What if the full flowering of the Hippie culture never fully bloomed in the area you were brought up at ? Growing up in my area through the 50s,60s,70s and so on we only caught smatterings of what was going on in more 'civilized' areas, Weed seemed to hit the scene early enough though,and a few embraced the the Hippie culture,while others took on all the trappings for the sake of being fashionable. There was alot of folk around here that were deemed 'Heads' or heavy duty reefer smokers,but alot of them not only smoked pot,they drank,and did everything else that came down the pike. Ever witnessed a Good Old Southern boy tripping his brains out? The Acid,Hash,Weed,Mushrooms, and other stuff that everyone no doubt has had some type of dealings with changed alot of us. Don't think I could handle LSD at this point of my life. Weed on the other hand is not a bad thing,unless lungs get clogged up with the same shit one pulls out of a small soapstone pipe at cleaning time. I've known someone who has smoked it for close to 40 years,and still functions as a productive member of society. The days of fruit flavored and colored rolling papers came to a end around here. I think it's still illegal mostly because it lends to a free way of thinking and most people I know who use it have little to no malice in their hearts. That makes some very nervous. Damn! got off my own topic. Now I see young Hippie like people more and more,when I make it into town.Talked with a few in a eatery about something called The Whole Earth Catalog,which I'm lucky enough to own an issue from 1970. You really feel both your age and old familiar feelings when conversing with some of the younger folk. Anyway that was my bit of rambling.
I'm from a small town in NY. I saw the hippy thing come and go there. There were very few of us. Mostly just people TRYING to be hip (they weren't). But EVERYBODY, almost without exception, who I went to school with did smoke weed. Now those people are the ones who run the town. They all got more than just a taste of the hippy movement. Now they are the status quo. It's all pretense. Scary. The problem there was too many old family names, and old money = too much power. The REAL hippys were the outcasts. Being a hippy had NOTHING to do with smoking weed. Ain't any hippys there to speak of any more. I think most of the hippys that live around there now I'm related to... Yup, I always thought the ENTIRE reason it was made illegal was because it made people THINK, outside the box. And we can't have that. But to look at all those people now, I guess it really didn't matter. You're either a hippy or not. Too bad ALL those who were gettin' high on weed and trip back in the day, the ones in charge of stuff now, don't just do it again and stop pretending. The world might go thru some changes for the better. Where I live now, 30 years ago was FLOODED with hippys. Cheap land, food co-ops, a prevalence of like minded souls, and the perfect climate for growing weed brought most of them here. We had a HUGE effect on the economy during that time, probably saved the area from going bankrupt. Grow weed, sell it out of state, spend yer money on supplies for building homes and all. 'Twas nothing to run into 25 people at the local food co-op on a Sunday afternoon when they were officially closed, because it was the only place at the time where there were good SCALES to weigh the weed on. And it was a good place to spend the night if you didn't have wheels and you lived out in bumfuck boonies somewhere. An enterprising person with some money to invest could have opened a coin operated SHOWER and made a killing. Back then NOBODY had indoor plumbing or electricity. Some were living in busses, some in tipis, some in barns. One dude lived in a cave. But you can't hide from the AUTHORITIES. They were not happy campers. Oh, the LOCAL cops were ok, tended to look the other way, but the STATE cops and the feds shut it all down, starting in '84. I got chased by a helicopter thru the woods myself. After that alot of folks left the area. Mass exodus. The mayor (of 28 years now) who resembles an Italian version of Boss Hog bought up half the town and started shutting down hip hangouts, eventually ruining the town entirely by bringing in Wally World, Wendys, Micky-D's, etc. No more food co-op, no more cool pubs, only redneck bars. The State Police have gotten more and more powerful and it's turned into a police state. Scary how many people I know who are in the regional jail... The partyers nowdays are just into anything that will get them a buzz, and they DEFINATELY ain't hippys! We tried, we really did. For many years this area was FLOODED with LSD (until the biggest drug bust in the history of Hoboken NJ). Yea, I know all about redneck good old bubbas on drugs. It just doesn't work too well. Hippy is a mentality, most folks have gone farther and farther away from it. Back when there were alot of us here, we got to being VERY accepted locally, but were seen as something like a cult. It was real easy to get rides if ya hitchiked, because the locals were fascinated. Some of them thought we "all look alike", and the hippy community was referred to me more than once as "your people". That felt good... Now it's like, you are better off staying home and not waving your freak flag too much, or you will turn into a target for the police. Unless of course you are one of the mayors "associates" (drug runners.) Oh, and the guy who lived in the cave. That was back in the early 70's. His neighbors didn't like him much (dirty hippy) and they burned his house down. Then when he moved into his barn, they burned his barn down. So he got his gun and his chickens and went to live in the cave. The neighbors called the law on him for threatening them with his gun (wouldn't you?) and when the law showed up he started firing before he even realized who it was, so they gunned him down, dead. But, HE SHOT THE SHERIFF (but he didn't shoot the deputy).... It's HARD to find any real hippys who are the younger crowd. The ones who most closely resemble hippys want to hang out because they think it's cool, but they don't have a clue. The others are more like gawkers 'cause they see us as something of a far out oddity. They like it, but they don't get it, no matter how ya try to make a difference. Hey, I even got accused of being a "fake hippy" by some crazy wild ass redneck woman, who figured because I was fake I needed to be dosed with meth without my knowledge... Karma is a bitch, too bad she didn't get it sooner. She died in a house fire at the ripe old age of 46. Too drunk and fucked up on pills to find the door.
