Chronicles of an Old Hippy

This may sound weird coming from me if you've read any of my previous blogs. I am an American, Christian, Right Wing, Conservative, Republican, Pro-life, Heterosexual and pretty much stick to those titles. So you wouldn't think I would know a damn thing about being a hippy. We all start as a blank in the beginning of our lives. Some people stay that way for a long time. Others begin to suck up whatever comes in front of them, and before long they are able to claim at least one title. We are all heads full of mush waiting to be molded, and depending upon who or what we expose ourselves to we will take on characteristics of each experience. Deciding to claim a title based on those experiences is our own choice.

Before I was all of the above, I was the opposite of almost each one. I've always thought of myself as an American patriot and despite the titles I've claimed over time I remain an American patriot. These days though there is no exact definition of an American patriot. You can be anyone else as far as politics go and the same stands for religious or "spiritual" belief. (I emphasize "spiritual" because I think a lot of people are simply too politically correct to identify themselves as believing in God and going so far as to say they are Christians. So in their own chicken hearted way they claim to be "spiritual" so they don't ruffle any feathers.) So regardless of the other stands you take you can claim to be a patriot even if you are not whatever the mainstream thinks you should be.

So here I am, the conservative that most people will simply hate for saying I am, writing about being an old hippy. I have started a video blog to try and explain what being a hippy was back in the late 60's and early 70's. I did this because some people saw a video response I had made as a reply to another video about hippy slang. Apparently my response caught the eye of a lot of young people wanting to know what it was like being a hippy or even wanting to be hippies themselves. I was asked by several of these young people to tell them about my experiences. So I went to Youtube and started the, "Chronicles of an Old Hippy".

When I started to tell the story, I was thinking I would be able to do so in about 5 or 6 episodes. As I began to gather my thoughts though, it opened a door in the back of my brain and all kinds of memories started to come forward. Every time I would start a new epidsode I would think of about 20 other things that would have led up to the point I was trying to make. It was overwhelming. I thought I would be talking about the '68 Democrat National Convention by the third episode, but as I would begin to gather my thoughts, something else that made a point would jump into my head and I kept putting the DNC away until those points could be made. There was so much that I had experienced that it almost made me overload. I just can't seem to tell this story in a few episodes. So with this blog, I am hoping to start putting it into words so I can put it all on the proper timeline. It might end up being a book if these crazy memories keep jumping out at me. Whatever it takes, I want to tell this story.

This will dissappoint a lot of young people. Even if I spelled everything out to you on what it was like being a hippy, you can never experience it for yourself. It is impossible to compare what was going on back then to anything that is happening now. So many people think the war in Iraq parallels the war in Vietnam, and it just isn't the same. There is no way to compare one to another. I see protests popping up and people trying to relive the hippy days and thiking they are the same as the old hippies were. Sorry, but it isn't the same thing. You can maybe be neo-hip or whatever, but the days of the hippies has come and gone. The old hppies are well into their 50's and 60's and ironically, most of them have probably turned into the very people they were trying to rebel against in the old days. Some have become college professors in the hope of keeping their past alive, but they will find that today's youth are nothing like who they used to be. There can never be another 60's and 70's experience. I'l be happy to tell you what I used to be, but you'll never be able to be who I was. So follow the chronicles and learn about history, but if you are doing so to try and relive the era, it can never happen. You are in your own journey right now and maybe some day a kid will ask you what it was like to be you. You can tell them, but your era will come and go as well and they will never be able to be the person you were.