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A FADED "HIPPIE" DREAM
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H . h A hb
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a1g
t-
s
ury
five years later
The flower children are
gone.
This one-time Mecca for hippie
youth is now a fading memorial to Utopian dreams. WHAT
happened? WHY did it foil? T
o
find out, we sent one of our
reporters to the once-famed hippie capital of the world-
HAIGHT-ASHBURY. He filed this sobering report.
by
Jerry W. Web b
San Francisco
P
EOPLE USED
to talk about Haight–
Ashbury. The underground press
wrote about
it.
Scott McKenzie
and Petula Clark made it famous in
song:
"lf
you are going toSan Francisco, be
sure to wear sorne .Aowers in your hair.
For in the streets of San Francisco -
you're gonna find sorne gentle people
there...."
To the allure of that well-known
tune, thousands of youths converged on
the "spiritual capital" of the Love Gen–
eration - Haight-Ashbury!
When the media capitalized on the
action, word spread fast: "lt's happen–
ing in the 'Hashbury'! A
!ove
commu–
nity by the sea. Population: subject to
change. Elevation: out of sight !"
The Big Scene
Cars were bumper to bumper clown
the street and flower children aboÜnded
in the area. There were banners, songs,
slogans and flower-painted buses. And
there was "love." Sorne claimed they'd
found a new and
better
way
of life in
Haight·Ashbury.
Today, everything is different.
W hat
has gone wrong and why? Why did the
hippie dream for a "new America" fail
here?
Was it the encounter with society, the
press and television sensationalism, the
inundation by thousands of runaways,
that caused it all to collapse?
What
really happened
here in Haight–
Ashbury?
In talking with store owners, commu–
nity officials, police captains, and even
sorne of the young peoplc who were
there in the beginning, the amazing
story of the Haight-Ashbury hippie
phenomenon - how it fiowered, then
withcred - comes clear.
1965
-A
New Life Style Buds
The permissiveness of San Francisco
- the city on hills - is still evidenced
by the topless and bottomless parade
that bcgan here. In the older, low-rent
community of Haight-Ashbury live
sorne of Sao Francisco's more liberal–
minded elderly residents. They liked
seeing young people have a good time.
And thís, say law officials, is one of the
big reasons the hippie movement flow–
ered so quickly here.
Back in 1965, young artists and musi–
cians began gathering in this old section
of the
city
near Golden Gate Park. They
would wander from house to house on
warm evenings, rehearsing together, lis–
teníng to records and smoking pot.
They would forro bands, disband, and
forro others. The music would filter
from behind drawn shades of weathered
Victorian homes to fill the neighbor–
hood with sound.
A coffee house and sandwich shop
called the Unicorn was opened on
Haight Street. And its first proprietors
and customers helped set the life-style.
They dropped out of the "straight
scene," wore long hair and sandals to
show they were different, and banded
together so they wouldn't be alone.
Said Spencer Dryden, drummer for
the famed Jefferson Airplane band:
"The Haight was heaven for anybody
with long hair. About eight hundred
dyed-in-the-wool hippies and that's it.
lt
was a family thing. No tourists.
Everybody
did
live together and
did
hdp
each other out."
A communal way of life was being
formed by roan
y
of the San Francisco
bands (the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver
Messenger Service, the Charlatans, Jef–
ferson Airplane and
many
others).
And, the "vibrations" were heard
around the country. "Come on people
now ... smi le on your brother! Every·