So the time was 1989. I had been given a fabulous opportunity from a PBS grant to look at the events and the people and experiences of the 1960s and ask folks who lived through it all to describe what they experienced and what they felt about it now (in 1989). The grant was to produce six hours of primetime public television. The series was called Making Sense Of The Sixties (the title provoked some critics to say that if I made sense of the 60s, clearly I didn't live through it).
My team and I interviewed several hundred people selected from thousands and each of them told their story, their way. Subscribers have seen a variety of these interviews on my KZfaq channel.
Although he called himself a hippie in my view, he was not a hippie although he certainly lived in some ways, a hippie lifestyle. He was not a druggie although he had no problem experimenting with and continuing to take a variety of drugs. In some ways he was a perennial wanderer who never really settled down I liked it that way.
He was very much his own person living in the moment. The book that best described him as he says in the interview, was Jack Kerouac's On The Road. That he identified with. So did a surprising number of Baby Boomers.
Kerouac's "On the Road" resonated with many young people when it was published in 1957 and continues to do so today for several reasons:
The novel's protagonists rejected the conventional expectations of post-WWII America. Many young people identify with this rejection of societal norms, seeking to forge their own paths and break free from expectations placed upon them by family, society or institutions.
"On the Road" chronicled a series of cross-country road trips filled with adventure, spontaneity and discovery. This sense of freedom and exploration drew young people who were yearning for similar experiences, especially in times when they felt confined by routine or societal pressure.
The characters in the novel were on a journey of self-discovery, trying to find their place in the world and make sense of their lives.
"On the Road" challenged mainstream values and explored alternative lifestyles. Many young people were drawn to its characters and embraced their rejection of materialism, their pursuit of personal freedom, and their exploration of spirituality.
As my team and I conducted these interviews, we set up each interview by telling the interviewee to speak their mind - to reflect on their lives and times, imagining that the interview would be viewed 25 or even 50 years later. Right now we are coming up on 35 years later. How does his lifestyle and his attitudes resonate with you today?
As I have mentioned in other interviews, I do not share the names of the people who I interviewed back then without their permission and I do not have his.
A few thoughts about hippies since so many commentators have either strongly positive or strongly negative feelings about them. They were a tiny group of the baby boomer 60s generation. They mostly lived outside the cities after 1970, grew organic food, smoked marijuana and took LSD, didn't involve themselves much in politics. Studies indicate that they rarely voted in elections and certainly weren’t the protesters who were another small group but were vocal and outspoken. The hippies who I interviewed back then were "love people" but also had a strict definition for what that meant, and if you didn't behave accordingly, you didn't fit. It's why so many hippies lived for a while in a communal lifestyle and then left it or were kicked out by those who remained.
The 1960s were an unusual time in American History where many young people, probably about 40% of the Baby Boomer generation, were experimenting with new, alternative lifestyles. Some of their experiments became mainstream. Many of them didn't. Some of them so say go far enough. Clearly many went too far.