In New Mexico where I was raised we certainly knew who and what hippies were
and we had a bunch of them. I never met one that I didn't like.

They were easy to catagorize by dress, language, mannerisms, life style, and
drug use.

I suppose there were no beatnicks?

Butch

Gould wrote: Hippies. There's a myth for you. Just another stereotype that's
easy for
those
who feel compelled to categorize everybody all the time.

Never existed. It was a term invented by the press.

In the late 60's my travels took me, briefly, to a communal farm in
Davenport,
WA. Nobody there even used the word. Some pals and I split school for a few
weeks to go to the Haight- none there, either. The very same people who the
press would have said epitomized "hippism" would never define themselves as
such.

The only people I ever met in the 60's who said "look at me, I'm a hippie!"
were goofy junior high kids from the suburbs who bought plastic peace symbols
and pop beads at Sears.

Best line on the subject I can remember from those days was a reply to a
newspaper reporter. I can't remember who said it. A reporter asked somebody
who
was fairly high profile in the anti-war movement, "What's it like to be a
hippie?"

The answer was brilliant: "I'm not a hippie, I'm a human being." Right on,
man. :-)