"If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that's a problem."
– John Lennon
1960-1969 were turbulent times in America. I love what those years stand for in our history and the changes those years brought to our country.
But I am also not naïve enough to think that it was a storybook time or that even all of America went through the same experience. I fully recognize a huge portion of American had two 1950’s and went straight to the 1970’s and missed the whole peace, love and hippie experience.
I fully understand that while some were deciding what to wear to the big dance others were organizing movements.
I “get” that while some were sitting in with the Beatles, others were “knee deep in rice paddies”.
But for me, the Haight-Ashbury, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abbie Hoffman 60’s are how I prefer to think of that period.
I was born late in the decade in 1966. So, like many Americans I was there but pretty much missed it. Missing it was not my fault. It is hard to hoist a peace sign while carrying a blankie. I’d like to think that given a few more years I would have been in there fighting the good fight and standing up to the man. Sadly, my protest years were to develop way too late to make a difference.
So, I have to recreate those times by visiting some of the key historical places as I travel. I’ve had the good fortune to stand on some hallowed historical ground that most of us have seen only in textbooks or on the History Channel and I have met some of the key people that made it all happen.
I’ve stood on the corner of Haight and Ashbury where the Hippies spawned the peace movement and driven by the Altamont Speedway area that for one night was anything but peaceful.
I’ve touched the stage at the Monterey County fairgrounds where Jimi burned his guitar and I’ve hung out with some of the same Hell’s Angels that nearly beat Hunter S. Thompson to death.
I have looked out over the field where four students were gunned down at Kent State and out the window looking over Dealey Plaza where we lost JFK.
I have visited the Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King, Jr. preached and also the Loraine Hotel where he died.
I’ve stood at the Vietnam War Memorial looking up the guys from my home town and I’ve laughed at photos of Ken Kesey’s, Merry Pranksters shown to me by an acquaintance.
I’ve met friends of Carlos Santana and enemies of the Grateful Dead.
I’ve had beers in Big Sur and thought of Kerouac, Ginsberg and the Beat boys and picnicked at Golden Gate Park with hopes of seeing girls “with flowers in their hair”.
I’ve met Wavy Gravy, Bobby Seale, Arlo Guthrie, Sonny Barger, Peter Max, Grace Slick and other 60’s notables with varying degrees of success. Wavy, the “mayor of the Haight” was funny, Sonny Barger, the “unofficial” President of the Hell’s Angels….was shockingly charming. Tommie Smith was a gentleman, Peter Max was the eccentric artist as I expected, Bobby Seale was cordial and kind, particularly for a Black Panther and Jesse Jackson was…..Jesse Jackson.
With every encounter I find that each one stirred a different unexpected emotion. Kent State hit me hard emotionally as did the Lorraine Hotel. Dealey Plaza left me wondering. Arnold Palmer had me speechless. Grace Slick made me sad.
But with each encounter comes a small bit of understanding and recognition of the times that were. So, I ask you to look at our history and find a period that means something to you, a time that touches you and intrigues you then go find those places and if possible the people.
Maybe you’re a Civil War person; then go see Gettysburg, Pickett’s Mill, Antietam and Manassas.
If you’re a World War 2 person, visit Toccoa, Normandy and Iwo Jima.
Whatever your particular thing is, go to those places and make them real. You owe it to yourself and to those people who sacrificed for us to see the places where history happened and to understand them just a little bit better. If possible meet some of the participants, ask questions, and learn. Trust me, you’ll never regret it.
If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.
-Pearl Buck
