Like, Oh Wow!

Flower Child Agnes

I turned 14 in 1967 during the Summer of Love, and I lived in Pennsylvania, so I did not get to participate in the festivities that were going on out here in California. For those of you who don't remember (or who don't want to), that was the time when thousands and thousands of young people gathered in the Bay Area in search of an ideal -- a culture based on peace, love, universal brotherhood, and as it turned out, unbridled hedonism.

It was the following summer that I got to come to the Bay Area. I was with my parents, so there was no question of visiting Haight-Ashbury, but I nonetheless fell in love with San Francisco. From that time on, I harbored a secret desire to move here, although I lacked the imagination to think that was possible. The idea of moving here was, like peace, love, universal brotherhood and unbridled hedonism, an impractical and unobtainable dream.

I think that there were lots and lots of kids who really believed that there was a better way of living than what they saw around them. The senseless nature of the Viet Nam War, the numb adherence to societal norms that left our parents locked in lifestyles that seemed to drain the life out of them, the unmasked racial bigotry that had exploded into the streets of our cities, it seemed there was a need to start anew, to find a gentler path.

I have to wonder, however, where all that idealism went. My impression is that all that survives of the Summer of Love is the hedonism in the guise of our society's penchant for conspicuous consumption and raunchy entertainment.

As it turned out (albeit 20 years later) moving to California turned out to be possible, and peace, love and universal brotherhood existed in my relationship with the Catholic Church. That relationship, along with age and a little wisdom garnered from experience, has kept my hedonism bridled. With Sand's advice and consent (enabled by her co-dependency) we have remained largely counter-cultural (anti-social).

So here we are, approaching 60 years old, and we find ourselves filled with hope that we can live a life in California filled with peace, happiness and as much hedonism as can be allowed to two old farts living on a fixed income. If we can get some nice weather, 2011 could be our very own Summer of Love.