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Hope you'll find this form of avant-garde blog style literature and Web art interesting, and that you won't mind the author's lack of formal literary skills. This is a personal site and not a book, in the formal meaning of the world. Hence, the informal character.

Two different spellings of "hippie" are used on this site because the word "hippie" is also spelled "hippy". The spelling "hippy" is older, and is used rarely, now. If it is used, t is more often used as a noun. Today, the most widely used spelling is "hippie", and it is most often used as a verb and a noun.

The hippie movement was a peace and love movement at a time when families in the U.S. gathered in their living-rooms to watch cowboy movies on TV. It was a time of the Cold War, a nuclear threat, equal rights movement, sexual revolution, assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and the Vietnam War.

So, why did I and a small percentage of American youth became a hippie at a time like that? Well, I can speak only for my self. In fact, I didn't know that I was a hippie until I was told that I was one. So, I don't know why I became a hippie because it was natural for me. I suppose there were many reasons for that. The main one was probably because I was born in the middle of the 20th Century, at the beginning of the Atomic Age, shortly after WWII. So, it was like the Karma of those times that turned a small percentage youth toward the peace movement and sexual revolution, which were at the core of the hippie movement. The oldest symbol associated with hippies is the peace. Even today, the peace sign is widely associated with the peace movement and with hippies. It was used for the first time at anti-nuclear demonstrations in England. The peace sign was created in 1958 by Gerald Holtom for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in England. It quickly caught on among peace activists and hippies.

Peace sign

Few are aware that only about 2% of American youth participated in the hippie movement and that it wasn't such a mass movement before the Woodstock 1969 festival. I never chose to become a hippy. I was called a hippy by others, and got my hippy nickname "The Polish Hippy" from a Belgium school mate. The name caught on, especially after I was taken out of the classroom one day, and taken by force to a nearby barbershop to have my hair cut short. My hippie name stayed with me until the end of the 1960s. Other hippies on both continents have adopted that name since then; especially if they were Polish. It is a unique name in that it refers to a nationality. The name spread largely through some 1960s media productions. Later, that name was removed from the scripts due to protests from the Polish Embassy in Washington, who took it as vulgar.

I like to call those early days of hippies "the pure days". I was a Beatles fan, a fan of American folk music, Blues music, Allen Ginsberg, Beat writers and abstract avant-garde art, among other things. I suppose many Beatles fans began like I did, after the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, and by following the other British bands that invaded America. The British music played by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals, Led Zeppelin and many other bands like that was largely a transformation of Afro-American music. Those British artists also brought to America new fashions. The main one that distinguished boys, who were Beatles fans was boys long hair styles and high heel Beatles boots, which replaces our sneakers, moccasins or loafers, for a while. Those artists from Great Britain were styled after some spoiled boys from good British homes, who often wore longer hair in those days. So in the beginning, it was a bit snobbish to dress like that. The new fashions from London were called Mod Fashions. They were lush, colorful, abstract and stood out in contrast to the toned down and conservative American fashions. And it wasn't until the 1960s that the bikini, and so called Swedish movies caught on in America, which became symbols of the sexual revolution in America.

The decked out Mod fashion styles from London gave rise to a more budget friendly and casual hippie styles, also called the hippie look. Bell-bottoms were introduced in California by a fashion designer towards the end of the 1960s. Today, they are widely associated with hippies and 1970s Disco culture fashions.

So, one thing in Britain led to another in America, and other things were added to that. Thus, a hippy was born. The hippie movement was a pacifist movement at a time when most American boys were brought up on cowboy movies, wore neatly cut short hair or crew-cuts and used lots of brilliantine (Vitalis) to keep their Elvis type hairstyles in place. Hippies were a small minority in those days. Perhaps the exotic hippie worldviews and Bohemian type lifestyle didn't appeal to most hard working Americans. When I was a kid, I remembered seeing students with longer hair, sandals, guitars and bongos on trips across Europe and America with my family; especially around university campuses. Many of those were early beatniks and hipsters that preceded hippies. Ideas shared by participants of the anti-Vietnam War and human rights movements were ones I could easily identify with. The hippie movement was so strongly connected with the anti-Vietnam War movement that it ended almost at the same time that the Vietnam War ended. Though, many hippies continued to remain hippies at heart for the rest of their lives.

