please help for my college work!!

I need to do an online interview with a hippie for an article, either one that lived during the 60's/70's or one that still chooses this lifestyle. It would be really helpful for my work if someone could let me ask them a few questions by email or on here about their lifestyle and views as a hippie.
Thanks

 

PM your Q - and to the best of my recollection, I'll give feedback and A

 

As a "guest" LAS1234 does not yet have PM privileges.

 

Interesting, please post your project once you have gathered all needed info. I'd love to see it! I am to young to of lived in the 60s tho, but I know there are some here that would appreciate answering your questions.

 

Whoops - Thanx for that - I didn't think (story of my life = lol)
Well Email is an option I guess ?

 

Open discussion works too.

 

las1234, i had the good fortune to have survived both of those decades, if you want to post some questions, i will be glad to answer anything that will help if its appropriate.

im a country boy "old hippie" so my perspective may differ from what your looking for, but its a hippies perspective all the same.

i've been to vietnam, i protested against the war (but went anyway), my senior trip so to speak.

just ask!!! some of us old farts like to tell of the days gone by, lol

just dont ask for an interview with video/audio or anything similarly objectable and we'll tell you "how we made it"

 

thank you so much. I will post the questions on here either by the end of today or tomorrow

 

These are the questions I need to ask, please answer as many as possible and go into as much detail as you can. Thank you


1) What is being a hippie all about?
2) At what age did you become a hippie? What made you choose this lifestyle?
3) What was daily life like as a hippie?
4) If I were to become a hippie, are there any strict rules I would have to stick to?
5) From what I have researched the majority of people that were part of this movement got involved with drugs. Did you take drugs such as Marijuana or LSD? If so what was your first experience like? Did drugs have a major influence on your life? And do you still take these drugs?
6) Do you think the Hippie movement has influenced today’s society?
7) Do you have any strong views on the environment?
8) I know that music was quite an important part of the hippie movement, especially with big festivals such as Woodstock; did you ever go to a festival like this? And do you still attend festivals or other gatherings?
9) In your opinion do you think that hippies are the same nowadays as they were back in the 60’s/70’s?
10) (For placou 1968) What was it like protesting against the Vietnam War? Was there any violence?
11) Have you changed your lifestyle since first becoming a hippie? Do you still stick to those values?
12) And finally what is your favourite memory as a young hippie?

 

A question for you, LAS1234:

Who furnished the questions that you are asking?

 

I did, why?

 

I'm trying to process the premise that they seem based on.

 

sorry, what do you mean?

 

I'm selecting one as it best exemplifies my questions.

I don't see "hippie" as something you choose to become. You seem to be approaching this from the premise that it's some sort of club with a membership.

Most so-called "real" hippies wouldn't identify themselves as such. I'm wondering who is assigning this work, how many other students are charged with the task of interviewing a "hippie" and how the results will be skewed by preconceived notions of what so-called "hippiedom" might be.

I see your approach as accepting the concept of what an outsider has been misinformed about what was a spontaneous set of countercultures that the mainstream media tended to lump into one movement. To be clear, the term "hippie" was originally coined as a pejorative in marginalizing what was seen as a bunch of dumb kids who were cheap, mass produced baby beatniks in the early 60's.

From my perspective, popularizing hippie as a term of self identification was part of a fad- a way of dressing, hair style and other means of self expressing by rebellious teens. It gained some political credence particularly with the antiwar cause as young men were being drafted to fight in what was increasingly seen by the much of general population as an illegitimate war in Vietnam.

The parents of the original "hippie generation" tended to be the so-called "greatest generation" who had survived the great depression and WWII and whose core values which were shaped by those two events were what was being rebelled against.

Your definition of what a hippie really is will vary from person to person. To me it was a label only willingly adopted by those who in reality didn't carry the ideals as a part of their core set of beliefs. These people would grow up to be the "sell-outs" when the rebellion became boring and the draw of greed pulled them into the corporate world.

You seem to be approaching the topic from a very self limiting stance which seems calculated to reaching a particular conclusion.

Again... Are you doing this article for a school project? If so, what class is this assignment for? Was the "hippie movement" topic suggested by an instructor and if so, what was told to you about hippies or the movement as part of the curriculum?

How many other classmates are pursuing this assignment?

