Re: the Noble Hippy

Brendan McKennedy (suburbantourist@hotmail.com)
Sat, 07 Feb 1998 21:34:21 -0800 (PST) 

>Real hippies, on the other hand, really fit stereotypes applied to 
gypsies in
>days gone by.  They're dirty, ignorant thieves who do nothing but drive 
around
>in beat up vans following the latest Grateful Dead shows.  If there are 
no
>Grateful Dead shows to follow, then they do nothing.  While they do 
care a
>great deal about dope, they don't really care much about peace, love 
and
>understanding, because they really don't think much about anyone but
>themselves.
>
>They were cool back in the 60's, but all the cool ones grew up.  Now 
they're
>just roaming dirtbags with bad taste in clothing.
>
>Jim    
>


When we're dealing with broad cultural or subcultural labels, every 
single one of us has our own ideas, distinct, or indistinct, of what 
type of person belongs under these tidy headings.  We have our Human 
Databases.  But we all have different ones.  Your description of hippies 
certainly rings true if we all were to agree with your definition of the 
label...but the fact remains that others have different definitions of 
the label.  Some people who do not fit your description may justiafiably 
call themselves Hippies or be called that by others, while some who fit 
your description may not consider themselves Hippies or be considered 
Hippies by others.

I'm not discounting your opinion, because it's exactly that.  I'm just 
asking you (perhaps needlessly) not to expect your definition of the 
rather untidy label to be accepted by the world. 

I personally know a couple of old, fifty year old hippies, remnants of 
the sixties, to be sure--they grow their own marijuana--who live in 
North Philadelphia.  Beth is a writer, and Rich is an all-around 
handyman.  They're both beautiful people, and they're not thieves or 
wanderers.  In fact, they alone built a coffeehouse up from a condemned 
block, while working to support themselves, dealing with break-ins, 
legal problems and zoning problems all the while.  They are as honest a 
couple of people as you could hope to meet.

For those who live in or around Philadelphia, the name of the 
coffeehouse is Lionfish...it's in North Philadelphia, as I mentioned.  I 
don't have the address now, but could probably find it if anyone's 
interested.  They would love to see you, whoever you are.

Brendan

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