DUers who lived through the 60s: A question for you

Was there any type of rivalry or mutual distain between different types of hippies? Or did they all get along because, well, they were hippies?

Because I have a sense that there was not one single type of hippy, but rather at least two or three types. You had the acid rock/Hendrix/Greatful Dead rock and roll hippies, and then you had the folk music/flower child type of hippies. And then you had the anti-establishment types, who may or may not be considered hippies. But since I didn't live through the 60s and can only go from what I've seen on TV and read about, maybe I'm all mistaken. Can someone give me some insight here?

In fact, I don't remember hippies being categorized into subgroups at all. "Hippies" was really a term used mostly by the "Establishment" to define any young person who had long hair, opposed the Vietnam war and (probably) smoked pot.

Hippies and leftover greasers basically.

Somewhere in the 70s the distinction became moot.

I went through a hippie phase myself.

"Flower children" and "Jesus-Freaks"

There were also the more "militant" draft-resisters who protested at anti-war rallies.

But no rivalries or distain-- it was all about peace, love, and music. Too bad you missed it.....

Especially in his album We're Only in It For The Money.

But then again Frank just about ridiculed everything.

The Fugs had no problem making fun of themselves. I still own 3 Fugs albums on vinyl, and think that to this day , the second one, ( with Kill For Peace, Group Grope, Virgin Forest etc, and liner notes by Allen Ginsburg!) is one of the most underrated albums ever recorded.:hippie:

We shared everything. Anti-establishment types were more angry, but we all partied down the same. One of the questions frequently asked when talking about someone we were going to meet for the first time was "Is he/she a freak?" If yes, everything was cool. If no, we were more guarded.

But for the most part, everything was "hey, man...that's groovy."

I never noticed any hippies that didn't get along. They liked their pot and music and that was it:)....... We could use more hippies and less conservatives these days.

Though I was rather young, and the "chemical" versus "natural" feud where I was from meant the kids who ate library paste at loggerheads with the kids who ate paper (Big Chief tablets). Other rivalries included those who thought change could be effected from within the system and those who thought the system had to be torn down completely and rebuilt from scratch. In music, there was the acoustic/electric divide, famously immortalized by the apocryphal story of Pete Seeger unplugging Bob Dylan's electric guitar in the middle of a song at a folk music festival.

I guess these divisions seem kind of trivial now, but they were pretty intensely debated at the time.

There was an activist type whose causes were civil rights,
anti-war, and anti-corporation. (Yippies)
There were people who "dropped out" and removed themselves
from mainstream life. (Haight-Ashbury, Communes)
And there were the "weekend hippies" who had a somewhat
"normal" lifestyle (had a job, went to school, etc.),
except for their clothes, hairstyles, mannerisms, and
beliefs.
At that time there was a quick succession of movements;
the beats (beatniks) of the 1950s to early 1960s,
followed by the folkies of the early 60s, then the Hippies.
Music changed quickly and some beatniks didn't care for
folk, and some Folkies didn't care much for rock and roll
after the British Invasion.
I remember the negative reaction many older young people
(age 25 and up) had to Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin.
Some radicals like the Weather Underground built bombs
with the goal to bring down The Establishment.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Wavy Gravy.

peace movement, self sufficiency, but there wasn't any real rivalry. Some were much more involved in making changes in the world while others were more into making changes in themselves.

a source of mutual admiration, no differences thar couldn't be bridged with the exchange of a peace sign. Flash the sign and you get a big smile from any freak. Solidarity, man. Love one another. People did take that seriously.

hippies had different pet causes. The war pretty much consumed everyone, though - on that, we all worked and worked hard.

But, rival groups, or even groups so different they could be readily identified by any reasonable measure?

Naw. It was the least competitive, most cooperative way of life imaginable. We all just got along, and some folks who maybe preferred herb to acid sometimes shared, the juicers weren't above toking up once in a while, the Odetta folks grooved with the Blues Project people, and we all danced. Dancing was very important, as was making love and everyone sleeping together, happily entwined.

It was just US. WE. US.

(By the way, the singular is "hippie."

"Hippy" refers to someone with big hips.)

Nice question. Nice thing to think about. Thanks, youngster................................

Or a "freak", as we called ourselves, you always had a place to sleep and food to eat. It was share and share alike.

Also, when I was in high school, being "weird" was interesting, not isolating. We didn't have the cliques that kids have to put up with today. Altogether a very good experience. If we had just kept it up as we grew older, this would be a much better world.

the establishment called young boomers. They called themselves freaks, and it had a good connotation.

I was 12 and living in the SF 'burbs when the summer of love happened in 67. So by the time I was 'hip' to it, the good stuff had already passed. I remember feeling totally ripped off, like I'd missed the greatest watershed of the century, 'cuz I was too young. But then in 73 I moved to London, hung out with rock musicians, even met Robert Plant, Elton John and Freddie Mercury. So even though the 60s was a golden age, there's a time for everyone to shine, I'm convinced.