I never considered myself as a Hippie,although now and back in the day my hair stayed long,never wore big bell bottoms,because they got snagged on roots and shrubbery while running from the local 'Fuzz' through the more wooded places in my neck of the woods.Although Southern I never embraced the Red-Neck Culture either,but have fished and hunted only for food and Deer hide used in crafts and clothes,would turn a cheek but was able to realize at an early age I only had two to spare. Read Castaneda along with Cambell and took a few Journeys.Read Rubin's and Hoffman's revolutionary Books and wonder where in the fucking hell they are now? More of a Southern Green-nik. Cocaine killed off alot of my friends in the 80s,tried it a few times but never cared for the teeth gritting ups and downs or looking out a window every every five minutes. Was more of a Pot-Head never embracing anyone culture in full. Remember? - "Loyal to none sworn to Fun" Always hated polititions who apply their craft with the prose of a used car saleman or timeshare barker. Do they have Red-Necks in NewYork ? I'd wager they sound abit different than some of the cats down here living in all their New Dixie glory,but to each their own as long as they don't bother me things are fine. I agree times have gotten rather strange here of late (past 6 years) EarthMother how is the weather up yonder? Any BigFoot critters around your way? Think I caught a glimpse of one near the West Virginia border once during a camping trip. Stay safe and hopefully things will get better before we pass. Black Jim
Ditto on books read. Sounds like our librarys are similar. Rednecks in New York, yes, but they're educated and have alot of money. Good old boys, lots of them are farmers. Here, they are alot more down to earth for the most part, I suppose it's the money difference, 'cause the oil and gas bubbas are more like the New York ones. Gosh, this sounds terrible!!! Hahaha! Weather in WV is like spring with too short of days. One day with snow, it melted in a few hours. Dry spells and then lots of rain. Thought we might have a flash flood on Christmas... Goin' campin this weekend. Bigfoot. Absolutely, at least there were 20 years ago (last encounter). I lived WAY OUT IN THE STICKS. They used to come on the dark of the moon and get real close to the house. Scared the dogs stiff. You could hear 'em plain as day, walking on TWO legs thru the leaves. Never did see 'em, but sounded like there were 2 of them. We actually thought someone was hiding in the woods near the house and waiting to rob us the first time we heard them. Later found you could stand outside and TALK to them and they would come closer, up to a point. Didn't want to be seen. Never saw the dogs react like that to anything but bear before, and even with a bear they would at least come out from under the house to bark... Whole neighborhood heard the darned thing howling one night. Damndest sound I ever heard in the woods. I thought the neighbors were drunk and whooping it up. Cross between an owl and a chimpanzee sound. But definately not an owl, nor a bobcat or panther either. Actually scared the neighbor so bad, he came running to my house, locked the door behind him, ran and shut all my windows and turned off all the lights! Scared shitless. Not drunk. Said it was pacing back and forth right behind his house... Dogs run under the house and howled with the hair up on their necks.
Some years back three of us traveled a bit westward to Alleghany County Virginia for camping,fishing,feasting, and quaffing along with other forms of relaxation.We made camp at Morris Hill State Campground in the late morning hours,then made our way down to the Jackson River in hopes of taking some trout out of the water,caught a few Browns and little Brookies,released them back into the river before heading back up to camp to grill steaks from Covington, served up with beans and camp taters,followed by some well deserved fine hard amber spirits,a pipe or three and chump change drunken camp poker. One member of our small party kept eye-balling the pipe-weed,and we could soon tell the poor fellow had fallen into a deep internal struggle,his job tested pee.Although in an earlier time a heavy smoker,8 years had passed since he fired up.After weighing it out in his head in that dark woodland setting he made a grab for the'Whoodee' bowl and smoked like a rotten wood fire. He had too much for such a long time without. Oh shit! That stuff on top of the booze brought about changes in his camping-charcter. Early May under a full moon,and thank the gods we were the only ones camping at Morris Hill or else the cops might of showed up in response to a call of possible heavy duty substance induced weirdness.Our comrade leaped from the campsite picnictable,bounded right up to our fire and begain to issue strange,booming almost inhuman howl-like calls into the cool upland night only stopping after breaking out in strange shortbreath laughter. He wandered off and we built up the fire as a beacon,but not before hearing weird howl-like calls answering back as in return,thought it might of been a hairlipped coyote or owl. As we prepared for sleep,we heard a crashing through the brush. It was our friend returning from his journey. Time to crash. Guess it was around 4:00 am or so when I awoke hearing something big moving around our camp.My first thought was Bear as we a grill and old coals filled with steak juices.It was when our cookware was being moved about and our grill crashed down,all three of us were awake,with no small concerns.......
Weapons were unsheathed and unholstered, hearts pounding. We wanted to unzip our tent's windows,but did not want to attract any more attention. At one point during this ordeal something began fumbling with our tent and the sound of two pistols being cocked broke the silence within.We heard our 'visitor' move towards the picnic table. I remember one of us saying "I'm sick and tired of being scared" and because of my place near the tent's door, I unzipped it to peer out followed by the other members of our party only to see a large dark upright shape/creature walking into the surrounding woods.The stench of rotten cabbage or something dead covered the whole campsite. The rest of our trip went off without a hitch,except on the third night there we heard the sound of branches being broken aways off,and the next morning noticed the tops of about five saplings had been snapped over. We could not find tracks of any sort as the dirt was dry and hard.
