<p>Just found this thread. Oh boy! I’m feeling very old.
My elementary school was a few blocks from what was to become the Fillmore East and my favorite hangout was the public library that bordered on Tompkins Square Park. In the late 50’s to mid 60’s, the area was so alive and exciting. Allen Ginsberg lived there with Peter Orlovsky. Jonas Mekas and his Living Theatre. Cafe La Mama. Lenny Bruce lived on St. Marks Place. Sam Shepard too. Avant garde painters were everywhere. The Catholic Worker and Committee for Non Violent Action were in the neighborhood. St. Marks Church showed experimental movies. Amazing free concerts at Cooper Union-I remember hearing Olatunjie and Hamza el Din there.
It became very weird when the hippies started pouring on to these streets. Lots of panhandling and drugs. My friends and I thought they were all wealthy suburban kids and missed the point of the artistic and political vitality of this neighborhood.
And I’m so old… I remember when Janis Ian was a Music and Art HS student and hung out at the City College cafeteria. She was already gaining recognition. Tiny Tim hung out there too. And Moon Dog hung out mid town.</p>
<p>I still have a pamphlet of poems I picked up from Moon Dog for a small contribution. </p>
<p>(Should I wonder what it would fetch on eBay?)</p>
<p>Moondog in full Viking outfit spent some time in Madison and I have a photo of him I took on campus talking to some very cool looking girl.</p>
<p>[Slide</a> show: Revolution?s Wallpaper (Feb. 8, 2008)](<a href=“http://www.news.wisc.edu/14714]Slide”>Slide show: Revolution’s Wallpaper)</p>
<p>Those were the days my friend.</p>
<p>tsdad: Posters amazing.</p>
<p>First earth day? I have a sweet memory of my dad who is no longer with us. He was a packaging executive in a massive sweet at the Americana Hotel on 6th Ave. the day of the First Earth Day. Kids were congregating at Central Park. Dad said, “Go get those kids. Packaging is a major polluter. Tell them to picket my conference.”</p>
<p>second spring: wow! Lots of action.</p>
<p>Ditto on the FBI folder. Member of SDS and The Red Balloon Collective.</p>
<p>After the earth day demo went to BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) to see Peter Brook’s highly touted production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Hippie all the way, and the best night in the theater I’ve ever had.</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - George Carlin The Hippy Dippy Weatherman](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1uaw3WIOlc]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1uaw3WIOlc)</p>
<p>Great posters tsdad.</p>
<p>mythmom-growing up, my friends and I had no clue how unusual our neighborhood was, we just took it for granted. A bunch of us still get together every few years and often end up talking about the remarkable people and events we were exposed to.</p>
<p>Back to being old here-I remember cutting out of school with my friends-I think in 1961 and marching in front of the UN as part of the First World Wide General Strike for Peace. AJ Mustee spoke, I think David Dellinger too.</p>
<p>I went to HS with Dave Dellinger’s daughter. She was a pretty normal teen with little political interest–that came later at the trial.</p>
<p>Emerald, et al. Wrong tense in title.</p>
<p>Speaking of roaches, how about the Roches?</p>
<p>Thisoldman - I think you put your finger on it. “Hippie” was/is a state of mind, not a style of clothing or set of standard experiences.</p>
<p>
I saw it at the Kennedy Center and was equally enchanted. I wrote a review for our school newspaper.</p>
<p>Here are some nice images from the production: [url=<a href=“http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Drama/msndconcepts.html]UW”>http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Drama/msndconcepts.html]UW</a> Libraries - Drama :: Midsummer Night’s Dream-Directors’ Concepts<a href=“scroll%20down”>/url</a></p>
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<p>Plus it’s all relative. To many students at my conservative college I was an outrageous Hippie. To authentic dropped-out, dope-taking, commune-living, counterculture Hippies, I was a pretty straight shooter. </p>
<p>I went to many rock concerts including a few Woodstock-wannabe local rock festivals. The very first concert I saw was Jimi Hendrix - when I was still in high school. What a way to start! I had a great record collection. I had a peace sign sticker on the back of my car. I hated the war in Viet Nam and took part in a protest - but it never came to tear gas, billy clubs, or getting arrested. I didn’t like Nixon. I worried a lot about civil rights and social injustice. My hair looked scruffy and I sometimes wore tie-dyed shirts and/or a leather jacket with a fringe. And I wore sandals for several years.</p>
<p>But I never had long hair down my back. I wasn’t much interested in dope. I wasn’t a vegetarian. I bathed every day. I never went barefoot. I never dropped out or lived in commune - I was always either in school or working. I never painted my face or embraced “Flower Power” (whatever that was). And I never spoke in the dopey, inarticulate Hippie language: “Hey man … Far out, man!”</p>
<p>So does that add up to having been a Hippie? Like I said, it’s all relative.</p>
<p>Um, sometimes “Far out” was the most articulate response. </p>
<p>mathmom: Thanks for those images. Wow. James Lapine’s production really looks interesting, too.</p>
<p>Since I am already logged on, </p>
<p>Yes, it is all a state of mind.
Eat more prunes.</p>
<p>Loved those posters. 
I’d forgotten about Laird and will try to again.</p>
<p>Lately I’ve been working on accuracy, not to be careless. One episode that drove the point home was reading someone who had returned to the original Woodstock site, in Bethel NY. His comment included mention of his surprise to see so many Amish people there today. Knowing the area, I cracked up, realizing he had seen Hassidic Jews instead. Beards can represent many things among many people.</p>
<p>“Eat more prunes.”</p>
<p>Yes, Adele Davis would agree.</p>
<p>I haven’t added to this conversation yet…my mother recently died following on my Dad’s departure a year ago, they were part of the greatest generation so to speak: the generation that gave birth to the hippies. I was blest to know them in very old age and recognize their contribution to the opening of the wild west, the 60s. Was it Joseph Campbell that said we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us: the labyrinth is thoroughly known…? I have never given up my digging in the dirt of time. So it is wonderful to reminisce about those most difficult, scary times that were so much fun!</p>
<p>My condolences for the loss of your parents. As I care for the WWII generation most days at work, I also deeply feel the gradual departure of this generation of for the most part good, moral, hardworking folk. Their stability and economic bedrock gave our generation great freedom. And for many of them, they eventually transitioned to our very different style with grace and acceptance, if not without a few bumps in the road.</p>