A Hippie is a member of the counterculture that began in the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world including of course Canada.
Although I never called myself a hippie, I was generally sympathetic to the causes the movement supported, love, freedom, and rock and roll. They, like me considered ourselves rebels against the “establishment.”
The hippies were also generally opposed to the War in Vietnam. They endorsed the expression “Make Love, Not War.” I had sadly, supported the war while in High School but came to my senses by the time I reached University.
Sometimes they called themselves “flower children.” I actually started calling myself a flower child, much later in life when I started to pursue the beauty in wild flowers.
Illicit Drugs were a common part of the hippie culture. They often felt the drug laws were arcane and stupid. Which of course they were.
The movement died out in name if not spirit in the 1970s when those who identified with it became doctors, lawyers, business people, and other unsavory characters. Sell-outs in other words.
But the spirit of hippies lived on and obviously continues to live on with the likes of the proprietor of the Hippie Shop that we saw in Coombs B.C. where we stopped after visiting Cathedral Grove. Unfortunately I did not get his photograph.
I don’t disavow many of the views I held then and believe they are still valid today, even though I have failed to live up to them. I particularly love the music of the times. Music that is hard to beat and will live on forever, I believe. Long live the hippies.
Time at the Hippie Store brought back some great old memories. I’m glad Stef dragged us to Coombs