SUMMER OF LOVE
IN 1967 HIPPIES FLOCKED TO SAN FRANCISCO AND AMONG THEM WERE THE PARENTS OF W&H’S EMMA JUSTICE. FIFTY YEARS ON EMMA FOLLOWED IN THEIR FOOTSTEPS…
EXPLORING SAN FRANCISCO’S HIPPY TRAIL, 50 YEARS ON
WALKING AROUND
THE SUN-DAPPLED
STREETS OF HAIGHT
ASHBURY IN SAN FRANCISCO, I SUDDENLY FELT AN INCREDIBLE CLOSENESS TO MY MOTHER. SHE PASSED AWAY OVER EIGHT YEARS AGO AND HER MEMORY SLOWLY DIMS, YET HERE IN THE PSYCHEDELIC TIE-DYE SHOPS AND VINTAGE VINYL STORES IT BURNT BRIGHTLY. HER FREE SPIRIT CAPTURED SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE JOSS STICKS, JANIS JOPLIN MURALS AND FLOWER POWER T-SHIRTS.
FOR SHE WAS HERE WITH HER BOYFRIEND, MY FATHER, IN THOSE HEADY MONTHS OF 1967 WHEN PEACE, LOVE,
FLARED JEANS AND LSD COLLIDED DURING
THE SUMMER OF LOVE. IT WAS THE AGE OF AQUARIUS – THE MUSICAL Hair WAS INSPIRED BY THE EVENTS OF THAT YEAR – ANTI-VIETNAM WAR PROTESTS GAINED MOMENTUM AND DISAFFECTED YOUTH WERE ENCOURAGED TO “TURN ON, TUNE IN, DROP OUT” BY COUNTERCULTURE HERO TIMOTHY LEARY.
THE YOUTH THAT FLOCKED TO HAIGHTASHBURY (OVER 100,000 THAT SUMMER) WERE PART OF A REVOLUTION THAT WOULD CHANGE THE WORLD FOREVER. NOT THAT ANY OF THEM KNEW IT AT THE TIME.
“WE WERE JUST THERE TO HANG OUT WITH OTHER HIPPIES,” SAYS MY FATHER NICK, NOW 72. “WE ARRIVED AND WENT WITH THE FLOW, EVEN THOUGH NO ONE KNEW WHAT THE FLOW WAS OR WHERE IT WAS GOING.”
MY PARENTS HAD TRAVELLED TO SAN FRANCISCO FROM TORONTO, CANADA, WHERE THEY WERE BOTH LIVING AND WORKING AT THE TIME – MY FATHER AS AN ENGINEER AND MY MOTHER PAT AS A MEDICAL SECRETARY.
“WE WERE BOTH 22 AND HAD JUST MOVED INTO A CHEAP APARTMENT TO START OUR LIVES TOGETHER. EVERYTHING SEEMED POSSIBLE THEN – THERE WERE MORE JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE THAN THERE ARE NOW. INTERNATIONAL
TRAVEL WAS STARTING TO OPEN THE WORLD
UP TO US. BEING A HIPPIE WAS ABOUT FEELING FREE – FREE FROM THE CONSTRAINTS OF CONVENTIONAL PARENTS AND A CORPORATE SOCIETY. A LOT OF OUR FRIENDS IN CANADA WERE DRAFT DODGERS SO THERE WAS A POLITICAL ELEMENT TOO, BUT REALLY IT WAS ABOUT HAVING A GOOD TIME, GETTING HIGH AND LISTENING TO MUSIC.”
THE SUMMER OF LOVE ANTHEM San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) BY THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS AND SUNG BY SCOTT MCKENZIE (SEE BOX OVERLEAF), WAS RELEASED ON 13 MAY 1967. IT REACHED NUMBER ONE IN THE UK, SOLD SEVEN MILLION COPIES WORLDWIDE
AND ENCOURAGED THOUSANDS MORE TO FLOCK TO THE CITY
(SO MANY THAT THE OVERCROWDED RESIDENTS HATED
THE TUNE).
THE GRATEFUL
DEAD, JANIS JOPLIN, JIMI HENDRIX AND JEFFERSON AIRPLANE WERE ALL PART OF THE SAN FRANCISCO SOUND AND THEY ALL LIVED IN HAIGHT-ASHBURY – OR “HASHBURY”, AS HUNTER S THOMPSON CALLED IT IN The New York Times Magazine.
BUT THE ALBUM WITH THE BIGGEST IMPACT INTERNATIONALLY WAS BRITISH RATHER THAN CALIFORNIAN. THE BEATLES’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, RELEASED ON 1 JUNE 1967, CHANGED THE FACE OF MUSIC
“Being a hippie was about feeling free from the constraints of conventional parents and a corporate society”
FOREVER. MY FATHER TOLD ME THEY PLAYED
IT AT LEAST FIVE TIMES A DAY THAT SUMMER AND, AS A CHILD, I REMEMBER DANCING ROUND THE LOUNGE TO THEIR MUCH-LOVED AND VERY SCRATCHED ORIGINAL RECORD.
TODAY TOURISTS, INCLUDING ME, STILL FLOCK TO 710 ASHBURY STREET WHERE GRATEFUL DEAD GUITARIST JERRY GARCIA WOULD JAM ON HIS FRONT STEPS. IMMORTALISED THERE IN MURALS, THE GROUP’S SONGS ARE STILL PLAYED ON REPEAT IN THE BARS – HASH (OR ANY OTHER) SMOKING NO LONGER ALLOWED.
