Has it really been 40 years?

[FireLion]

I went to a movie this past weekend, http://www.cowbr.com/live/ It was about Cowtown Ballroom here in KC. Well, back then I was hippie to the max, and still am to some extent. In the late 60's & early 70's it was all about sex, drugs, & rock and roll! Bell bottoms, tire tread sandals, tie dyed t-shirts, beads, and bongs. Now, 40 years later, little has changed except for the bell bottoms and bongs. Coffee and cigarettes are my vices now but I still remember most of those times.
I'd like to hear your stories about where you head was at in the 60's/70's. Were you a hippie, straight, jock, greaser, nerd? We're all older and wiser now (maybe) and united in our love for teardrops. The world has changed a lot in 40 years, have you?

[Dagny]

I often think I should have grown up in those times, but wasn't born until the 70's. I grew up a Gen-Xer, but I get more hippy every day. I love to hear and see things about those times. I'll be watching this thread.

[Catoosa Grani]

Well, we were married and had a family so had to settle down, some any way. We were into sports cars, racing, partying, loved the hippie parties where we all dressed as hippies. Guess we were pretty tame. Most of our group were either single or had no kids so most hung out at our house. We lived in an Army town where the kids were lonesome for home so we became a family for them. I remember fixing Thanksgiving dinner for about 30 and had a blast doing it. We would sit around and listen to Dave Gardner records, a comedian that I am sure none of you ever heard of. Yes, we were quite tame compared to a lot of others.

Grani

[tonyj]

I do not remember the 70's. What does that tell you?

[Fenlason]

I was born in 56.. so I very much saw the 60's but was fairly young. What was I? I am not sure. Once I got older [a teenager in High School I grew my hair out, and it is still long today. Some might have considered me a nerd, but I was also athletic, but not the typical jock. I ran cross country and track. I also raced bicycles, back when it was nerdy to do so. I went from HS directly into the Marine Corps. The later 70's is when I got married.

As I said I still have long hair.. I still ride a lot, and am competitive[yet rarely race] my only vice.. is some coffee, and I am careful with that

[FireLion]

Another thing, for me, one of the things I remember most is the music. It was Tull, Pink Floyd, Poco, Nugent (w/the Amboy Dukes),and many more. Nowadays it's Garth, George, Toby, and The Bellamy Bros....

Old Hippie (one of my favorites)

He turned thirty-five last Sunday
In his hair he found some gray
But he still ain't changed his lifestyle
He likes it better the old way
So he grows a little garden in the back yard by the fence
He's consuming what he's growing nowadays in self defense
He get's out there in the twilight zone
Sometimes when it just don't make no sense

He gets off on country music
Cause disco left him cold
He's got young friends into new wave
But he's just too friggin' old
And he dreams at night of Woodstock and the day John Lennon died
How the music made him happy and the silence made him cry
Yeah he thinks of John sometimes
And he has to wonder why

He's an old hippie and he don't know what to do
Should he hang on to the old
Should he grab on to the new
He's an old hippie...his new life is just a bust
He ain't trying to change nobody
He's just trying real hard to adjust

He was sure back in the sixties that everyone was hip
Then they sent him off to Vietnam on his senior trip
And they forced him to become a man while he was still a boy
And in each wave of tragedy he waited for the joy
Now this world may change around him
But he just can't change no more

He's an old hippie and he don't know what to do
Should he hang on to the old
Should he grab on to the new
He's an old hippie...his new life is just a bust
He ain't trying to change nobody
He's just trying real hard to adjust

Well he stays away a lot now from the parties and the clubs
And he's thinking while he's joggin' 'round
Sure is glad he quit the hard drugs
Cause him and his kind get more endangered everyday
And pretty soon the species will just up and fade away
Like the smoke from that torpedo...just up and fade away

He's an old hippie and he don't know what to do
Should he hang on to the old
Should he grab on to the new
He's an old hippie...his new life is just a bust
He ain't trying to change nobody
He's just trying real hard to adjust.

[tinksdad]

Hmmm. Born in 1951 and for the most part just a normal kid growing up through high school. Not part of the athletic cadre; but not part of the brainiacs either. Not a trouble maker; but not an angel.

The summer of 1969, I attended a little gathering in upstate New York. You might remember it. It was in all the papers at the time. That certainly changed my outlook and attitude on a lot of things. Life was all about the good times after that.

Got married during the Bi-Centennial year and that slowed me down a bit. Raising two children may have contributed to that as well; but I was still always open to new adventures. My "ex" says I never grew up, maybe she's right. I'm still looking for the thrill around the next corner.

[toypusher]

Graduated HS in 71 and joined the US Air Force in 73 - retired in 95. Never really got into the hippy thing or the drugs - just a hick from a small town in rural Northern NY that spent alot of years in the military!

[Aaron Coffee]

In the late sixties I was a baby, in 70's I was a normal kid, or kind of a hellion, usually know as "one of those Coffee kids", not a big trouble maker, just the normal trouble a kid can get into with a brother that is 4 years older.

[len19070]

I was there in the 60's.

Turned 18 at Woodstock (Sunday the 17th).

And I have the memory loss to prove it.

Happy Trails

Len

[Fenlason]

Another thing, for me, one of the things I remember most is the music. It was Tull, Pink Floyd, Poco, Nugent (w/the Amboy Dukes),and many more. Nowadays it's Garth, George, Toby, and The Bellamy Bros....

between being a little to young and at least where I lived.. there were no radio stations to play them.. I did not listen to groups like Cream, Blindfaith, and Traffic... when they first came out. I have since "caught up" It is still music I love to listen to. I myself have not gone country. Newer stuff.. I love the Cowboy Junkies, and Richard Thompson to name a few. [although Richard spans from the 60's through to now... and it is all great]

[Roly Nelson]

Damn, I wish I would have been born 20 years later. My high shool years were filled with hugs, kisses and perhaps a little petting.(from the waist up). We listened to the sounds of the 50's and took in all of the Big Band sounds. Never even knew what it would have been like to go to a rock festival. (is it true that some of the gals sat on their date's shoulders, topless?) Hey, I can still remember the movies that Howard Hughes made with his main squeeze, Jane Russell. Big ker-chongers!

Oh well, drugs, boose and relaxed morals, sure have changed things. Now, how can I go back and re-capture those exciting days? Hmmm, beng a straight shooter, and nice guy, I guess I missed the boat. Nevertheless, memories of happy times of yesteryear are still in my mind, and I am not one bit resentful. I wonder what the next 50 years will look like, knowing what we know of the last 50 years.

Roly

Roly............Just an old retired ol' Codger, wondering, and wondering.

[grant whipp]

As best as I can recall ... outlaw biker with a twist of hippy and a heavy dose of cowboy (from workin' my uncle's ranch in the summers) ... bikes, booze, drugs, & babes, and any kind of music that had a hard-drivin' make ya want ta grab a handful of throttle and put the wind in yer face kind of beat ... ...!

No real surprise, there, huh ... ...?

CHEERS!

Grant

[BILLYL]

Wow-amazing stuff.

Born 1950 and by the time the 70 hit was a Manufacturing Engineer making weapons of mass destruction - F14, E2C, EA6B AWACS E2C and several other weapon systems. Basic nerd.
Married in the mid 70 and that is about it.


Bill

[fireaunt]

Far out, Man!