Was it peace,

IT was August 1967, in the midst of the so-called ‘summer of love’, when these two hippies were among a group interviewed at Newcastle’s Handyside Arcade on Percy Street.

The hippy phenomenon with its peace and love, flower power, happenings, beads, kaftans, long hair and patchouli oil had sprung up in the United States and then, like now, much of what originated over there made its way over here. These Geordie hippies, noted a feature in our sister newspaper The Journal, were regarded as “wierdies” by the general public on Tyneside, and the “problem” was not confined to London.

The American movement, largely comprising white, middle-class babyboomers in their late teens and early 20s, had sprung up in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district, with its loose alternative philosophy based around concepts of free love, rejection of materialism, opposition to the ongoing Vietnam War, allied to the recreational use of psychedelic drugs and the fondness for certain styles of music.

The Journal feature attempted to explain what hippies were all about to North East readers living in a no-nonsense region that in 1967 was largely traditional in outlook, where heavy industry still dominated, and “hard work” was seen as mandatory.

These hippies, aged between 18 and 25, were a small, exclusive group living in a succession of flats in Jesmond. They moved frequently, “turned out by landlords who don’t understand us”. They were “clean, casually dressed, and not scruffy” and they enjoyed spontaneous poetry-reading sessions.

They also drew a distinction between themselves and their American counterparts who espoused ‘love-ins’, temporary tattoos, and a belief ‘flower power’ could change the world. One of the Newcastle hippies told us: “We’re just ordinary people trying to live the best we can in this awful society.”

They were, however, like those living Stateside, partial to taking ‘trips’ using the drug ‘LSD’. As one of the crowd told us: “It helps you towards selfknowledge and awareness.”

But, finally, what of the future? Another told us: “Of course, I think about it - but what has it got to do with anyone how I live, how I get married, how I bring up my children? I just want to be left alone to live in my own way. ”