Sex, Drugs & Rock n' Roll: The Hippie Generation

"If it feels good, do it!" When I was a kid growing up in the late sixties, that saying was everywhere; bumper stickers, tee-shirts and posters. Those 6 words truly defined the essence of the hippie way of life. This new generation of young people trying to find their place in the world quickly discovered that the world was no place for them; so they made their own place, their own world. This world revolved around astrology, free love, drugs, and rock n' roll. Shunning mainstream society in favor of communes, bell bottoms, and beads, the hippies redefined youthful rebellion in a way that won't be soon repeated.
The hippies were children of the cold war, growing up with the constant threat of nuclear disaster. Every now and then their school day was interrupted with a bomb drill where the kids had to climb under their desks and wait until Russia was through annihilating the U.S. of A. (I never understood why the teachers insisted that we fold our hands over the back of our necks as we huddled under our desks; was that really going to make a difference?) Bomb shelters popped up in the neighborhood, which brought comfort to the adults but not to the budding flower children. These kids wanted something different for their future, and as they became teenagers and young adults they realized that they could do something about it.

The youth of the 1960's had plenty of opportunities to protest against what they felt was wrong and unjust. Widespread racism and discrimination, despite the Civil Rights Act, led to the birth of militant groups such as the Black Panthers. The National Order of Women was founded in 1966 and the endless battle to be seen as more than just sex objects or mothers began. And almost everyone was against the war in Vietnam, blacks and whites, males and females. Unlike militant groups, the hippies chose to protest the war in Vietnam peacefully, with marches and sit-ins. Despite their peaceful intent, these protests sometimes took a violent turn. In 1970 the National Guard converged on a group of unarmed student protesters at Kent State University. Thirteen students were shot; four of them fatally. Although there would be other protests, some of them involving violence and death, the shootings at Kent State would always stand out as the most horrific.
Another major cause these young, "beautiful people" (as they called themselves) found themselves protesting about was the physical environment in which they lived. As these young flower children grew up from Mother Earth they began to realize the damage that was being done to her. In 1969, a disastrous oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California (where many a hippie still reside to this day) brought ecology to the forefront of the hippie mind. More protests, marches and sit-ins eventually led to the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, and on April 22, 1970 the first Earth Day was declared. The Environmental Protection Agency was formed to monitor and clean up pollution and toxic waste. This "teenage wasteland" of pot smoking long-hairs wasn't such a waste after all.
Hippies embraced Mother Earth with the same passion that they embraced each other. Communing with nature was their way of life, and nothing was more natural to the hippies than drugs. What could be more natural than a weed that grew out of Mother Earth herself? Of course the hippies didn't stop at just marijuana consumption. Pills, mescaline, and LSD were used indiscriminately. Psychedelic drugs were the inspiration behind the colorful fashions and wild works of art that are still so easily recognized as "hippie". LSD wasn't just inspiration, it was religion itself. Lifelong hippie Skip Stone tries to explain it this way, "if using marijuana encourages thoughts about God, and mescaline is like seeing or talking to God, then an LSD trip is like experiencing the world as God. That is its mind-blowing potential." Cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin were also used, but the average hippie stuck to weed and acid. "Avoid all needle drugs," said Abbie Hoffman (the most famous hippie of his time?). "The only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon."
Arguably, some of the greatest song lyrics of the Hippie Era can be credited to psychedelic drugs. "Purple haze, all in my brain, lately things don't seem the same. Actin' funny, but I don't know why. 'Scuse me, while I kiss the sky" (Jimi Hendrix); "One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small. Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall" (Jefferson Airplane); "Break on through to the other side" (The Doors). Music has always been a way for people to express themselves, and the hippies had no trouble at all expressing themselves. Half a million people witnessed the greatest display of musical expression to date on a dairy farm in upstate New York in August of 1969. It was there that the Woodstock Music Festival took place, and although others have tried (Woodstock II, the Us Festival), it has never been duplicated.
Two young hippie-types, Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld, meet up with two suit-types, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman, in Woodstock, New York, with the initial plan of opening a recording studio. A music festival was planned to help fund the studio, hippies providing the inspiration and suits putting up the cash. That recording studio never happened in Woodstock, but the music festival that happened in Woodstock really happened, and by that I mean it really happened, man.

Originally planned for 50,000 paid concert-goers and 50,000 party-crashers, the festival saw an incredible 500,000 in all. It is estimated that an additional 250,000 tried to go but were unable to get to the site; 4000 of those held tickets and would receive refunds. Those who did make it to Max Yasgur's dairy farm August 16th, 1969 spent the next three days stoned out of their minds, rolling around in the mud listening to Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, The Grateful Dead, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Thirty performers would grace the stage before it was over, two babies were born and two people died (one overdosed on heroin, the other was run over by a tractor). What should have been a catastrophe due to the enormous crowd and the lack of facilities, food, and shelter, was instead a huge success. The hippie philosophy had always been minimalist, after all; they didn't need much.

Monday morning, August 18th, Jimi Hendrix closed the Woodstock Music Festival with an amazing instrumental rendition of the Star Spangled Banner to the last 40,000 weary hippies. Finally, it was over. Having been a part of history, the tired and muddy hippies began to make their way home.
Soon bell bottoms would give way to acid wash jeans, disco was heard over classic rock, and the yuppie replaced the hippie. Each generation finds ways to explore, define, and rebel. For the hippies those three days at Woodstock came to represent what was the epitome of their peaceful, fun-loving nature: sex, drugs, and rock n' roll.

"If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with..." (Steven Sills).

References
Evans, Mike & Kingsbury, Paul. (2009). Woodstock: Three Days That Rocked The World. New York/
London: Sterling Publishing.

Stone, Skip. (2000). Hippies A to Z: Their Sex, Drugs, Music, and Impact on Society From The Sixties
to The Present. New Mexico: Hip, Inc.