The Old Hippie jackets

Do you guys remember back in the day, taking old army jackets and painting peace signs and slogans on them with Day-Glo paints.

I had an old jacket---actually it was a large fatigue shirt that I wore over my clothes. When I lived overseas my parents claimed that it was all ratty and torn so they threw it out. In the early 2000's I found a Vietnam era army dress jacket at a Goodwill while looking for something for Halloween. I took it home and painted it, adding various slogans from the 60's, and wore it to a company Halloween Party. Younger people may not have known the full context, but the older ones definitely did and loved it. I also had things like a IV-F Guide to Draft Exemption, and Chairman Mao's Little Red Book in the pockets, my long hair, and so forth. Also my old granny glasses from 1970, and an old leather hat I bought in 1972.

One younger guy asked, "Who are you supposed to be?" My boss answered, "His younger self." Another baby boomer friend came up to me with some younger guys and said, "Look----this is how we used to do it!"

Needless to say, I won first prize. The next year, I wore it again, and again won first prize. The year after that I wore it a third time. I was told that I actually won the first prize again, but, since I won it the last two years with the same costume, they are awarding it to someone else.

Anyway, I recently realized---hey this is how I should be going to the protests! An old hippie jacket with the same big peace sign painted in the colors of the American flag on the back, but with modern political references, like, Greenland? HELL NO WE WON'T GO, NO ICE, etc. A lot of the old slogans are still appropriate and being used, like, "THE WHOLE WORLD'S WATCHING" for example.

So I am making one! It almost didn't happen though. I went to that local army surplus store, and started looking for something along the lines of a Vietnam era dress jacket. They had a bunch of complete uniforms hanging on the walls with signs that said, NOT FOR SALE. But there was nothing on the racks. I asked if the girl there if had anything like that, and she said, "No---that stuff is really hard to find now."

A lot of the newer military stuff is designed with that pixellated camouflage look, and they had some winter jackets like that. But... And then I discovered that any traditional military coat is running, like, $100! There was a Navy Pea Coat for $100! What the hell?! I bought a Pea Coat 15 years ago for less than 50!

Disappointed I left. On my way home, I thought, why don't I stop at that Goodwill store again. I didn't expect to find anything, but I figured, What the heck! Sure enough, within 5 minutes of arriving there, I found a green fatique US Marine shirt-like jacket. It is too thin to actually be a functional jacket, but it has loops for a belt and looks close enough to serve as a hippie jacket! It was $9.00, but it was a purple tag, which happened to be the discounted tag for that day------so, $4.50!

Anyway, now I can protest in style!

Yes, I'll stand out, which is not really desirable in this age of AI-enhanced surveillance!

But hey! FUCK ICE!

 

Started with the back. While waiting for the paint to dry:

 

Yeah, the fatigue shirts had my last name on it (being that they were my dads). The jacket I had made as a costume 20 years ago had the same name plate painted on but it read, LSD.

I will paint one on this one too, but I decided on ANTI-FASCIST HIPPIE



The black border has kind of faded, or for whatever reason is not as good in this photo.

 

Around 1969, I found a great insulated army jacket at an army Navy store. They had racks and racks of clothes from Vietnam back then, even Korean and WWII stuff.

I wore it with my granny glasses too! I never did add anything to it.

I wore that jacket for years, until I moved to Southern California. Didn't need it anymore.

Mine was this style and color.