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Ahhh, 1963...

Started by conditionfreak,

47 posts in this topic

toro

toro

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Early hippies (1960–1966)

 

During the early 1960s novelist Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters lived communally in California. Members included Beat Generation hero Neal Cassady, Ken Babbs, Carolyn Adams (aka Mountain Girl), Wavy Gravy, Paul Krassner, Stewart Brand, Del Close, Paul Foster, George Walker, Sandy Lehmann-Haupt and others. Their early escapades were documented in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. With Cassady at the wheel of a school bus named Furthur, the Merry Pranksters traveled across the United States to celebrate the publication of Kesey's novel Sometimes a Great Notion and to visit the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. The Pranksters were known for using marijuana, amphetamines, and LSD, and during their journey they "turned on" many people to these drugs. The Merry Pranksters filmed and audiotaped their bus trips, creating an immersive multimedia experience that would later be presented to the public in the form of festivals and concerts.

 

That's from the wiki on hippies, around 63 they were probably more of the Beat Generation.

 

Wiki on:

Connections Between Beats and "Hippies"

 

The Beats in general were a large influence on members of the new "counterculture", for example, in the case of Bob Dylan who became a close friend of Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg as early as 1960 became close friends with 60's icon Timothy Leary and helped him in distributing LSD to influential people (including Robert Lowell) in order to demystify drug paranoia.

 

The year 1963 found Ginsberg living in San Francisco with Neal Cassady and Charles Plymell at 1403 Gough St. Shortly after that Ginsberg connected with Ken Kesey's crowd who was doing LSD testing at Stanford, and Plymell was instrumental in publishing the first issue of R. Crumb's Zap Comix on his printing press a few years later then moved to Ginsberg's commune in Cherry Valley, NY in the early 1970s. (The Plymells never lived at the Farm, just visited there; although they remained in Cherry Valley.)

 

Cassady was the bus driver for one of the most important early Hippie groups, Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, which included several members of the Grateful Dead. A sign of Kerouac's break with this new direction in counterculture occurred when the Merry Pranksters, with Cassady's insistence, attempted to recruit Kerouac. Kerouac angrily rejected their invitation and accused them of attempting to destroy the American culture he celebrated.

 

Anyways, the Beatnik generation seemed to be sewing the seeds to the new counter culture.

 

I had my "Beatles" style hair in the mid 60s until my grandfather trimmed my bangs lol It was probably 67 on Cape Cod that I saw my first real hippie ( my cousins and most of his friends ).

 

 

 

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toro

toro

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Great post. Where did you get most of your comics as a kid... the drugstore?

 

Myself, I bought comics at Drugstores (Duclose, Brook Avenue Pharmacies), small grocery store (Rolands) and then finally came a magazine store. They had the biggest variety of comics, but they hated kids. They liked me though because I probably was their best customer, outside of the ones who came to buy the nudie magazines.

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conditionfreak

conditionfreak

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Ha Ha. There were long haired freaky people all around in 1963. The Beatles were well known and worshipped in 1963. JFK was telling us we were going to the moon in 1963. I paid .12 cents for my comic books because that is what they charged, regardless of the cover price. Some even were .15 cents, but had a cover price of 10 or 12 cents. We took pop bottles to the store and got two cents a piece for them. FF #1 was a back issue then and cost more than a current issue. Flash did not become a part of my life until 1963 because that is when I started collecting comic books, and when I discovered him. Love has always been free. Long hair, drugs and freaky clothes started long before Haight Ashbury, at least they did at the University of Cincinnati which was in my neighborhood. We just called them weirdo's though, until the media named them hippies. The letter "J" was used but not an officially designated letter of the alphabet until 1962. It took an act of Copngress to make it officially part of the alphabet. Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead all sucked. Hendrix was kinda cool although did not interest me too much. I liked the Beatles.

 

I could go on and on, but you have ruined my flashback. Why?

 

I guess some just have a "corn cob up their arse" (an old saying from 1963) and feel the need to correct anyone about anything.

 

Anyway, it was nice for a few minutes. Like I said, it was probably off by a few years here and there, but that is how I remember it. I guess I should have googled and had a sanitized and absolutely correct childhood memory. I will not make that mistake again. It was probably because I didn't go to Catholic school and get that proper education the rich kids got. I went to Rothenberg Elementary and some black kid the size of a mountain, took my lunch money almost every day. I hope he bought comics with it, at least.

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Aman619

Aman619

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The letter "J" had just recently become an official letter of the alphabet (betcha didn't know that, huh?) Previously, it was a "slang" letter, used but not officially a part of the alphabet.