 

Thanks for answering that question.
Yes it is a school project based on the hippie subculture, and i have to create some interview questions to ask a hippie so i can create an article for a fake magazine, I have to cover, the history, lifestyle, art/music, politics, icons and other topics like that. The interview can be based on a particular subject depending on who we interview but I just chose to do a range of different topics as i can't tailor my questions to a hippie that i don't know anything about. I just need to create an interview which gives an idea of what being a hippie is and what it was like during the 60's.

 

Is it a history course?

Has there been any information given to you concerning the "hippie subculture"?

My questions/curiosity are based on my own issues concerning misinformation in its many forms. I'm concerned that young folks who are laying out good money for degrees are being the unwitting tools of propagandists under the guise of education.

My perspective is that of an American who is struggling to take an objective view of my own culture. Accepted historic views on countercultures are good ways to comprehend how the established media and information structures shape how the majority tend to think by how that counterculture is being characterized.

In asking a question that starts as "if I were to become a hippie..." you have given an indication of what I see as an errant preconception of what at its core was likely a spontaneous movement by people barely aware if at all that they constituted a definable counterculture because they were simply following their sets of beliefs... and those (vast majority) who dressed the part were dong so for little reason beyond the fact that it pissed their parents off. For them it was no more than a normal rebellion phase- the trappings of which were furnished by the counterculture that mom and dad likely railed bitterly against. They grew up to be "yuppies"... "sellouts".

Of course there's a measure of curiosity whether you're digging for hard information or are you looking for good marks on the assignment and are going to give your instructor what he/she wants? When I was in school I was guilty of the latter.

 

i lost my post somewhere before it made the board, stinkfoot i was thinking what you posted, i cant trump that, and i certainly cant articulate it as well as that, lol

las1234 when you get (sfoot) convinced that your sincere in this endeavor, we,ll give you more info from that era than you want,
i noticed you ask of me to explain my expierience with the protests, i can do that for you, but i will offer this up for your consideration:

one day i was a protester of the vietnam war, the next i was in vietnam fighting the war, the next i came home and was protested against and labeled as a horrific person.
this all happened before i was 21yrs old, thats a heavy burdon to place on someone approaching 22 years of age, the protests are the easy things to talk about, if you want some graphic info from someone that was there, im your person, you will quite likely find many here, with similar info they may or may not want to share. just an offer, if the protests are your point of concern we'll only discuss them.

2. well, i first tasted pot at 13 yrs old, and i have'nt regreted it to this day, but that isnt when i realized i was a hippie, and i dont expect you will find anyone with a "defining moment". if there is a such thing as a defining moment it would have been when i learned that "when the chips are down, there are people you can count on and people you cant", you could count on a fellow hippie to give you the shirt off their back if it would help, that wasnt true of the establishment people

2a. you dont choose the lifestyle, it chooses you. i dont know how to put this, ("sfoot, i need a little help here to articulate), hippie: its either in you or not, theres no grey line, however most all us old hippies have jobs, were responsible parents, we own homes, we have lines of credit established, we drive normal vehicles and eventhough we look normal just like the rest of the world, theres a little hell raiser in us and he wont go away, we dont like being pushed, we dont care for the politics as they stand today, we just dont like "stupidity" and at a time in our life nobody would listen to us, until the "strength in numbers" factor reared its head and we had to be listened to, and as time has shown WE WERE RIGHT!!!!

3. my daily life as a hippie didnt last long, i was taken away from all i had ever known and sent to a place to kill people i had never met and for a reason i have never understood. i know this is redundant in some of my posts, but i still harbor ill will at l.b.j because of that.
IF YOU WANT MORE ON THAT JUST ASK. when i came home i grew my hair, and if their was something to rebel against, well, we did.

4. like i said, its either in you or not. theres no handbook, no rules, just take some time to free your mind of all the everyday shit that worries you. once a day sit down and relax, go at your own pace, find someone you dont care for and tell them to kiss your ass, then see how good it feels, if it makes you happy to have said that, just imagine feeling that way for many years. thats the feeling.