THE HELLS ANGELS’ HOUSE WAS OPPOSITE THE GRATEFUL DEAD’S AND WHILE STRANGE BEDFELLOWS, THEY PROVIDED UNOFFICIAL SECURITY AT THE MANY HIPPIE HAPPENINGS OR “BE-INS” OF THAT PERIOD. NOT THAT THE LOVED-UP HIPPIES EVER CAUSED MUCH TROUBLE.
STROLLING AROUND GOLDEN GATE PARK AND CLIMBING HIPPIE HILL WHERE THE “BE-INS” HAPPENED, I PICTURED MY PARENTS DOING THE SAME ONLY IN
BRIGHTER, MORE FLOWERY CLOTHES. LIKE MY MUM I WAS WITH MY BOYFRIEND WHO, IN A TWIST OF FATE, I’D MET AT A PARTY IN LONDON TO CELEBRATE THE SUMMER OF LOVE’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY. COULD MY OWN EXPERIENCE EVER COMPARE WITH THEIRS?
WE STROLLED THROUGH HAIGHT-ASHBURY ON A “WILD SAN FRANCISCO” WALKING TOUR LED BY WES, OUR HIPSTER RATHER THAN HIPPIE GUIDE, WHO TOOK US BACK TO THE ERA WHILE STRUMMING TUNES ON A GUITAR. COOL IN THE 60S, SLIGHTLY AWKWARD IN 2017.
I IMAGINED MY MOTHER JOINING THE DIGGERS, A THEATRICAL ACTIVIST GROUP WHO SPREAD THE HIPPIE MESSAGE BY COOKING STEW FOR THE HOMELESS AND PUTTING FLOWERS IN DISBELIEVERS’ HAIR. THEY USED TIE-DYE TO TRANSFORM CONVENTIONAL WHITE SHIRTS INTO PSYCHEDELIC HIPPIE GARB. BACK THEN IT WAS A POLITICAL STATEMENT, TODAY
IT’S A SOUVENIR. INDEPENDENT BOUTIQUE LOVE ON HAIGHT NOW SELLS TIE-DYE EVERYTHING – FROM BABY-GROS TO BEACH TOWELS. CO-OWNER SUNNY POWERS, 36, SAYS HER PARENTS MET IN SAN FRANCISCO DURING THE SUMMER OF LOVE TOO AND SHE’S TRYING TO KEEP THE SPIRIT OF THE TIME ALIVE. “IT’S ABOUT BEING PART OF A COMMUNITY, SHARING AND LOVING EVERYONE.” IDEALISTIC WORDS IN TRUMP’S AMERICA BUT HER CHARITY ORGANISATION TAKING IT TO THE STREETS IS ONE OF MANY TRYING TO TACKLE SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROBLEM. IT’S A MODERN-DAY ISSUE WITH ROOTS IN THE SUMMER OF LOVE – THE PROBLEM STARTED 50 YEARS AGO WHEN THOUSANDS OF YOUNG TEENAGERS RAN AWAY FROM HOME TO JOIN THE HEDONISTIC HIPPIES.
AS FUN AND FREE-SPIRITED AS THE SUMMER OF LOVE SEEMED THERE WAS A DARK SIDE. BAD LSD TRIPS CAUSED MENTAL PROBLEMS, FREE LOVE EXCUSED RAPE, DRUG ADDICTION AND HOMELESSNESS SOARED,
AND THE HIPPIE IDEALS LOST THEIR SPARKLE. BY AUTUMN 1967 EVEN THE DIGGERS HAD MOVED OUT OF HAIGHT-ASHBURY, HOLDING A SYMBOLIC “DEATH OF THE HIPPIE” MOCK FUNERAL DRESSED IN BLACK AS THEY PACKED THEIR KAFTANS AND TIE-DYE SHIRTS. >>
AFTER THE SUMMER OF LOVE MY PARENTS, LIKE MANY HIPPIES, FACED REALITY, WENT BACK TO WORK AND GOT MARRIED IN THE
UK. ALTHOUGH THEY DID GO BACK TO SAN FRANCISCO ONE LAST TIME IN 1969, BOUGHT A VW VAN AND TRAVELLED THE WORLD BEFORE FINALLY SETTLING DOWN AND HAVING A FAMILY.
“THE CITY HAD CHANGED BY THEN AND THE HIPPIES HAD MOVED ON – I THINK
I’D EVEN CUT MY HAIR!” SAYS MY FATHER. “BUT I STILL BELIEVED IN THE THINGS THE HIPPIE COUNTERCULTURE SET IN PLACE – GLOBAL CIVIL RIGHTS, MULTICULTURALISM, ENVIRONMENTALISM, A SENSE OF COMMUNITY – AND I TRIED TO INSTIL
THOSE IN MY CHILDREN, AS WELL AS A
LOVE OF THE BEATLES OF COURSE.”
AS I TOOK ONE LAST LOVE TOUR OF THE CITY IN A COLOURFULLY PAINTED VW VAN, MUCH LIKE THE ONE THEY’D TRAVELLED AROUND IN, I FELT INCREDIBLY LUCKY THAT THEY DID. MY MUM MAY BE GONE NOW BUT HER SPIRIT WILL ALWAYS LIVE ON IN ME. Where were YOU in the Summer of Love? Tell us @womanandhome