The hippie movement started in America but incorporated many ideas from other places and cultures. Hippies also formed an informal political movement, and it's been said that hippies are social reformists that changes the world in many ways. Many of those are now taken for granted. But as the movement spread across the world, hippies became identified with different things in different parts of the world. Not all of them were as positive as those in the USA. European hippies were sometimes involved in different issues then American hippies. For example, they didn't have to deal with the Vietnam War, with the military draft and other issues. They also traveled around the world a lot more to Asia and the Indian subcontinent, for example.

I was brought up in a cosmopolitan European family and an average American was not so cosmopolitan. My Parents spoke Polish, German, Czech, English and my Dad also spoke Latin. So, that was not too common among most Europeans or Americans. My Dad was an businessman and a professional artist. I had family members that were imprisoned in the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp and that had great influence on my views. So the life experiences and worldviews I was exposed to were different from those of most Americans. Hence, it was inevitable for me to join the peace movement and become associated with hippies. The hippie movement was the only movement around that shared my worldviews.

Beatniks, 1940s hipsters and hippies were urban subcultures that are strongly connected with each other. They also are a continuation of the European libertine culture, Wandervogles and bohemian scene. Hippies were most often young people from middle or upper class homes. But hippies weren't the only ones that wore long hair in the 1960s. There were other groups that also wore long hair. Some of those were for example members of motorcycle clubs, vagabonds and beggars. And those were often wrongly mistaken for hippies. There were also earlier subculture groups such as Nature Boys, better known in pre-War Europe as Lebensreform that had an enormous influence on hippies. Furthermore, I was brought up on the spirit of the Lebensreform movement which had many followers through out Europe and there were also some followers in America. Hence, probably another reason why I was quickly labeled "a hippie".

Hippies still are involved in issues such as ecology, Peace, music, art, poetry, Internet technologies, social and political reforms, and many other things. Hippies are important social Reformers. Allen Ginsberg and the Beats were also such reformers. Unlike some folks who may call themselves hippies, a true hippy would not own a gun or shoot an animal. Real hippies are Earth loving people and peace loving people. Hippies lived the way they did because it was an alternative lifestyle to the mainstream model that was focused mainly on consumption, competition and topping others. There are many who identify hippies with taking drugs, bubble baths, slacking and going to concerts. But that's not the way it always was. Hippies also drank wine and there were even some that didn't take a bubble bath everyday, who gave all hippies a bed reputation, LOL.

I remember Old Town best for the parties, Piper’s Alley, Folk Music Cafes that I couldn't afford to visit too often at that time, and Lincoln Park where hippies used to gathered on various occasions. There was also a lot going on at the University of Chicago Campus, The Coffeehouse on 54th Street in Hyde Park near the Museum of Science and Industry and also in Grand Park. But that would be another story..

But I grew up on the South East Side of Chicago, in a working class neighborhood, not far from where The Memorial Day massacre of 1937 took place at a steel mill on Burley Avenue. It was an event, in which many demonstrators were brutally beaten and shot dead by the Chicago Police. That was also a keystone event for the labor movement. It inspired any artists such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, who became involved in the labor movement. Artists such as Bob Dylan, Donovan and many others continued that mission through their works. The demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention began in Grant Part. They were also met with brutal Chicago Police force on orders of Mayer Richard J. Daley. That was followed by the trial of the Chicago Seven and gave birth to the Yippie Movement which was initiated by Abbie Hoffman in Chicago. My neighborhood was also the last place Mayer Richard J. Daley payed an official visit to on the day he died.

After the U.S. backed out of the Vietnam War, hippies lost their main cause and went their own separate ways. Some joind various other causes such as ecology, gay rights, civil rights, women's rights etc. Some turned on to the Glam Rock or Glitter Rock scene that was forming in New York, also the underground Disco Music scene of the early 1970s esp. in Chicago. Disco music grew around Motown and Soul music, which were very popular during the hippie era. But its characteristic rhythm and beat came from the classic soul/disco song by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes called "The Love I Lost" and others such as "Love Boat" by Earl Young from Philadelphia in the late 1960s. The disco scene was gay, colorful and psychedelic. Chicago developed its own disco music style that is called House Music, and which spread to discos in Detroit and New York. House Music also influenced European Techno music; especially became popular in Amsterdam and in Berlin.

The 1970s was a happier time when hippies achieved many of their goals. For that reason. I believe the mid 1970s was a time of celebration, dancing and overindulging. The Disco scene united gays, blacks, Latinos and people from other social groups that were not that well united just a decade earlier. In the beginning it was a happy movement that started in underground clubs and gay bars located in former hippie centers of Chicago, New York and San Francisco. One of those early and historic Chicago discos was Dugan's Bistro also called Bistro Chicago at 420 N. Dearborn Street. Others opened around what is now called the Chicago Boystown neighborhood. Discos and gay bars openned also on Wells Street near Schiller Street in Chicago's Old Town.

