury, because of its media popularity. The young people came that summer to experience the Summer of Love.



Human Be-In 1967
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Time magazine reported Haight-Ashbury was “the vibrant epicenter of the hippie movement.” That 1967 summer became a melting pot of music, psychedelic drugs, sexual freedom, creative expression, and politics. As word spread, these neighborhoods became too overcrowded and many hippies fled to isolated farms and college towns.


Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Rise

After my first post I realized how hard it's going to be to hit all the subjects I want to and not blab randomly on all sporadic ideas that spark. So to keep myself inline I want to begin at point A- the rise of the hippie.

The hippie movement became a subculture for mainly white teenage Americans in the early1960’s. Ranging from 15-25 years old, this matchless group had a very strong outlook on life and did not hesitate to voice their opinions on any given issue. Though completely uninterested in contemporary society, the hippie movement rejected established institutions, middle class values, war [Vietnam], and nuclear weapons. By 1965 hippies were an established social group in the U.S and had spread all over the globe.

The hippie culture unfolded through a blending of rock music, folk, blues, and psychedelic rock. They also found representation through arts, fashion, literature, and film. All these interests sparked their lifestyles and became ways of expressing their feelings, their campaigns and protests, as well as their revelation of the world.

Monday, February 2, 2009

You learn as I learn

Aren’t hippies just loveable stoners? …Yea, not quite. Today’s generation has tagged hippies with a label that far exceeds who they are as Americans. The stereotypical belief is that hippies are burnt out on Mary Jane, love to be as sexual as possible, are big fans of tie-dye, and spread peace on all subjects. While all these qualities are not incorrect, what has been left unmentioned are the many other attributes hippies embrace.