Who were the Hippies?
 
 
The fate we sought to escape summed in a song.
Little Boxes
by Malvina Reynolds
1. Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

2. And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

3. And they all play on the golf-course,
And drink their Martini dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.
And the boys go into business,
And marry, and raise a family,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
Only squares easily fit in those little boxes!

Sadly too many Americans were to be, as Country Joe said, “the first ones on the block to have your boy come home in a box” during this era. That reality shaded everything. Bad grades could mean the end of your life. Can anyone today explain for what gain my brothers were being maimed and dying?
Lambda Sigma Delta sorority
Tift Co. Georgia 1968

Every small town had a group of creative kids that, try as they might, could not take delight in praising the emporer’s new clothes.

In the media age of the 1960s they began to make contact with each other. Webs of contact grew between these small hippie scenes. At that time anyone who looked like a hippie truly was your brother or sister freak and would greet you as an old friend. Larger cities had whole communities, but every town had a place where “those hippie kids” gathered together.

In Atlanta it was The Strip on Peachtree and the area from there to around Piedmont Park.

















Hippies were seeking individual and group liberation of humans from the constrictions of 1950 Eisenhower rigid social norms. It even worried everyone’s grandfather Ike enough to warn of the coming Military-Industrial Complex that threatened American’s democracy and free way of life.


Duck hat, created by MysterE, a Donald fan, worn selling The Bird at 14th and Peachtree during the era.

We have come for your children’s minds!
One of several vests painted by Tommy Giradeau summer 1967

Nothing’s too mundane for Art, Dada!

No Colorful people allowed!

Read -The story behind the Lambdas.

Neo-hippie Phillip Rauls

http://phillipraulsphotolog.blogspot.com/

Even my parents and their friends wanted to be hippies to party. Groovy man!

    In 1967 there was a truly underground swell in small towns all over Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, and Georgia. Everything in the South seems to run slower. Thus it was the Summer of Love happened on the West Coast in 1967. The media made the whole world a voyeuristic participant. Southern freaks who had fled to the hipper West Coast from small minded hometowns, then returned and sparked small local movements. Enough sparked folks began building an underground movement of like  minded folks finding each other.

    Weekends at Piedmont Park in 1968 Atlanta began to notice an amazing thing. The Georgia of Lester Maddox had flowered forth its own hippy freaks. And suddenly there seemed to be a lot of them each week crawling out from under rocks somewhere and gathering around 8th street to 14th streets on Peachtree and in Piedmont Park. Tho the limits are still debated, everyone around Atlanta knew generally where The Strip was located. Straight suburbanites detoured by to variously ogle hippie chicks, seek drugs, or be outraged and amused at the freakshow. New waves of freaky people constantly arriving in Atlanta from small towns all over the area knew to seek The Strip or Piedmont Park on the weekend to find friendly people.

“You’re gonna meet some gentle people there...”

A little movie about the social forces working on the minds of concerned young people of the sixties
. http://objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htmhttp://objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htmshapeimage_11_link_0
Listen to the cool Atlanta radio of 1965
Tony “The Tiger” Taylor on 79 WQXI, “Quixie in Dixie”, Atlanta April 1, 1965
http://airchexx.com/markets/atlanta/tony-the-tiger-taylor-on-79-wqxi-atlanta-april-1-1965http://airchexx.com/markets/atlanta/tony-the-tiger-taylor-on-79-wqxi-atlanta-april-1-1965http://airchexx.com/markets/atlanta/tony-the-tiger-taylor-on-79-wqxi-atlanta-april-1-1965http://airchexx.com/markets/atlanta/tony-the-tiger-taylor-on-79-wqxi-atlanta-april-1-1965shapeimage_12_link_0shapeimage_12_link_1shapeimage_12_link_2

the beatnik era

Americans of all walks were fascinated and titillated by the idea of this free and feral group - the hippies. Documentaries and exploitation flicks flooded the brains of Suzy Creamcheese and her extended family.

The Trips Festival promo

West Coast music featured in Miami teen club.

Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern were involved in many of the hippie TITtillation movies.