The Aging Hippies for Obama Club - ANYONE can join!

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[daMamma]

great story Icy Russia Palin

[Jaime from Wasilla]

I love the idea of hippy cred.  I'm just a hair too young to be a real hippy. I was only six years old during the 1967 summer of love, but my 19 year old aunt would take me to Bob Dylan shows at the Coffeehouse Extempore in Minneapolis when she was supposed to be babysitting. I remember going to psychedelic dance parties, and it was my job to jiggle the pie-plate filled with colored water and oils on the light tray of the overhead projector to make the wall pulse with rainbow blobs.

By the 1970's I had already scandalized the family church by refusing to go through the confirmation ritual, I ran away from home and became a student at the Children's Theater Company.  In the summers I worked as a wandering character at the Minnesota Rennaisance Festival.

I made it into college, and studied theater at Northwestern University for a couple of years - 1979-1981. Then I ran away to Alaska. Ronald Reagan had become President, and it seemed like an iron curtain might be coming down on the USA - as a gay intellectual - I felt like how I imagined German Jews felt in 1933. It seemed to me that survival would be easier from Alaska than Chicago. I spent the next 9 years in Kodiak, working for the local Public Radio Station and getting involved in community theater. I even won an Alaska Press Club Award for On-The_Spot Journalism in 1986. I had a morning music request show every Wednesday, and in the middle of my show the Associated Press teletype went nuts. It turns out there had been a major earthquake off the coast of Adak, and the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center activated the Emergency broadcast System to evacuate the Alaska Coast. I got to hit the tone, read the announcement, tell everyone to stay tuned for more updates. Then I went to back to music - Jan & Dean's "Wipe Out" and the Beach Boys "Surfin' Safari". The next two hours were filled with updates, evacuation orders and surfing music. Grin.

I worked on the Exxon Valdez clean-up, and afterwards moved to Anchorage to go to the University of Alaska and finish the degree that had been interrupted. I survived the AIDS epidemic HIV negative, and got involved in gay rights activism. During the early 1990's I was a co-chair of the UAA LGBT Student Association, and through that work became part of the steering committee and executive committee for the 1993 LGBT March on Washington. I spent 5 months in 1993 in DC as the Related Events Coordinator for the March. After the event I came back to Alaska to recover.

In 1994 I moved to the Valley and became the full-time caregiver for a 76 year old lesbian who had a stroke. I was her full-time caregiver until she moved into an assited living home in 1998. I became the gardener for the City of Palmer from 1998-2003.  I have been doing any number of self-employment gigs with caregiving or gardening, and two years ago I opened a small specialty perennial nursery that features alpine plants, Alaska native plants, and very hardy perennials. I continue my community activism by sitting on the board for a faith-based non-profit housing company called Valley Residential Services that provides quality low-cost housing for special needs populations, including the elderly, physically or mentally disabled, mentally ill, or low income populations.

I've always felt that I was more of a hippy wannabe than a true hippy. But I did belong to the local health food co-op, I have owned birkenstocks and hemp clothing. I used to have "The Desiderata" hanging on my bedroom wall.  I even have a festival puppet in a box somewhere. Grin.

[daMamma]

What an interesting life Jaime.  Sounds to me that you are a real hippie at heart and I guess around these parts that's close enough to the real thing. 

Ginger is a real cutie, btw.

[Mary from TN]

This is a great chat!!  Here I thought I was an outlier.  A white granny that has been pitching Obama's "yes we can" since the first day he announced.  The pollsters believe that the 'old' white women won't for Barack and I do believe that they are in for a huge surprise when the outcome of this election is known.

 

[AnneinWA]

Another time, he gathered a group of about 35 people who wanted to sacrifice their attachment to drugs. 

Icy,

I was just thinking, with the current "bail-out", - "rescue"...WHATEVER they want to call it of the US economy, me might all get together to sacrifice out attachment to MONEY...oh...wait, I wouldn't have anything to bring to the ceremony. NEVERMIND!   

[AnneinWA]

I'm just a hair too young to be a real hippy. I was only six years old during the 1967 summer of love, but my 19 year old aunt would take me to Bob Dylan shows at the Coffeehouse Extempore in Minneapolis when she was supposed to be babysitting. I remember going to psychedelic dance parties, and it was my job to jiggle the pie-plate filled with colored water and oils on the light tray of the overhead projector to make the wall pulse with rainbow blobs...

I've always felt that I was more of a hippy wannabe than a true hippy. But I did belong to the local health food co-op, I have owned birkenstocks and hemp clothing. I used to have "The Desiderata" hanging on my bedroom wall.  I even have a festival puppet in a box somewhere. Grin.

Oh Jaime,

YOU ARE A TRUE HIPPIE!   

