DGS49
Diamond Member
I’m not sure what the reason is, but my television screen has featured all manner of interviews with people who go on and on about the Summer of Love, 1969. It starts with dreamy reminiscences about Woodstock, Haight Ashbury, blah, blah, blah.
I was there.
Neither I nor any of my friends played any part in the Summer of Love (I was 19/20 at the time), because we were ALL either (a) in the military service (b) working summer jobs to accumulate money for college, (c) attending summer classes at college, or – horror of horrors – (d) working “adult” jobs because we had to grow up as soon as we graduated from high school.
None of us had the free time, the money, or the other resources to migrate up to New York state to spend a week smoking dope, drinking, and pursuing pussy. Or to go to San Francisco just to hang out, or to do any of the other stuff that is dreamily discussed now as “coming of age” in that period, or whatever.
The kids who participated in that Summer of Love were largely upper middle-class twerps, totally funded and enabled by their parents’ indulgence, who had NO IDEA at the time about any adult concerns like paying for college or self support. In short, they were spoiled superannuated teens.
To suppose that any of this reflected the doings or happenings of average American Yoot is akin to supposing that typical Americans spend their summers lounging at the country club.
Same for the Vietnam War protests: spoilt rich college kids pretending to be relevant. The rest of us – the real young people - were studying, in the army, or working necessary part-time jobs.
I was there.
Neither I nor any of my friends played any part in the Summer of Love (I was 19/20 at the time), because we were ALL either (a) in the military service (b) working summer jobs to accumulate money for college, (c) attending summer classes at college, or – horror of horrors – (d) working “adult” jobs because we had to grow up as soon as we graduated from high school.
None of us had the free time, the money, or the other resources to migrate up to New York state to spend a week smoking dope, drinking, and pursuing pussy. Or to go to San Francisco just to hang out, or to do any of the other stuff that is dreamily discussed now as “coming of age” in that period, or whatever.
The kids who participated in that Summer of Love were largely upper middle-class twerps, totally funded and enabled by their parents’ indulgence, who had NO IDEA at the time about any adult concerns like paying for college or self support. In short, they were spoiled superannuated teens.
To suppose that any of this reflected the doings or happenings of average American Yoot is akin to supposing that typical Americans spend their summers lounging at the country club.
Same for the Vietnam War protests: spoilt rich college kids pretending to be relevant. The rest of us – the real young people - were studying, in the army, or working necessary part-time jobs.