Woodstock and the hippie nation

I am a hippie. I don't apologize for that fact. Today is my 61st birthday. Forty years ago, I had the chance to be at Max Yazgur's farm in upstate NY. David Nonnemaker, one of my roommates at the house on North West St., had heard about the concert and wanted me to go with him. We would hitchhike. It had been a little more than a month since we had returned from the Atlanta Pops festival. I had two jobs and, much to my chagrin, decided not to go. The trip would have probably taken four or five days each way, depending on how long it took us to catch rides. I would have been gone for two weeks or more. I needed money. In retrospect, it was a good decision. Atlanta was much closer and the Pops Festival had been over the July 4th holiday.
I wish I had been there to witness and partake in the happening. People were there from Thursday through Monday. No fights. People sharing everything they had with total strangers. The citizens of Bethel feeding the concert attendees and telling the national news outlets how well-behaved the hippies were throughout the weekend. This is the "hippiedom" to which I ascribe. Not the crap that emanated from San Francisco during the "Summer of Love". Those 10,000 were mostly Manson (Charlie not Marilyn). They were street people, much as you would find in any large city today. Unwashed. Thieving. Belligerent. Confrontational. NOT hippies. They were more like a mob of freeloaders who converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and became freeloaders.
A true hippie is one who practices ideals. Look for the best in everyone. Help those in need. Make love; not war. It's not about a style of dress, although I still love the tie-died T-shirts, no underwear, no socks, shorts and my long hair. Buffett and his parrotheads are hippies. You don't have to be poor. You don't have to give away all your possessions or wealth. You do need to take a shower at least once a day! And don't be a poseur. Like Abbie Hoffman. The way Pete Townshend bitch-slapped Hoffman around on the stage at Woodstock is a thing of beauty. I just wish someone had film. And, in that vein: Does anyone even remember John Sinclair? Not many folks. But most remember Pete threatening Abbie Hoffman (and EVERYONE at the festival) with a sound thrashing if they interrupted The Who again. Still hilarious stuff.
Hippies are misunderstood. Those who flaunt their hippiness are similar to flaming queen gays. One of the tenets of being a hippie is doing good deeds without any fanfare or expectation of any reward. We work every day. We pay our taxes and raise our children. Many of us are conservative. Some even go to church. We laugh at the derisive attitude that many people take of us. We were the campus rebels who sat in with our friends from Jackson State on the day after the Gibbs and Green shootings. We were peaceful. But we were upset and angry. Only ten days prior to these shootings, the Kent State massacre took place. Yes, we were naive. We wanted to change the world. Our black friends at Millsaps were headed to Lynch St. to meet with their friends. Some of us were asked to accompany them because they felt that some white kids in the mix might cause the Jackson police and Mississippi National Guard to act in a restrained manner. Some of us were Lynch St. regulars because of the Paradise Club and Percy, the proprietor. We used to go there on Sundays because you could sit and watch a football game and drink beer. You could not do that in the white neighborhoods. Our sit-in had no purpose other than to show the world that we cared. We were still pretty raw from Kent State. To this day, I am still terribly bothered by Kent State.
We protested the war. But, when it was our time to go, most of us went. I did. I was married, a father, and a college graduate. But I served my time honorably. We were also more rounded than our parents. I was an athlete and a thespian and a hippie. I saw no contradiction. I still don't. I'm still a hippie and I will be until I die. I am an organ donor. I was a bone marrow donor volunteer until age 55, when I was drummed out of the program due to my age. I gave blood. Upon my death, I have donated my body to UMC. I pay my bills. I am fiscally conservative. I don't believe in Iraq and Afghanistan, just like I did not believe in Vietnam. But I support every one of our troops with no hesitation. We need to keep our money at home and let these religious factions fight it out with each other, just as they have been doing for a few thousand years. I don't believe in god or religion, but I'm not bothered by those who promulgate on TV and radio.
I am terrified by Obama and Pelosi and what they can do to our country. But I support human rights. I don't care if some guy wants to parade around town with a blow-up alligator impaled on his tallywacker. He's not hurting me. I don't like radicals of any style. I quit watching and listening to idiots like Limbaugh and Olbermann and O'Reilly and Coulter. They raise my blood pressure.
I fish and hunt, but wish Vick had been put in a ring with a dozen of his own pit bulls, after he had been drenched in fresh blood. I play golf but don't like watching it on TV because it's so boring to watch. I can't stand opera, but I love most types of rock, soul and reggae. I raise some of my own vegetables, but am not adverse to consuming something that is not "free-range" or "all natural" or "heart healthy". I don't believe in global warming...or Al Gore!
In summation, being a hippie is a good thing. It's a lifestyle that can't be defined, but you know it when you meet one of us. And, chances are, you won't know it when you DO meet one of us. That's the way we like it.

Just some general "stuff"

Yesterday I watched a Tom Brokaw documentary on The History Channel titled "1968". It got me thinking. I was born at a really good time in history. I listen to the lyrics to Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty" and see that we are the same age. One (is that all??) major difference is that he shared the sack with Daryl Hannah. Lucky S.O.B.
Back to the initial thought. In 12/68, Apollo 8 became the first spacecraft to take humans to the moon and safely back to earth. Jim Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders took the Christmas trip. Now get this. (I get chills just thinking of the magnitued of the event.) They were the first humans to ever see the earth "rise". As they circled the moon, the earth rose on the moon's horizon. Billions of people have lived and died during the history of the earth and they were to first three to see this event. The following summer (7/20/69), I watched TV as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren from Apollo 11 walked on the moon. Less than a month later, I blew off a trip to upstate New York with a friend from New Jersy. It would have taken us three days to drive that far. Atlanta only took about 10 hours and we had been there over the 7/4 holiday to catch the Atlanta Pops Festival. Some really good photo coverage of the bands (including a very young Led Zeppelin!) and the 200,000 folks who attended. Too soon to hit the road again. Life is full of missed opportunities...
Wuzzup with some of these Hollywood "actors"? The clown from CSI Miami, David Caruso, leaves Hill St. Blues to pursue feature films. Yeah. Hey, Davey! How did that work out? Now his ass surfaces on TV with his faggy little sunglass drop and head tilt ad nauseum!! If this guy is an actor, I'm Barack's first cousin! He is one of the few people who can make me skip watching a TV show because he screws up everything on the show - with his mere presence!! Unfortunately, CSI Miami is not enough of an ensemble show to make up for his presence.
And what about Ice-T or Ice Cube or Black Ice or whatever the guy's name is that plays a Polynesian detective on Law & Order SVU? (At least L&O IS an ensemble show so he appears much less than little Davey.) This guy could be reading the Starkville phone book or reciting lines from King Lear or ordering ham hocks and turnip greens at the KKK Kafe and the delivery would be THE SAME!! He thinks he's some kind of a cross between Huey P. Newton and Farrakahn and that people actually buy into that "all black guys are real bad-asses" crap!! You could shoot this guy in the 'nads with a nail gun and the response would be the same as if he were delivering a line to Capt. Kragen!! And while we're on the subject of stereotypes, any male who has ever played sports and showered with his teammates can tell you that there is another myth about black men that is total crap! Oh, yeah...some white people CAN dance!!
Now let's talk about Ghost Hunters. Whether generic or "International". Have these hunters actually ever, EVER found anything? What a bunch of Geraldoesque losers!
While we're on the subject of TV, what kind of people actually watch and enjoy a bunch of fat people stabbing each other in the back and crying while they make excuse after excuse? Yes, I did some research. I watched it for about ten minutes once. That was enough for me!
Well...I feel better; how about you?