Posted on 09/03/2007 5:52:55 AM PDT by period end of story
My 23 year old son was there yesterday....said lots and lots of ‘old’ hippies;)
I was there, too, and my thought was - well, it was ok. I didn’t find it a life transforming moment. The weather was good (unusual for San Francisco), people were pretty peaceful, and there were some good bands. That was it.
As for the sex, things got ugly really fast. That same summer of love, some poor teenage runaway was raped to death in a bathtub in a crash pad on Haight St. Life really did go crazy, drugs moved in very rapidly and things went from mellow and dumb but harmless to truly nasty.
Not a bad looking fruit salad on his head.
So I left “the scene”. I had parked at Stow Lake, and “hiked in” to Speedway Meadows, of which I had to descend down the edge of some rather tricking, slippy, lock, of which there was the smell of human poop. Now I had to again find that that “trail head” to “outta’ here” as I meandered through and around some real losers who decided sometime in 1984 that they would become a 1967 hippie – actually most “hippies” of 1967 in no way still sport the attire or paraphernalia of it all in any sort of way, having gotten married eventually, had kids, got a job, and such, and the grandiose bulk of this crowd at this “Summer of Love” revival had nothing to do with Haight Ashbury of any sort and may be “old” but decided to put on the tie-die in their later years – in other words the fakirs and charlatan losers, and no I am not referring to the band the “Charlatans”. They were in one way, sort of hilarious.
The poop problem was a health concern, you literally might slip on it going down the back trails in or out of the “Meadows”. A young guy, no shirt, was pooping behind some bushes, then he comes out and throws some purple flower petals up in the air – I don’t know, perhaps he was thinking this would cover the smell or something, the human on dope equivalent of the dog kicking some grass on the droppings?
Even in S.F. in the Park, it seemed hot, especially hiking around and about, and that was another reason I wanted to leave. About that time, some guy on the stage was telling us all that there were “20 thousand people now gathered”, and this was one big perjury, even though the event was only a couple hours old and no doubt the crowd would grow larger, there were perhaps 2 to 5 thousand at most around noon time. I think the S.F. news article stated “50 thousand” for the event, and though I wasn’t around for the “second half”, I would bet this is an exaggeration if not a lie.
Yes, I managed to find the trail back up and out of there, and got back to my car at Stow Lake. Upon which I headed first to Japan Town to an interesting auto shop called “Auto Freak”, then I went to Chinatown to eat something. Even Chinatown is cleaner than the “Summer of Love” event. And in front of some Chinese restaurant is some out of his mind case who has his hand out for money, and then to the shock of some of the restaurant patrons and those on the street, the guy pulls out his private and starts some insane laugh and jig. My God, I kid you not. He then puts it back in, goes back to begging, and not a minute later some idiot (liberal) gives the guy some change and shakes his hand. The same hand.
Jeez. I guess the Summer of Love never died in San Francisco. I just hope the idiot washed his hand before he went in to eat some Chinese food.
Thanks for your very descriptive rendition of this re-hippie fest. It was more enlightening and entertaining than the article itself. As for Sheehan being there: another poster pointed out that she may be seen in the picture in post #26, above. (on the bottom-right wearing the hat)
If I’m ever in San Francisco I’ll remember never to shake hands with anyone standing outside of a restaurant; regardless of whether they are asking for money.
Although I was only 7 years old during the SOL, I did LOVE Hot Tuna, Jorma, and The Airplane... Looking back, I would have LOVED to see Hot Tuna open for the Jefferson Airplane.
Mark
Cool! I'm so looking forward to the 30th Anniversary Tour of the original Pussycat Dolls and Snoop Dog!
Mark
The Republic of South Vietnam!
If I'm not mistaken you've made this complaint in the past, so it must be serious!
I neither forget nor forgive.
Is that the 2007 version of “Scott McKenzie?”
I’m just a tad to young to have been there for SoL, but I was just right for the back seat of the family’s Ford Country Squire as we navigated through the congested spectacle of the Haight while on vacation in California.
I specifically remember several hippies standing on the street side holding up large mirrors for the gawking tourists (like us) to see ourselves gawking.
Yeah, OK. We got it, and we thought it was kind of funny. Just because we were gawking tourons didn’t mean we were dour sourpusses.
Hot Tuna still plays around and they are still good. Jorma and Jack are both serious players who have held up well.
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