Welcome to
my hippie crib on the Web

Hippie also spelled 'hippy' is a member of a counterculture group that began in the United States during the Vietnam War, just after the British Invasion in 1960s. Hippie, Flower Child or sometimes Hipster are synonyms for a Hippy. Hippies are people whose behavior, dress, worldviews, use of psychedelic drugs, tastes in art, music etc. imply a rejection of conventional Middle Class values. Origins of hippies can be traced back to European freedom movement groups and Bohemians, American 1940s Hipsters and 1950s Beats. But probably every bohemian, artist, hipster, beatnik and/or hippie will tell you that they are who they are because it came naturally to them from the heart. Hence, the real hippie crib is in the heart.

During the 1950s, aspects of the Beat movement metamorphosed into the sixties counterculture, accompanied by a shift in terminology from "beatnik" to "hippie" [Read more]. Hence, hippies came from the Beats. The leading writers known as the "beats" were Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Gregory Corso. Their followers were called "beatniks", and the word "beatnik" came from the word "beatific", which means "bestowing bliss, blessings, happiness, blissful, saintly” [Def. from: Dictionary.com].

The most obvious differences between beatniks and hippies were their tastes in dress and music. Beatniks preferred Jazz music, abstract art and fashions from Paris, France. On the other hand, hippies preferred Folk-Rock music, psychedelic art and Mod fashions mostly from London, and also from San Francisco such as jeans, bandanas and the Hippie Look (bell bottoms, overalls etc.), which was introduced in San Francisco in 1969.

The name of The Beatles, a 1960s English band that started the British Invasion was a play of words in the spelling of the words "beat" + "beetle = "Beatle". That play in spelling identified The Beatles with the Beats and with Hippies. The spelling was a stoke of genius that came to John Lennon in a dream. On July 6, 1961, John Lennon was asked by a reporter from Mersey Beat (Vol.1 No. 1) how did the name Beatles arrive? He replied "It came in a vision - a man appeared on a flaming pie and said 'From this day on you are Beatles, spelled with an A'. Thank you Mister Man, they said, thanking him."

The hippie movement was like a magic event brought about by many coincidental events or by Synchronicity. Some of those were the British music invasion headed by The Beatles, the Vietnam War, Peace movement, Civil Rights movement, Women's Rights movement, and others that merged somehow at the same time. Hippies popped up like mushrooms in different parts of the country, and the world. At first, the Beatles style long hair became a hippie trademark. That was followed by Mod fashions from London, and by other fashions from San Francisco such as bell-bottoms in late 1969. The movement did not have a hierarchical or family type structure with leaders or elders at the top. Though the movement had different "heros" (persons admired for having done or said something important), and there may have been groups or communes that may have taken on a hierarchial structure, the hippie movement was a freedom movement that revolved mainly around music, liberal ideas, gatherings and other events. It did not have an organized structure and was different in many ways from those that were formed abroad later.

Well over 90% of American hippies were young and of draft age, just like me. But the movement was open for people of all ages who shared hippie ideas. Attempts to categorize hippies into various categories, casts or groups is a mistake and not in line with its real freedom loving character. And the hippie slang word "Head" was just an inside slang word for a fellow hippie - not for a hippie leader. However, it was an underground movement, and had its secrets and intimate side. So, not all hippie circles were open for anyone; especially those that weren't "heads"; in other words for those that didn't share hippie ideas and weren't trustworthy. But that was not always the case... There were also hippies that were eager to accepted anyone who knocked on their door. And especially in the early 1970s, sometimes hippie ideas and lifestyles opened an opportunity for abuse by criminals and/or pushers of hard drugs. But time has shown that hippie ideas of peace, love and happiness have prevailed because they are strong, universal and timeless.

Please remember Woodstock 1969 and the Summer of Love. Peace!

To know where we’re going, we have to understand where we’ve been. In that spirit this website was built. At first, it was made for folks the author had met in his travels abroad, who didn't understand the influence 1960s and hippies had on our modern culture. The site has also become a source of first hand information about 1960-70s hippies and the author's personal experiences, among other things.

Some reasons for the creation of the site
because many websites on the subject were made by people that were too young in the 1960s to understand what was going on, weren't born yet or were not hippies themselves,
because the media portrays of the 1960s is often an image created to serve conservative corporate propaganda interests,
because the author's experiences were different from those of others,
to prevent destortion of facts about hippies and 1960s Peace movement,
to contribute to the global community,
to create a personal home site on the Web,
to tell about the author's experiences,
to preserve the spirit and ideas that are dear to hippies,
and for other reasons.

I was there, drank the wine, smoked the weed, passed the acid test, got initiated and was given a hippie name: The Polish Hippy. So, if you won't expect too much from my writing skills and find the time to go through some stuff posted on the site, perhaps you'll learn a bit more about the 1960-70s and how and why they changed the world so much. But most of all, this will be a biography of a 1960s Chicago hippy rather then a research type work on the subject.

In my transatlantic travels and the mentoring work I've done in Europe, I've met many folks that didn't understand America; especially the 1960s and hippies. So, instead of writing a book on the subject, caring photo albums and scrap books with me and retelling the same story to everyone I've come across, I've built this site instead. You'll find lots of information, related links, photos, my music, etc. here. And the site was built by me. Thus, the site is an online work of art, and blog style literature.

My experiences were somewhat different from other 1960s hippies. I lived in Chicago and traveled to Europe. When I started building this site in about 2000, there were just a few hippies on the Web. Perhaps that was because many old hippies were not computer literate; though hippies and psychedelics did play a major role in the development of computers, informatics and the World Wide Web. Later, after I've built the site came Web 2.0 technology and services that made it possible for almost anyone to create their own blogs, websites and pages on newly created social network sites such as Facebook, YouTube, MySpace etc. Web 2.0 opened the World Wide Web for the masses.

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