When you young whippersnappers get to be my age (54, if you haven't done the math) you're gonna have a lot of stories about where you were when some sweeping social change or some great movement took place. As long as you don't stay locked in your rooms, staring at screens. Opportunity doesn't just knock once, but a crapload of times--however, if you're isolated you'll never hear it!

This had the sub-division of 'street freak', who lived pretty much on the pavement with a circuit of places to crash. It was not an easy life, and at times quite dangerous, though it had its compensations....

there were different politcal agendas. Kent State is the best example I know. At the time of the Kent State massacre, there were three main, active, organized protests going on. First was the free speech movement, second the anti war movement, third was the civil rights movement. Each had their own concerns, were mostly self centered (that is, not interested in other movementrs). You view of this time of one of competing music interests misses the most important part of the 60s. It was not about the music, the music was the music. This was a time of extreme challenges to the culture of the status quo and it was coming from all sides. The state cops, governor of Ohio and other officials totally missed this difference, had no sensitivity to these differences, rather chose to lump all together and deal with them with violence.

The hippie is probably the most iconic of images from this time, but was really such a small subset. You must consider the politics, the war, the situation on college campuses to appreciate the size of this decades impact. The historic flower child view of hippies misses the point nearly totally IMHO.

Also, "hippie" is the singular of "hippies". Hippy describes my neighbor's wife.

Because they were "hip"? And if so, what exactly did that mean back then?

just like now.

a lot of them were guys with long sideburns and button down shirts.

The early '70s were more like what people think the sixties were for most people.

but the neighborhood battles we had usually involved bricks, bats, and the occasional switch blade.

No guns, though, they were considered bad form.

types. She said that wasn't really the case, that it was a much broader definition and included a lot more people than that one subset which it later became most associated with. (My avatar is a pic of my mother in the late 60s. She was an art major who considered taking off for Haight-Ashbury but decided to finish college and get married to my dad instead.)

Miss you mom!

but among ( as others have pointed out that we preferred to call ourselves) freaks, there was always a feeling of solidarity like we had discovered something very special ( we had) and there was a bond with the others who had made the same discovery. I have a hard time sometimes looking at films or still pictures of those days. There was such enormous potential for a permanent and massive change for the better in how we related to the world, and I guess we were just too young and naive to really pull it off. But it seemed within reach; a truly earthshaking peaceful inner revolution that would resonate outward because so many people were attempting this massive change at the same time. We just figured all of society would soon see the decency and humanity of what we were trying to do and in our youthful innocence, were maybe a little blindsided by the angry and sometimes violent resistance to what we saw as such a benign thing we were doing. Guess we scared straight America more than we thought we would. Damn shame, with all our youthful folly and naivete, we were genuinely on to something, and as I said, it sometimes practically breaks my heart to see films and pictures of all those sweet gentle people, and to think how much hate and derision we instead became a lightning rod for ( and sadly, even among some here on DU). And unlike some Duers and others who find it great sport to put down the boomers and hippies etc, all I gotta say was put succinctly by Nick Lowe ( and sung by Elvis Costello): "What's so Funny About Peace Love and Understanding?"

Not.

I never ever heard a massachsetts freak call ourselves hippies.

actually if you said hippy you were assumed to be a cop or a square.

same deal with non-hippies. Some were assholes, some were not. Maybe a common bond would have occurred when some long haired person you didn't like, had some really good shit to share. But then it would only be temporary. :P

a lot. We all seemed to get along. It was such an innocent time.:hippie:

got drafted toward the end of the 60s. Smoked more weed in the Army than I did in the East Village. Early on I noticed the East Village was full of flower people, but there weren't that many who thought out this whole thing-- far too many seemed like lost kids and runaways. I remember one of them got thrown down a flight of stairs becaue he didn't fit in, and one poor kid passed out, fell down, and cracked his skull on the curb, with everyone else just going on as if nothing happened.

Anyway, I don't have overly fond thoughts for a lot of the stuff that went on. Everyone sort of agreed on the big questions of peace, the environment, and racism, but not that many people actually did more than talk. Sone serious organizing was going on, and some of the organizers used "hippies" as marketing, but most of the the real work was done by hard working straights.

You don't get a lot done listening to the Dead while ripped.

I spent some time on a commune in Holland, with American expats, and it was kinda neat, but I noticed the same tensions you see everywhere else, like arguments over meditation time vs. help clean the bathroom time. The arguments were very low-key, and never any shouting, but I was bemused by how they had controlled their tempers, but not really changed their attitudes.

During the 70s, the whole thing became marketing, and freaks ended up in psych wards or got jobs. Some people I knew from back then never lost the ideals they picked up, and some tried to forget the whole thing. And others can't remember a thing.

A whole lotta poseurs thorugh the whole thing-- it was cool to be a freak, and a lotta guys thought it was a sure way to get laid. Or famous.