Ravings of a Long Haired Dude

On Becoming a Hippie

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January 3, 2021 prompt:
True confessions: Tell us why you'll always be a hippy.


I am what you could call a second generation hippie  . I grew up after the main hippie era in the 1960s. I went through various experiences that made me slip gradually into the hippie worldview.

I was born in 1962. I saw a few hippies in the '60s, but was too young to really understand what they were. Hippies were often on the news that was on every evening, standing opposite the years long stream of the horrors of war coming out of Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos.* This contrast worked its way into my young mind. I think that was the beginning of my transformation. These disturbing images continued until 1975 when I was 14.

In middle school, I realized that I was a really nerdy looking square sort of kid. I couldn't handle that. I started growing my "Hair"  and started getting into Rock and Roll music. I listened to music from the'70s at first, and worked my way back to some of the more psychedelic music of the'60s. I got to hanging out with the partyers. Some of them were long haired, but I wouldn't really call them hippies. They didn't have the values of peace and love.

Later, as a young adult, I got to hanging around with a larger variety of people, mostly partyers. Some were questionable, to say the least. I suppose that I was fortunate to have survived. Others were good honest people. Some were true original hippies. I saw the good in their values   and worldview.

I eventually altered my state of mind permanently, opening it to what I perceive myself to be, a hippie. I can be nothing else.


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Here is a good overview of the ways of hippies. I don't live all of it. I take what is good for me from the hippie lifestyle. For example, "free love" in its fullest form isn't healthy these days. It never was that appealing to me anyway.

Hippies From A to Z  

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*Though I am not a lover of war, I do support our military and veterans.

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