Well, a) I like the joke...this thread started with a joke, right?
b) I've been accused of having more than a bit of unreformed hippie hiding in me...just makes me a little harder to fit in a box...works for me!
c) Not all the hippies my wife and I remember stood for something or anything, although yes there was generally more an atmosphere of protest and desire to contribute socially. Still, plenty of those hippies were parasites and worse. Anyone remember the Weather Underground, aka the Weathermen? (I spoke on a panel with one recently, and he's just as off-the-wall, just not blowing things up...)
d) I've a daughter out there on the road somewhere right now...not by our agreement, mind you...backpack, guitar, and thumb out for ride...her grandmother says she's following her father's pattern...she ends up in strange towns where she volunteers in community social work projects, then moves on again...no sign of drug use, etc. as far as we can see (and we deal with that stuff often enough to know). Several times a day I pray no one harms her just because she's a 'hippie'.
e) Fit all that in with a short career as a combat medic in places most US personnel only heard of in the last few years, 7 years of seminary, presently working with a bunch of hard-to-define characters (medical personnel from all the most interesting US military places), married to a woman who's at least as complex and far more interesting (and educated). My chief, actually a USN Lt., figures I can still do the job or at least help younger guys get it done.
f) Most important, WE DON'T RIDE HARDLYS. British (when I get the Triumph rolling), Japanese...BUT NO HARDLYs! Oddly enough, I don't think any of our crew are riding HARDLYs. And who's going to tell us we're not 'bikers', eh?
Now, what was that about hippies...?