 

say what? more info please.

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goldust40

goldust40

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The letter "J" had just recently become an official letter of the alphabet (betcha didn't know that, huh?) Previously, it was a "slang" letter, used but not officially a part of the alphabet.

 

say what? more info please.

 

Googled that and all I could find was that it was the last letter of the current alphabet to be included. No mention of anything else...

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toro

toro

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It was the 60's, I can see where your mind my be off here and there.

 

I was 9 in 1963. Always remember hearing the news about the death of Marilyn Monroe.

 

Oh wait, that was in '62...

 

Just took that long for the news to make it to CT. :baiting:

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Davenport

Davenport

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Great post, fun to read.

Great thread. It's impossible to read it without remembering small snipits from childhood. :cloud9:

 

:) I remember...

 

...sitting with other kids in the yard at night. It was a serious discussion about whether Superman had ever been a real person. After a while we all concluded that yes, Superman had been real, but he had died by throwing himself on an atom bomb. Sometime before we were born.

 

...a kid up the street with an amazing Marx playset of the Civil War. It had the White House, presidents, canons, and millions of blue and grey soldiers. He was a jerk who made up goofy rules as you played, so he always won. But it was well worth it.

 

..."helping out" whoever owned the Washateria by picking up all the messy coke bottles scattered around his place, including the ones in the wire rack. He was never there, but we were sure he appreciated it. We would carefully carry our big brown grocery sacks full of bottles across the street to the grocery store. The man there gave us 2 cents for each bottle. Job well done.

 

...older kids at recess, mainly girls, wearing t-shirts with "I Want To Hold Your Hand" written on them. Some done in marks-alot. Seemed pretty stupid, 'cause we were done with holding hands long before we started grade school. (we hadn't heard of The Beatles, or didn't care, or both)

 

...the first "collector" we came across. Some kid's older brother. The guy's room was full of things he refused to open. Things we could have fun playing with. We were convinced he was insane. What fun could there possibly be with unopened stuff? Weird-oh, for sure.

 

He was also some "officer" in a "Sonny and Cher" club, whoever they were. Black and white pictures were all over his room, some with him sitting at tables with 'em. Big deal. There were some pics of the girl taking a bubble bath, which were...okay, but that Sonny-guy wore some Frankenstein fuzzy-jacket with no sleeves. He was ulgy though, but without any neck-bolts the jacket just looked stupid.

 

Obviously Sonny and Cher were weird-ohs too, just like this nut who bought stuff he wasn't going to open. Plus we had no idea where old people would build their stupid clubhouse anyway, as if we cared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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cloudofwit

cloudofwit

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The letter "J" had just recently become an official letter of the alphabet (betcha didn't know that, huh?) Previously, it was a "slang" letter, used but not officially a part of the alphabet.

 

say what? more info please.

 

Googled that and all I could find was that it was the last letter of the current alphabet to be included. No mention of anything else...

 

C'mon, guys, the "J" was the thing that was commonly smoked. :kidaround:

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Sqeggs

Sqeggs

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"Hippies and "Free Love" were not a part of 1963. niether was long hair on boys. all of this was post the "British Invasion" of 1964. long hair came first courtesy of the Beatles and then "Hippies" followed. I can't recollect a single long haired friend in catholic high school in 1964 nor in public high school in 1965. (and i lived less than 20 miles from NYC). I believe the "Hippie" movement began around 1966 on the west coast (Haight Ashbury?)."

 

Yep. "Summer of Love" in San Francisco was 1967. Sounds like the op is using "1963" to stand in for the whole of the 1960s, since a lot of the stuff he mentions is post-63 and other stuff is pre-63.

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toro

toro

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In the 60's I'd get taken out of the class and would get yelled at by my teacher to get my hair cut! So of course like Steve I still have a pony tail. Don't think a teacher would do that today.

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Ze-man

Ze-man

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While I was not around in 63, your post still hit home with me, great read. Awhile ago I made a similar thread that is worth reading, lots of peoples memories that we can all relate to one way or another.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post yours.

 

So instead of retyping out mine, here is a link for those who have not read it. I remember

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toro

toro

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While I was not around in 63, your post still hit home with me, great read. Awhile ago I made a similar thread that is worth reading, lots of peoples memories that we can all relate to one way or another.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post yours.

 

So instead of retyping out mine, here is a link for those who have not read it. I remember

 

 

 

That thread had to be the best thread of 2006.

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