When "Hippy Life" Becomes "Life As A Senior Citizen"
80My hands give me away
Here we are, almost 50 years have passed since those love-in days. If we still had love-ins, I doubt if I'd get an invite anymore. I could artfully disguise the wrinkles on my neck and forehead and around my eyes with Oil of (nearly extinct) Turtle. Which could be appropriate since I am nearly extinct according to some. I could exercise three times a day and at least have the illusion that with a trim, fit body I am winning the race against time. But, my hands will always give me away. No disguising the fact that I am a senior now among the citizens.
(By the way, that awful red rash on my wrist is the remains of poison oak - which is much better now, thanks. My failing eyesight really failed me when I was out picking blackberries and I missed the poison oak among the vines.)
But no one has called me a hippy for ever so long! Does this mean that just because I'm no longer under 30 I can't be a hippy without adding the word "old", as in "I am just an old hippy!" Which is what Hunter Thompson said in a self-pitying way once, long ago, when I was about 24 and he was a lot younger than I am now. And if he had stayed in the game past 67 I believe he would have been the one to organize some kind of rebellion amongst us. But he gave up too soon, too soon. If he felt like an old hippy back in 78, well, he must have just aged really rapidly. He certainly lived a fast life.
So when do most people start calling themselves "old hippy"?? That is, if they ever did consider themselves hippies in the first place, how could they ever really see themselves as senior citizens? Will we give in to that tyranny of labeling? We'd better come up with a new fast term to describe "old" so we can salve our pride, or we'll all be thinking like Hunter.
I know its not a crucial earth-shattering question. But I wonder and I bet other people wonder about this stuff too. The other day I started thinking about why I cringe so when I hear that phrase "Senior Citizen". Lah - it does seem dull! I never wanted to grow up, then I found out you could get into bars if you admitted to being 21. I coasted on that revelation for quite awhile. But now it can't be that I am one of those retired, over-the-hill, stay at home, senior people who get special discounts for movies as a kind of "there, there" gesture. And should I start eating senior portions at Denny's just because my waistline says yes, yes I should.
But here's the thing, I am still not a conservative! And aren't seniors really conservatives, no matter how they try to disguise themselves. I'll never give in to Senior-dom. It just doesn't fit my inner happy hippy image of myself - no matter how I look on the outside. Should I start a club? I wonder. It would have to go beyond the Grey Panthers for me to stay involved. But it would have to be some kind of activism without the protests and heavy marching, of course, unless a Life Support van can follow along. Socially, I would like to be effective no matter how old I get and who is labeling me. I would like to think my vote is not being cancelled out by some young whipper snapper. I would like to think that when I ramble on, someone takes heed and goes off to start another new movement!. The movement of slower moving movers and shakers! We were a generation of rebels - are we still? I guess that's what I'm wondering, because, see, the only people I see on tv and in the movies and in the paper who are baby-booming wild children like me - well, that's just it. . . I haven't seen any. Its as if that huge generation who Woodstocked and protested Nam and Watergate and ousted Nixon and made love in every conceivable public place . . . well they vanished. They turned into something else. Where do we all hide? Replaced by dreadlocked and gangsterfied children who guffaw at the words "free love".they can't face the world? I'd like it very much if someone who knows how to do it would track a few down and make them tell me, "What do YOU say to being called a SENIOR CITIZEN now?"
But its not as if we can do anything about it. If it was good enough for our parents, why shouldn't we be the same? If the lazy media that make the trends don't feel it necessary to give us a new phrase to describe our downhill slide who am I to bother them? Do we have to have a new label to match the Hippy label for our twilight years? Yes! darn it, we need to see ourselves eternally as new, fresh, and never, never out of it. Right. Stick a fork in me, I'm done for now.
Instead of senior citizen, what?Loading...
I still have some good days left in me! Knowing lots of people in the 80's really gives me a perspective on things!
good for you, sounds to me that your "young hippy" days were a reflection of who you truly are, not just the in-thing at time and you've held on to your ideals!
great hub!
ps.. I'm in my late 40's and getting there...
but seriously, the labels we put on people! It's kinda funny, you know? Hippy - what does it mean? Senior Citizen - what the heck.
