Grumpy Old Hippies Revolt Against the Punk Kids Who've Taken Their Place

A couple of weeks ago I watched a History Channel special on hippies. The 2 hour show detailed how the hippie movement got its start in San Francisco, had a brief moment in the sun during the "summer of love" in 1966, then degenerated into little more than sex, drugs, crime, and premature death. It wasn't a very romantic portrayal of the hippie scene.

Today, some of those former hippies still live in the Haight-Ashbury District in San Fran which was the cosmic center of the hippie universe. Those former hippies are now getting on in years and aren't happy about the new generation of drug-addled homeless losers that have taken their place on the streets:

SAN FRANCISCO — From his second-floor apartment at the counterculture crossing of Haight and Ashbury streets, Arthur Evans watches a new generation of wayward youth invade his free-spirited neighborhood.

The former flower child was among the legions of idealistic wanderers who migrated here during the Vietnam War to "tune in, turn on and drop out."

But Evans, who has lived at the same address for 34 years, says he has never seen anything like this crowd, who use his flower bed as a bathroom and sell pot outside his window.

They're known as gutter punks, these homeless kids with dirty dreadlocks and nose rings, lime-green mohawks and orange spray-painted faces, who panhandle with cardboard signs that riff on their lifestyles. "Please Help Us Get Un-Sober," one reads. Another: "Please Give Us Weed, Beer or Money."

Sometimes aggressive, they block sidewalks as they strum guitars or bang on bongos. Gangs of them skateboard down the middle of Haight Street. Some throw used hypodermic needles into a nearby pond they call Hep-C Lake.

Evans, 64, says they should get help, clean up or go home.

"I used to be a hippie. I wore beads and grew my hair long," he said. "But my generation had something these kids do not: a standard of civilized behavior."

Really? I didn't see a lot of civilized behavior in that History Channel special. For the most part it looked a lot like what's described as going on today. Granted, during the "summer of love" there was a brief time when peace seemed to reign (along with drugs), but that quickly degenerated as more lost souls showed up.

As you read the article you'll hear many of the same complaints that were voiced by residents in the 60's, but now the 60's generation is doing the complaining. It's pretty funny when you look at the irony of the whole thing.

You can read the rest of the article here (though I think you have to register).