5. yes there was more drugs in those days than you can concieve, as far as i know the only one i missed out on was smack, i just couldnt see where the fun was in puking to get off, but i managed to located the rest of the "goodies". i would say it was enlightning, no influence in my life, mostly just a fad, as far as today, im not opposed to the periodic hooter if its been a shitty day, but bear in mind eventhough we are the hippies of the day, we had to grow up and we get drug tested like the rest of the world....learn discretion my friend

6. at one period of time yes there was a great influence, but were now just a very small part of history, keep the perspective that we had to grow up and do as the rest of the world does everyday, you wouldnt be able to pick us out of a crowd, like i said its inside, not outside

7. i do what i think is my part, i recycle (some), i plant trees because im pretty sure were always going to need to breathe, i grow my own.....garden, tomato, potatoe other veggies, i raise my own beef and pork, no added hormones, have my own hen house (chicken coop) eggs farm fresh and lots of fried chicken

8. i have been to to many individule concerts that i cant count all of them, i do know that i have seen the stones 7 times. havent been to a concert in a long time, prices on the last ticket to the stones was &25.00, today most concert tickets are in the 200.00 or over range, im not paying that.

9. only the ones that grew up in that era, its just not nor will it ever be as it was in the 60/70's. the temperment of the times wont allow it, thats the biggest difference

10. contingent upon where you lived or protested was a defining indicator as to the violence, i lived in a pretty small town, everyone knew everyone, the same cops that might put us in jail for protesting was the same cops that had fought in korea, seen us protesting the vietnam war, and were delivering flag draped coffins and death notices accompanied by military officers, so they mostly left us alone, other place in the u.s. were'nt so lucky, i cant speak for them eventhough i recall seeing it on tv, someone in here will have that answer for you. (i kinda wished you would have ask about any violence in vietnam rather than here, i could captivate you for quite a while).

11. most all of us have changed, next time you drive along the hwy., just look over at the person your passing, he may be clean cut, driving a mercedes and talking on a 300.00 cell phone, but he could just as easly be a hippie as not. we had to grow up, its your generation now and you are the future, we planted the seed and paved the way, you have to nurture it and keep it alive or the species will just up and fade away

11a. i could never forget the values i learned in my youth, and it all goes back to this, you either are a hippie or not, if you are you will know it, its inside you, that little rebel that wants to go left if everyones going right, or wants to go up if everyones going down. a hippie is not a mainstream thinker

12. finding out that i had enough points to rotate out of vietnam

 

I trust that helps in some way - Keep the Faith

 

1) What is being a hippie all about?
2) At what age did you become a hippie? What made you choose this lifestyle?
3) What was daily life like as a hippie?
4) If I were to become a hippie, are there any strict rules I would have to stick to?
5) From what I have researched the majority of people that were part of this movement got involved with drugs. Did you take drugs such as Marijuana or LSD? If so what was your first experience like? Did drugs have a major influence on your life? And do you still take these drugs?
6) Do you think the Hippie movement has influenced today’s society?
7) Do you have any strong views on the environment?
8) I know that music was quite an important part of the hippie movement, especially with big festivals such as Woodstock; did you ever go to a festival like this? And do you still attend festivals or other gatherings?
9) In your opinion do you think that hippies are the same nowadays as they were back in the 60’s/70’s?
10) (For placou 1968) What was it like protesting against the Vietnam War? Was there any violence?
11) Have you changed your lifestyle since first becoming a hippie? Do you still stick to those values?
12) And finally what is your favourite memory as a young hippie?
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1. we really didnt know we were hippies, the "outcast" of the day were called beatnicks, actually the forerunner of the hippies. it was about adolescences, with little worldly life expieriences. we knew we didnt want to go to war that nobody has explained the relevence of as to this day, we knew we were being lied to by government on many levels, and we also knew we had the upper hand over all the estableshment, we had ROCK AND ROLL, and as time has shown its here to stay. each and everyone of us has used r/r to our advantage because our parents hated it, but couldnt control it, and the artists were our age and some had no problem attaching their fame to us during a movement that could be percieved as unpopular by some.
so, being a hippie is more of a feeling or an emotion, believe me you know if your a hippie or not, its just born inside you, man i got a buzz cant wait to re-read this tomorrow, lol

 

Thanks for the answers

Stinkfoot- I'm getting a bit confused, I just needed to get an interview for my class project as it is part of my researching methods and as i don't know any hippies myself, I thought i'd ask online. Its nothing to do with me getting information for anyone else if thats what your getting at, its just a basic interview and if your not happy with what i'm asking you then you could answer a question that you feel happy answering.. I just need this to get me a good grade haha