I never was a hippy as such in the hippy days but people now call me an old hippy because I happen to have chosen a rural, simple lifestyle.
Oh my! Keep fighting it man! Get a nice young bit of stuff and it'll knock years off you!
I wonder what people will be thinking about the old punks?
Can you imagine... bold old geezers covering their bold patch with the side hair and putting into a mohican, died multi coloured ... kewl!
Well... let the hippies show us the way to grow old disgracefully! Get out the hookers and flared trousers - show us the way!
Love the hub x
shaz - thanks for reading and the comment - I swear I've seen some of those aging punks - hard to swagger when your hips hurt huh!
I call myself a "Senior Debutante". It is midway to being old and being young again.
Lita - thanks for being my fan and commenting - I have a feeling that the older I get, the less I think age matters, but the less other people think what I think matters! sigh.
From one old hippy to another old hippy. PEACE sister and while your at it pass the weed, and tomorrow let's have a love in. I will make sure I have my bell bottom, hip huggers, peace symbol belt, tie dyed tee on. My Jesus sandals and beads, my hair long and shaggy and my every so kool Janis Joplin shades on.....too funny...I remember those days well, I am over the hill now, but Woodstock will never be forgotten and Jimmy and Jim may you two dope heads RIP...forever more. Peace, Love not war....
You know, saddlerider - it never DID get weird enough for me, some of my barefooted friends just seemed really conservative under all those beads and the hair. Now I find that my own kids seem conservative to me. I don't know what the hell I want. Peace, for sure, love, definitely and maybe that joy that comes with freedom! maybe the freedom that comes with joy! It don't matter what clothes we wear or how we try to cover it up - when we're radical it shows! everybody knows.
I never became a conservative either. I DETEST that Winston Churchill "Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no braiins" quote, usually tossed out by those who never had either brains or heart.
Thanks for this, and I'm off to read your other Hippy piece :-)
Hi Pcunix! Remember when we used to use the term "PEACE" like it was some kind of threat? When someone didn't agree and we wanted to hit em, but we didn't and instead smiled a kind of vicious smile and flipped them the PEACE sign? I'm still doing that, more and more and more these days! No brains? piffle. I was never the kind of vacuous hippy that smiled at everybody! I was the intense, concerned, and eager kind - now I'm more introspective, less eager but still pretty intense, as you could tell.
As for me, I was never a hippie. No, I was one of those "Great Sileent Majority" types, who deplored the war in Vietnam and attended a huge protest in Sydney in 1970. I was thirty-four already at that time. For all those 'old hippies' out there, you might just be surprised how many of that so-called Silent Majority who it was inferred couldn't give a stuff, were passionately interested in the way the world was - and still are, with the wars going on in such places as Iraq and Afganistan.
As for being a Senior Citizen, what's wrong with that? I've always looked younger than my years and used cringe when people my roughly my own age would call me "son."
So, Tom - the Passionate Silent Majority, I like it! It's the words "Senior Citizen" that make me cringe, and there is no explaining why. You're lucky to look young, so did I until about 3 years ago - now I look like I should be serving church suppers! not that there's anything wrong with that!
On my bumper is a sticker that says, "I think therefore I'm liberal." I don't mind that label one bit. The age thing is pretty bizarre, though. It's strange, I still want checkers to card me. I want young hunks to look my way.
I guess I'll just look their way.
Gonzo Journalism rocks!
lorlie - Hi! there is a certain anonymity that comes with being an aging hippy - I notice people look at me, then quickly look away - so that's when I pick their pocket! no - hehehe I don't. but its an idea, eh!?
Ah, Greenwich Village! The Best Of Times! (I think)
Seakay - thanks for stopping by - Greenwish Village - I visited but didn't live there, and really thought it was over-rated - a little place with lots of sweaty people when I was there. but the times were good, real good!
When I see films about Woodstock and that kind of thing, I find it hard to realise that most of the young people are now senior citizens. And when I see people in their sixties, I often find it hard to imagine them ever having been young, let alone one of the Hippy Generation. This doesn't apply to all, though; some are still super cool. Having met you on the Forums, I bet you are too.
