Work Cited
-Perry, Charles. The Haight-Ashbury: A History. New York: Wernner Books. 2005.
October 2011.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
The Comparison
AN EXPLOSION OF SEX, DRUGS, AND ROCK N ROLL NOW???
Walking around Haight-Ashbury now is a lot different then if you were walking around there back in 1967. I felt now it is really commeralized. A lot of the stores sell the idea of the 1967 Haight-Ashbury. It felt almost like a tourist trap! Yet it still has an ambiance of peace, some really cool stores and artwork. The Summer of Love also brought in thousands of people. There are not thousands of people hanging out there now or in the Panhadle park anymore. The Summer of Love was just the perfect combination of being in a certain places, at a certain time, with a certain growing out-cry from a certain group of people. I had such a fantastic day and hope to go there again soon! Peace and Love!
Walking around Haight-Ashbury now is a lot different then if you were walking around there back in 1967. I felt now it is really commeralized. A lot of the stores sell the idea of the 1967 Haight-Ashbury. It felt almost like a tourist trap! Yet it still has an ambiance of peace, some really cool stores and artwork. The Summer of Love also brought in thousands of people. There are not thousands of people hanging out there now or in the Panhadle park anymore. The Summer of Love was just the perfect combination of being in a certain places, at a certain time, with a certain growing out-cry from a certain group of people. I had such a fantastic day and hope to go there again soon! Peace and Love!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The Experience Now
On October 7, 2011 (my 29th birthday) my husband and I headed to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. It was a beautiful sunny day in San Francisco, which is a rare treat for any visitor to SF. With the spirit of the summer of love on my mind, and the marijuana running through my veins (now classified as medical marijuana) we arrived at Haight-Ashbury around noon. Unbelievably we got a parking space right in front of the Ben and Jerry's at the cross streets of Haight and Ashbury. We put some money in the parking meter and went into Ben and Jerry's. I hadn't had my morning cup of coffee yet and my husband wanted some ice cream. This is me in front of Ben and Jerry's!
We went into some really cool shops on Haight. The street is filled with vintage, hat, tourist, tattoo and head shops. Something for everyone! Among all these shops were also bars and the Haight Street Market. We found a dive bar called The Gold Cane that looked pretty laid back. We went in to have a couple of drinks. The drinks were good and inexpensive! Here is a picture of one of the vintage shops and my husband and I on the patio at The Gold Cane! Cheers!
We didn't hear The Grateful Dead or Janis Joplin playing from the street, but we did catch a band jamming some folk music on the street! We took some video but I don't know how to make it play on this blog! Here it is anyway!
After we left the bar we decided to go get some food and some medical marijuana in the Lower Haight district. One of our favorite places to eat when we are over in Lower Haight is a German sausage called Rosamunde. It was very delicious! A beer brat and German potato salad, wow. Sometimes it doesn't get better than that my friends. Conveniently, Rosamunde is located in walking distance of one of our favorite medical marijuana dispensaries, The Vapor Room. The Vapor Room is located under a beautiful Victorian house. We made our selection at The Vapor Room and went back to the car. There is some really cool graffiti on some of the buildings in Lower Haight too!
The Experience Then
The Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, California has a long history. For the purpose of this road trip I wanted to focus on a particular time on Haight-Ashbury. The years 1966-1968. It was these years that drawn so much of my interest to Haight-Ashbury. These were the years that brought something different, a revolution of opening your mind to new experiences. The major event to happen during these years that would change the Haight-Ashbury district (and the country for that matter) forever was "The Summer of Love."
"There are only two constants in the San Francisco hippie scene: music, grass, and LSD."
-Tom Donahue, Billboard, May 6, 1967
AN EXPLOSION OF SEX, DRUGS, AND ROCK N' ROLL!!!
"The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, creating a cultural and political rebellion. San Francisco was the center of the hippie revolution, a melting pot of music, psychoactive drugs, sexual freedom, creative expression, and politics. The Summer of Love became a defining moment of the 1960s, as the hippie counterculture movement came into public awareness. This unprecedented gathering of young people is often considered to have been a social experiment, because of alternative lifestyles that became common, both during the summer itself and during subsequent years. These lifestyles included communal living; the free and communal sharing of resources, often among total strangers; and free love."(Wikipedia)
- Sex: The Summer of Love was a time for making love not war. For exploration and freedom. The release of inhibitions! Until this point sex was something you did with someone you loved, someone that you were married too, and in the privacy of your own home.
-Drugs: Marijuana and LSD were the two biggest drugs floating around Haight-Ashbury during The Summer of Love. For example, in The Haight-Asbury: A History by Charles Perry, Perry writes, "Dealing Marijuana was the economic base of the Haight-Ashbury hippie community. Nearly every hippie sold a little grass, and many didn't know any other way of making a living. In 1966, lids ("ontensible ounces," as the term was translated in court) of grass were going for $8 to $10 in San Francisco."(Perry) LSD was so big that the hippies advertised parties in the Haight with posters saying "Can You Pass The Acid Test?" It seems everyone was either stoned on marijuana or LSD during The Summer of Love. It was all about the next mind opening experience you could have.
-Music: "During that year (1967), the neighborhood's fame reached its peak as it became the haven for a number of the top psychedelic rock performers and groups of the time. Acts like Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin all lived a short distance from the intersection. They not only immortalized the scene in song, but also knew many within the community as friends and family."(Wikipedia)
The Grateful Dead
Janis Joplin
"The bulk of what was happening in the summer of love was the exchange of ideas and attitudes and feelings. It wasn't drugs that made me decide I wasn't going to let the powers that be send me to war. It was the reality of war and the wrongness of that war in particular."
-Bob Weir, Preface. to The Haight-Ashbury: A History by Charles Perry
"There are only two constants in the San Francisco hippie scene: music, grass, and LSD."
-Tom Donahue, Billboard, May 6, 1967
AN EXPLOSION OF SEX, DRUGS, AND ROCK N' ROLL!!!
"The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, creating a cultural and political rebellion. San Francisco was the center of the hippie revolution, a melting pot of music, psychoactive drugs, sexual freedom, creative expression, and politics. The Summer of Love became a defining moment of the 1960s, as the hippie counterculture movement came into public awareness. This unprecedented gathering of young people is often considered to have been a social experiment, because of alternative lifestyles that became common, both during the summer itself and during subsequent years. These lifestyles included communal living; the free and communal sharing of resources, often among total strangers; and free love."(Wikipedia)
-Music: "During that year (1967), the neighborhood's fame reached its peak as it became the haven for a number of the top psychedelic rock performers and groups of the time. Acts like Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin all lived a short distance from the intersection. They not only immortalized the scene in song, but also knew many within the community as friends and family."(Wikipedia)
"The bulk of what was happening in the summer of love was the exchange of ideas and attitudes and feelings. It wasn't drugs that made me decide I wasn't going to let the powers that be send me to war. It was the reality of war and the wrongness of that war in particular."
-Bob Weir, Preface. to The Haight-Ashbury: A History by Charles Perry
Monday, September 26, 2011
The Idea
I am taking a California History class in college right now. One of our assignments is a road trip somewhere in California. I choose to go to Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco for my road trip. I have always been interested in the ambiance of the 1960s in California. Especially, in San Francisco! What a time and place in history to be a part of! Free love, drugs, sex, and rock n' roll. A time of revolution, a hippie revolution. What was it like??? A lot different then it is now?? We shall see!
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