So, one could say that "Sex, drugs and Rock & Roll" of the 1960s was replaced with "Sex, drugs and disco music" in the 1970s.

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The disco movement burned itself out by the early 1980s and ended also in Chicago with the burning of disco records at a sports stadium. The idea came from a Chicago radio DJ. Similar events were held earlier elsewhere in 1950s against Rock & Roll music and in 1960s The Beatles' music. But those earlier ones were not as successful as that one in 1970s against disco music. Still, the free spirit of the 50s, 60s and 70s lives on.

And then, came the 1980s, which was a bleak decade marked by the spread of the Hiv virus, economic problems, oil crises and unemployment. Not until the 1990s did I realize how important the hippie movement was for the formation of modern music, art, lifestyles, worldviews, technologies and ecological awareness. And it was towards the end on the 1990s that I was encouraged to create this Web site...

My friends at a Jefferson Airplane Concert in Grand Park, 1969.
Later next year, some of those friends went to Woodstock in an old Cadillac hertz
that was shown in the Woodstock 1969 Movie.


My Cousins had a great basement band in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1965.
The were the warm up band for The Rolling Stones' Concert in Milwaukee.
They also showed them around town in their red Thunderbird convertable.

Me and Joe, an old hippy friend from Chicago's Old Town and Near North Side, 1974.

Here's some photos from my 1969 trip to the Old Continent from Montreal.

I took this photo on the Atlantic Ocean in 1970 on my way back to Montreal, Canada

But in 1969, I went to Europe and ended up staying there for half a year. That experience helped me become more cosmopolitan and solved my draft problem because I forgot to register for it. But I missed a chance to go to Woodstock with my buddies, and sliding with them through the mud. But who would have guessed it would turn out to be such a historic event. Besides that, I was in Canada, England, Holland, Denmark and Poland. So, that was a lot more interesting and educational. My worst experience was in Poland where I was kept on the border for hours, had my luggage searched and had many personal things confiscated by a crooked Customs Officer. And after all that, I was made to pay a ridiculous costumes tax on used clothes. All this because the officer found a Peace button and Zig-Zag rolling papers in my luggage. I still have, the rolling papers, a roach clip and a few other things that weren't confiscated on that trip to remind me of those days. That was a year after a wave of 1968 student protests in America and across Europe. It was also a year after the January and March 1968 student protests in Poland, which I wasn't aware of at that time. But I didn't find any hippies in Poland. There were many more in England, Denmark and Holland. Life behind the Iron Curtain was like stepping into a time warp and travelling many decades back in time. But in spite of the initial bad experiences, life there wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Best of all, it was very budget friendly. I wouldn't be able to compare it to any place because I don't know of any place where one could live so well on such a modest budget today. So, it turned out to be a good place to kick some bad habits and to repair the condition, in which my condition was in. I also learned a bit about Marxism, which I found had nothing to do with the Marx Brothers or Marks & Spencer. The best of all, the few bucks I got from home went a long way there, which is important no matter what ideology one followed.

A photo of a street in London 1970

Yes, I learned that Karol Marx was a romantic, who believed that the working class should have social benefits and more time to enjoy music, art and culture like he did. He was greatly influenced by Adam Smith, a well known 19-century Scottish Economist. Marx believed in globalization and that socialism would be good for highly developed and industrialized capitalist nations. He did not recommend socialism for developing countries like, for example Poland, Russia or India. Perhaps that's why it had failed behind the Iron Curtain, and caught on in neighboring Germany, Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

The 1960s altered the course of our lives forever.

Budapest, Hungary 1970s

Budapest, Hungary

Newsweek, December 15, 1980

A family friend at Pipers Alley in Chicago's Old Town, 1968

The Peace Movement was over by the mid 1970s, underground FM radio stations turned commercial, head shops closed and so called hippie neighborhoods turned into popular tourist traps. The War was over! Lennon got married, the Beatles broke up and the 1960s Peace Movement was over, too. Many hippies returned to their family homes, graduated, got jobs, married, joined political parties, climbed up the ranks of the decked out world, became successful, joined the Rotary Club, became the establishment and became Yuppies. But not all hippies become Young Urban Professionals. Though many of us may not look like a hippies any more, many of us do remain hippies at heart. So, lets keep on truckin' and keep the (hippie) faith.

1976

Family friends at Pipers Alley in Chicago's Old Town 1968

Copyright © by Adam Wojtanek