Great read, Mega1!
All the best, Camlo
Thanks so much Camlo! I feel the same way about time passing and people aging. Also I'm amazed that some of the young people are living a lifestyle very very similar to the hippy days of my youth - even wearing tie-die and long hair and that moony look we all had - from smoking pot, probably. Yes, I am still super-cool, and will never be conservative! There are a lot of us out there. I went to a great music festival (see my hub about Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band) a couple weeks ago and found a whole nest of them! I found my people!!! thanks for your comment, and even if you are in a younger generation, you're pretty cool and a funny guy yourself! Loved that karaoke video with the feet sequence!
Here I am surfing for some hope that a once young hippie can leave the corp. world and find meaning again as when I was so very young and idealistic. I want to believe in things agin. I want to believe that I can still make a difference. Why is it that I liik at my physical self and see old but my mind is still so very young. I'm looking for people of like mind but don't know where to look because I'll be dammed if I look ina senior citizen community or a senior citizen traior park. I think I want to travel but I fear I can't do it alone so where do I find people like me. I think I may find a joint and sit back and spend my afternoon laughing on my back porch or in a park or hell, maybe even sky diving. I don't know. Al I know is I'm not ready to just sit down and grow old and be still. I want to raise a rakus about what I believe in. I want to make love on a beach on some tropical island. Hell, I'm old but not dead and I'm still interesting. Where oh where can I find people like me?
Here I am! tropica island sounds good to me! Can't smoke pot anymore, but I'm still as laid back as ever. If you go to any community health food store and do your shopping there regularly you will find others like you, and hey, why restrict yourself to "old hippies"? no need to be ageist, just look for people who are like you and make friends - see where that takes you. I know I am not deluding myself when I say that there are people like us who look beyond the wrinkles. Also you find people like yourself in exercise classes, gyms, pools, and hiking clubs. Or try the nature orgs that give us a chance to give something back while enjoying ourselves and learning and travelling. Wow, dude! the possibilities are endless! thanks for your comment Michele - and have a good day!
Is there any such thing as an "old" hippy? take a trip to Santa Cruz :) lot's of hippy shops as well as Woodstock NY. What a colorful world. I love it and wear my tie-dye even though I was born in 1963. The trends always come back for people who loved it. Peace out and keep rocking on my senior friends. You are only old if you keep thinking you are ;) great hub!
Old hippies are kind of born this way! I mean we are terminally nostalgic and although we may not be able to toke on doobies all day long anymore, we can still sing "Rocky Mountain High" and mean it! It is all good. and have a nice day, dude!
mega, You brought back many memories, all good. I was at Woodstock and sng in many clubs. I opened for Elton John and Jethro Tull, I became right of center with Reagan.
By the way, I take it that's a Spider Woman avatar. My high school had the most creators of comic books, Spider Man, X-Men, The Hulk, Casper Th Friendly Ghost, Batman and I forgot the rest. H
Yep, Harvey, that's Spider Woman - I have always liked her, thought she didn't get enough attention. I am still considered a radical by most. It really did never get weird enough for me. I think I would feel most at home living tribally along the Amazon River or high in the mountains of Peru, but I've never gotten the courage to go there, and they really don't need an old white hippy woman to slow them down! And it is enjoyable speaking my radicalness and watching the eyebrows lift off people's foreheads! Thanks for following me, Harvey.
mega, Put on your costume, I hear they're accepting immigrants. H
I REALLY MISS THE 70S IT WAS THE BEST TIME TO GROW UP I WILL BE A HIPPY TILL I GO TO THE SPIRIT IN THE SKY PEACE LOVE ROCK AND ROLL TO ALL!!
SweetiePie Level 6 Commenter 2 years ago
There are many liberal people here on Hubpages of all ages, so I am glad to see some people never feel the will fit into the "senior citizen" image. As people live longer and longer we no longer have that conception of older people having to act a certain way. I think a great thing about the sixties is this time period taught us people are free to be who they are, no matter their age. You sound much happier and younger in spirit than many people I know in their twenties. I am glad to hear this :).