I am sure many of you have heard of the "hippies", but what did they really do? I know, I know, you all believe that they were just a bunch of lazy people who dressed funny, did a lot of drugs, and smoked cigarettes all day. Wrong. The true hippies had a cause.
In a time of unsettled home lives, and changing perspectives on life, the hippies were an outlet for the children of the 50's who no longer wished to conform to their parent's standards. The Vietnam War was raging and nobody, except for the older generation, wanted to fight it. Thousands of college kids were being pulled out of their lives to go fight a war that they didn't believe in. In response, a counter culture arose.
The hippies, as they began to be called, took a stand against their parents' generation. They used many different forms of protest including music, movies, and even their every day way of life. They lived simply, sometimes even in colonies with peace and love at the core of every action. Eventually the focus of the Beat Generation moved to a district of San Francisco called The Haight.
At the intersection of Haight Street and Ashbury Street thousands of teenagers flocked in order to join their fellow protesters. The Haight became the scene of "The Summer of Love". Influential music began pouring out of The Haight. Acts like the Jefferson Airplane, the Mamas and the Papas, and the (at the time) unknowns Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix ruled with an iron fist. The culmination of the Summer of Love was the Monterey Pop Festival. There was a feeling of change in the air and everyone knew it was coming, this was something big.
They wanted to change the world; they wanted to make the world a place where they felt comfortable in too. They no longer wanted to think of life as growing up, getting married, having kids, and living in a normal house, in a normal neighborhood. The times were changing and they were going to make sure that the change was forever. Unfortunately, The Haight became a scene of despair. The Summer of Love came to an end and thousands of teenagers were left with nowhere to live, no jobs, and many of them had begun to use illegal drugs. The Haight eventually faded back to "normal" life as its inhabitants returned to their "normal" lives.
But their ideas live on today. The people of The Haight created a stir back in the summer of 1967, a stir that no one will forget any time soon. The Monterey Pop Festival had changed the sound of music forever, and the Beat Generation shook the country to its core. The Vietnam War was over. From then on, life was never the same in the United States. Rock and Roll ruled the airwaves and the idea of peace and love stayed with everyone who shared that summer in The Haight.
They did not give up their dreams back in that summer; they just moved on and took their dreams with them. Dream big, who knows what will happen?
Thanks for taking time out to change the world,
Screamxx
