You know you're an aging hippie when...

"The flowers wilt, the milk turns sour,
The minutes pass, cometh the hour
.
Ones loses touch, with cultures youth,
But within ones heart, conviction's truth
.
Remains with conscience, a credo pure,
As waves that ebb, from seaside shore
.
And take away, to Validor land,
the sight of emptying, hour-glass sand"

 

I like that way that scans but what is 'Valid land'?

 

Your drug of choice nowadays is ibuprofen.

 

When you drive by, people hear your car stereo blasting In A Gadda Da Vida and they know it's you.

 

When you see an old mimeograph machine and your first reaction is, I could start a revolution with that!

 

When you join in a debate about Vietnam, quoting Dr. Spock, and everyone thinks you are talking about the Star Trek character.

 

Your kids want to take you out to smoke hookah, and excited, you talk about the Casbah all the way there----only to be disappointed that their idea of smoking hookah, and the meaning of 'shish,' is just a little tamer than what you were thinking...

 

You start bragging about the cool older cat who, back in the day, had a crashpad where there was always some random chicks hanging out---only to realize half way through, that he would probably be arrested as a sexual predator in today's world.


(...and then you start wondering about blaring out, Hello Little School Girl, by Ten Years After, as you drive through the neighborhood...)

 

Back in '96, I had come back to the States after about 15 years of living overseas. My first rude awakening was that there were no more bell bottoms, anywhere! ...not even flairs!

But I was going through my parent's basement when I came across my old leather hippie hat. It had been sitting there in a box for the past 15 years or more and was still in great condition. I happily put it on, and 20 minutes later, wore it as I went down to the grocery store.

The young kid working the cash register said, "Where did you get that hat?"

I proudly answered, "More like when--I've had this since 1972."

I smiled expecting some kind of compliment on it, until he responded, "You probably should have left it back there."

 

You still like hanging around young chicks----but there is that awkwardness between the idea that, 'who wouldn't wanna have fun with a hippie?' and 'Do I even know what's cool with these chicks now????'

 

When the new Volkswagon commercial (where they take the VW bus to Woodstock) leaves a tear in your eye, as you realize that those days really are gone-----when brothers and sisters really looked after each other...


...Oh sorry man----didn't mean to get all heavy on it-----forget that one-----back to the funny ones!

 

when every ache and pain is associated to a memory of something stupid you did..or something fun

 

Is there really that much of a difference? Shit dude, I broke my wrist skateboarding 5 years ago. Stupid shit you do while having fun!

C/S,
Rev J

 

=Oops typo should have been "Valinor"
Valinor is a fictional location in LOTR (known as the Undying Lands - where the Elves went)

 

You wish you could just take one of those LP's you keep holding onto, and stick it onto something to listen to it with. And the kids keep telling you there's a better way to listen to those albums now---what the hell do they know?!

 

I posted here in 2011....so fuck ya I am still an aging hippie........you know your an aging hippie when your grand child ''comes out'' at a gay pride weekend celebration in Toronto

 

When you've fallen, can't get up and don't give a shit.

 

or you've fallen

and are scared to try and get up because you might shit yourself trying