18 Answers

In 69 I was 18. Hippie personified. Got arrested twice in Washington DC for protesting the war. Although radical, we loved this country and believed in and respected the Constitution. We were always Americans first. Todays young people are braindead. Not a clue what the constitution is. I wonder how many can spell AMERICA? From what I see posted here, not many.

60's 70's  dam  great years  other than  Vietnam   they were great

Hippies were against ANY violence, that is why we protested against the Vietnam Conflict. Peace out baby!

Sorry Vair but the hippie days were just a bit before my time , although i do remember hippies be looked down on as well our vietnam vets, shame on america for not respecting both as a part of american history, without out either life today would be rather dull, as well as our freedoms!

watch film footage from Woodstock

The big differences I see today is that hippies really loved their freedom and small government. I do not see that today.

That was the time when people actually did something and protested the Vietnam war. Where are people today protesting the wars in the middle east? I think we have become too complacent. I joined some demonstrations against the Vietnam war and it was the right thing to do.

I was young but remember those times, the protests, the people my parents knew that fought in that war, and of how  my husband of later years narrowly missed being sent to Vietnam through the ballot system, I live close to a town where "hippies" are alive and well, many generations of them, they have their own alternate school, grow their own vegies (and smoke dope) but are living their life in peace and free from the constraints of  society, their values don't lie with 2 cars and a big telly. I go there on occasion and they are relaxed (probably the dope) but appear to be happy (also the dope lol)but whatever they certainly don't hurt anyone.

p.s I still march in demonstrations for causes I feel strongly about

My brother was in Vietnam in 1968,after he got home all three of us brothers grew our hair long and became hippies to protest that war and all wars (per his request),after all these years my hair remains and I'll die a hippie.Peace...Our parents did'nt know what to think (LOL),seeing that before then we were all pretty clean cut,but they did understand,my father was in WW11 and knew what war can do to a person and our mom just loved us too much to care about what we looked like...

I grew up in the 60s in Northern Calif. appox. 100mi from San Francisco.  The philosophy of most of my friends and peers was peace.  We tended to be influenced by Eastern religions because they were so different and opposite of what we were raised with.  And change was what we were seeking.  The time to blindly accept what was told to us was over.  President Kennedy had been assassinated in 63' our innocence was taken away and we had questions and the adults did not know how to answer our questions so started the quest.  As for the drugs,  yes they were there some of us were heavy into it others weren't  just the way it is now.  The causes were real our feelings  were sincere and we were ready to take action.  I had conflicts about the war my brother was in Vietnam in 69'  he had been drafted...but that's another story.  This is just a tip of the iceberg, but I hope it helps.   Peace

Very different time.  Very different people.  Never to be duplicated, only imitated, and not very well. 

NO. Just "Happy"

Hippys are running the USA now! In the 60's we laughed at them, they were dirty, most were high on MJ or whatever they could get their hands on, they didn't work, they lived off the g'ment, they lived in communes and they had babies, these babies raised by hippies, grew up to be hippies and put on a suit and are now running things..

No, I was never a hippy. I knew people that were though, although they were 'hippy-lights' meaning they were weekend hippies. We really didn't get along well.

Hippies wre OK except for the drugs.That's the main reason I never got involved with them.Even if I had wanted to Vietnam buggerd everything up anyway.We had the protest marches here too.They weren't all hippies tho.Hundreds got arrested.There is a small town,up in the mountains in northern NSW totally dedicated to hippyism.Nimbin.

uuhhmm...I'm from Canada and I'm just kinda wondering...uh...when exactly did the hippy movement END? cuz ...well...I hate to break it to you all but...it sorta never ended up here!!We've got all the leftover hippies and the neo-hippies living  here man!!!Peace.

I was in the Navy before the Vietnam war started and just after the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. So I caught my ship in Japan flying in from California via Guam. When Viet Nam was just beginning my ship went to pick up civilians and unload all the ammunition we had in the Philiippians before going back to the States for ammo and some shipyard work stopping in Guam for a week of R&R before returning to California. That was when when I first saw Viet-nam war protesters. 

I was very busy then with my ship and my responsibilities there…time flew by and a we we loading munitions all day and all night. then we were outta there like a shot and back to Nam. No time to think about anything but work and more work. 1000 lb bombs littered the crews quarters and decks. I saw the news in the westward skies at night when bombers lit up the skies at night, all night  with the detonation of bombs along the Ho Chi Men Trail. North Viet-nameese PT boats in the Tunkan gulf were destroyed and I saw a helicopter stall while trying to land on the landing deck of a cruiser and fall into the water. The crew drown…a crew member filmed the event on the stern of my ship and it went into the news in the US. We were at sea off the cost of Viet-nam for two weeks passing ammo to aircraft carriers then to Subic Bay for two weeks to load-up more bombs. This cycle continued until the end of my enlistment and we went to California. Three weeks later I flew back to my home in Virginia and 5 years later I became just another Hippie. That’s when my love for life really turned on fully and my acceptance of being a tool was completely dismissed. When I turned Hippie…I left multiple disasters in my leavings that looked like a National security S**t storm. And being a Hippy helped to get me out of hard way but my credibility was dangerous so I took the insanity plea when Regain dumped the looney bins in California. That settled a lot of issues an I left it all alone to live my hippy life.                               

I remember real clog shoes,peace signs,flower power,wooden beads,there were some real good bands,Charlie Manson and Vietnam.The draft. And Bobby Kennedy.

The term Hippie was a Life magazine catch phrase to lump a bunch of counter culture movements into one glamorized sex crazed,drug usin', anti war protestin', communal livin', bunch of societal drop outs. truth is, it was never that organized. Lots of people with lots of agendas tried to co-op the unrest of the times for their particular cause. The communists were just one of the hogs at the feeding trough. I remember being recruted in 67 to pass out propaganda literature for the so called "Peace and Freedom Party" in Cambridge Mass., Like who's not for peace and freedom man, right? Turns out it was a front for the communist party. Who knew? There was a lot of that kind of stuff going on during the war. In 68 the Yippies had tables set up in Harvard square, in Greenwich Village, in Berkley and in Haight Ashburry to get pepole on busses to go to Chicago for the Democratic national convention. Turned out to be a horror show. People got caught up in the "Happenings" without realy being into the cause. I dropped out of college and conventional society in general in 67 and traveled around the country as a vagabond for a few years. I had long hair, a full beard and a Volks Wagon Buss.  I guess I wanted to be different, like eveybody else, Hmm... Any way I was never poitical. Politics to me was a faild system man; why waste your time? I got drafted and served in the Army. After a rough couple of years(never served in Nam, just during the Nam era) I was honorably discharged and I went back to the Haight in Frisco. But it had all changed from what I had remembered it to be. Where there was once free love there was now rampant prostitution. All the young runnaway hippie chics were scooped up by color coordinated suit wearn' pimps. What used to be an atmosphere of love and peace was now all uptight and paranoid. Hard drugs had replaced the psycedelics and junkies had replaced the flower children. A real bummer. For me by 73 the dream was over. Friends dead from over dose, from drug deal gone bad, Narks infiltrating the bike clubs, shootings, suicides. I gues for some it never ended. Good for them. I spent a couple weeks in Israel a few years ago and I found the youg people to be a lot like we were in the 60s. Free spirits, lots of arts and counter culture music and dress. Sounds like it's going on in Canada too. It's great to search for youself and let youself go when your young and idealistic and all, but be ready for a reality check when the party's over. We wanted to change our world. I think we did, sorry bout that.