Thanks so much for sharing your heart-warming story. I would love to visit your nursery and talk with you about your journey. Sounds like your 19-year-old aunt was the BEST kinda' babysitter! She got you started out right   

[A Blizzard of Words]

This is a great chat!!  Here I thought I was an outlier.  A white granny that has been pitching Obama's "yes we can" since the first day he announced.  The pollsters believe that the 'old' white women won't for Barack and I do believe that they are in for a huge surprise when the outcome of this election is known.

 

Total agreement with you, Mary and, henceforth it will be known as "the day the old hippies rebelled."

[mimi]

I believe there are more old white hippie ladies out there than mccain's campaign could imagine.  Check out this site and certainly add your comments if you choose - (we are all about choice)

http://womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.com/2008/09/introducing-sarah-palin.html

167,000 women have commented and many of them elderly - even some groups of women from nursing homes.  I wonder "do they still wear tye die?"

[AnneinWA]

This is a great chat!!  Here I thought I was an outlier.  A white granny that has been pitching Obama's "yes we can" since the first day he announced.  The pollsters believe that the 'old' white women won't for Barack and I do believe that they are in for a huge surprise when the outcome of this election is known.

 

Oh Mary,

I was starting to think I was the only white granny out there shouting for Obama too, but I believe our numbers are growing. I was at our local office last week trying to buy yard signs, with no luck. The really young guys who are staffing the office simply told me not to worry about Washington - "This state ALWAYS goes blue" me in a calm manner. Soon after our conversation had started, 2 more women about my age (real young)  came in. We sorta' gave them a talking-to about NOT wanting to take our state for granted...take NOTHING for granted...we've lived through too many of these elections. So, with our encouragement, they ordered-in Obama "stuff"! So, here I sit in my new Obama shirt. Can't wait to wear ot out and about today!

 

[daMamma]

Way to go AnneinWA!

[AnneinWA]

daMamma,

I had lots of errands to attend to today, so I trekked about town in my new Obama t-shirt, I was stopped, several times, and asked by others where they could buy one for themselves! I also got smiles and thumbs-ups from store clerks...and even got a semi-cheer, FROM 3 OLDER WOMEN, when I stopped at Borders to pick up a book!

So, I am going back to the campaign office again tomorrow to volunteer and ask them to order more Obama gear! 

YES WE CAN!  All we are saying, is give peace a chance...

[daMamma]

Too cool AnneinWA!  That sounds excellent.

[Sydney]

Well, I was a post-hippie in the '70s and I just turned 50 - thank you AARP for reminding me of that for the past 6 months. I still haven't signed up. I'm all for peace, love and the whole "make love not war" mantra. I like that.

[judi]

Dont laugh at me but I could not find this group for the past week or so...
how do you get here if someone didnt post recently so it doesnt show up on the left side of the screen...hey they didnt have computers when I was in school ha ha

[daMamma]

Computers were the newest thing in my Sr. year and only boys could sign up for the class.  Girls got to take key punch. 

Which machine do you see as standard equipment in an office now?   

[Engine Nighthawk Palin]

judi, from the main forum search "hippie"

[AnneinWA]

 I'm all for peace, love and the whole "make love not war" mantra. I like that.

Sydney,

YOU ARE A HIPPIE HERE!

Peace...Love...Unity   

[AnneinWA]

Dont laugh at me but I could not find this group for the past week or so...
how do you get here if someone didnt post recently so it doesnt show up on the left side of the screen...hey they didnt have computers when I was in school ha ha

Judi,

We don't laugh at anybody here! Read the great stories. Share your thoughts, and experience a bit of nostalgia.   

P.S. I see you have already been given instructions on how to find us here!

[daMamma]

Welcome Judi! 

We've got some really comfy places to kick back and relax.  Come on in, find a spot and stay a while.

[kokofish palin]

 
Wow, cool site. This thread reminded me of my senior year college photo: my friends, our dog, me - earth mother - in long skirt, boots, sitting in front of the fountain at Occidental College. I graduated in 1971. One time we picked up a chest full of Peyote sent to us from a reservation in Arizona via the Greyhound bus. Drove my bug down to the bus station, with friends (not too many, small car and all) picked up the chest, took it back to the dorm and spent the night distributing preordered gift bags.

My psychedelic of choice was always mescaline. Life was mellow during LA summers with love-ins at Griffith Park, concerts with the Doors, Moody Blues, Crosby Stills Nash and Young. I was and still am a big Neil Young fan.

I mentioned somewhere else that I was a youth organizer for Eugene McCarthy. And got involved in 1968,  quit a job, drove to Chicago to be a McCarthy organizer at the Convention. We crashed in an apartment in Hyde Park, worked with various states' delegates and the night Humphrey was nominated got involved in the protests at Grant Park. Dick Gregory was speaking. One of things he extolled us to do was to march to the Convention Center. We were young and old, idealists eventually lost in the tear gas, police and National Guard.  Chicago was a heady, amazing and ultimately devastating experience.

Peace and love to all who grace these pages.