Summer of Love 40th Anniversary

[Bigwoods]

Folks were talking about this on the radio today. For those old enough to remember, what are your thoughts. It wasn't so much a Summer of Love for me. It was a summer of confusion.. 17 guys from my school had be killed in a war and I was about to be drafted. I weight 255 when I played football the previous fall. 120 when I was drafted the following fall. Some friends came home in boxes and I was really messed up. I hope this does not turn political. I have found it was different depending on where you lived.

[kartvines]

Much like your friends I enlisted in the US Navy getting assigned to the attack aircraft carrier the USS Coral Sea CVA-43, where I spent my years growing to manhood, I spent 3 years in the Gulf of Tonkin Viet Nam, so the summer of love was not the same for me and the other sailors I served with, it was 6 or more months at sea, supporting our troops on the ground, and leaving with a chest full of medals that you threw away as soon as you mustered out of service, it took me almost or more than 30 years to try and find others I served with, just to discover that overall it was too late, and that train had left the depot.

Most of those I served with was in the same age bracket from 18 as I was when I started serving on board this carrier to 22 the age I was when my four years of service was over. I do not regret my service and it now makes me proud to have done so, but much like the war today I sadly discovered the lies reported in the newspapers at home, we are not in a war I do support, and I am sadden by the lost of life that we are now suffering, I think much like Viet Nam this war will never be won so will all of these young men and women die in vain for a cause they are unsure of?

Don't get me wrong I support our troops, but I do not support the government that got us involved in this war, I do not understand what the lost of life is worth for the families, and being I do not think that there will ever be peace in this region, or real freedom, I do not support losing any more troops for a lost cause. Just my opinion on the matter.

[Joseph]

I hope this does not turn political.

I'll just shut up about the war then.

Regarding the Summer of Love - we still have sex, drugs and rock & roll, just not in that order and certainly not in the same quantity!

Joseph

[caseydog]

I was just a kid that summer, surrounded by mixed messages. I thought the hippies were pretty cool, but my "Nixon Now" parents told me they were evil.

These days, I look at the sixties hippies who are now taking home seven-figure salaries as fully vested members of "the establishment", and I have to chuckle.

I grew up watching news about Vietnam (and hoping it would end before I graduated from High School). I never understood it, even though my parents supported it. In hindsight, I think it was a foolish venture. In that respect, I see the same in Iraq. Invading Afghanistan made sense to me, but from the first hints of invading Iraq, I thought we were going to regret it.

It's amazing how the more things change, the more they stay the same. I still think hippies are cool, and my parents still think they are evil.

[War Eagle]

I just turned 40 in March so I would guess I spent that summer eating, sleeping, pooping and crying. Probably in that order.

[len19070]

Regarding the Summer of Love - we still have sex, drugs and rock & roll, just not in that order and certainly not in the same quantity!

Joseph

Yep..Sex is still there, still listen to Rock-n-roll and the only reason I did drugs was to try to learn the Metric System.

Happy Trails

Len

[kiacker]

I was a kid too during that summer, growing up wanting to be a cool hippie like the ones I saw on TV. My memories of the Vietnam war were of my much beloved uncle who came back from the war really messed up on drugs & antisocial. He later killed himself. War was a hard lesson to learn as a kid!

[Miriam C.]

Ah yes! The big One Three... New bra's, minni-skirts that came almost to the knees, Penny loafers and high heels and panty hose that you couldn't buy on Sunday even if you were heading to church..

First dance, first real kiss, . The crisis of the day was being forced to wear dresses to school no matter how cold NC got, or how frozen a little Florida girl was. The last really innocent year for those of us who didn't watch TV or hang around adults...

For us (my sisters and me) the war didn't exist and neither did hippies or drugs. We did learn the hazards of drunk driving because the most handsome man on earth died running his car too fast. We did learn what spin the bottle was by hanging around older, parent approved kids. We even listened to banned music. "The Pool Game" is the one I remember. Boy was that naughty. Just didn't know it at the time....

[Lesbest]

It wasn't the summer of love--it was the summer of drugs and the real start of our downfall. What we snort,suck, swallow,shoot, or rub on, is really bad now after 40 years of refinement. Gosh even the farm kids are in on it now, with speed, we are so much smarter now but still we don't know anything. We let the Genie out of the lamp and can't get it back in now.


Les

[Jiminsav]

Regarding the Summer of Love - we still have sex, drugs and rock & roll, just not in that order and certainly not in the same quantity!

Joseph

Yep..Sex is still there, still listen to Rock-n-roll and the only reason I did drugs was to try to learn the Metric System.

Happy Trails

Len

Len, whats the metric equivalent of two fingers and 3 fingers?

[madjack]

Regarding the Summer of Love - we still have sex, drugs and rock & roll, just not in that order and certainly not in the same quantity!

Joseph

Yep..Sex is still there, still listen to Rock-n-roll and the only reason I did drugs was to try to learn the Metric System.

Happy Trails

Len

Len, whats the metric equivalent of two fingers and 3 fingers?

Jim, I don't know the metric equivalent but 2 fingers was a brand of tequila and 3 fingers was a baggie full
madjack

[Steve_Cox]

[Gage]

Remember this............

[Dixie Flyer]

Hear you go for 1967 (I was thirteen): The Summer of Love

All You Need Is Love
(Lennon/McCartney)

There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Theres nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn to play the game
It's easy

There's nothing you can make that can't be made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy

CHORUS:

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love love
Love is all you need

There's nothing you can know that isn't known
Nothing you can see that isn't shown
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
Its easy

CHORUS

TAG (THROW AWAYS....)

Love is all you need

All you need is love
All together now All you need is love
Everybody now All you need is love love

Love is all you need
Love is all you need
Love is all you need
Love is all you need
Love is all you need

(Then John (I think) starts going "Oh yeah - loves you yeah yeah
yeah - she loves you yeah yeah yeah").

[Bobgorilla]

I was just 9, my parents moved us from San Diego to D.C., Dad was an engineer briefly involved in Apollo (until the first landing) with the corporation he worked for (they started downsizing immediately after), all my relatives were Canadian and either too young or too old even if they had been American to go to Vietnam. The only rock and roll I was exposed to was on Ed Sullivan, Smother's Brothers (right year?) or the Monkees. I knew absolutely nothing about drugs (still consider myself an amateur as I never actually paid for any and have only tried a couple of flavors). My biggest problem was the new neighborhood "gang" leader decide I needed to be brought into line. I commonly would fight 9 or 10 kids after school, being large for my age and they ranged in age from 7 to 10, they quickly learned 6 or 7 wasn't enough. Of course the "leader" would not get involved which was smart of him as he was half my size.