I’ll begin my article by saying there are many different kinds of hippies, including “a real good kind.” I was there, rolled through it all, and I remember everything.

By Peter McCarthy

Assorted Ideas, Large & Small

Types of Hippies

The first type was the classic Woodstock-type hippie. This includes long hair, tie-dye shirts and jeans, patched coats, beaded jewelry and granny boots or bare feet. They listened to folk music with their clackers, they did yoga in the dirt, and when you passed them on the street they smelled like cigarettes and jasmine.

Woodstock hippies used the power of politics and love to save the planet. They ate brown rice and tofu but would kill a cow if there is no other food. They were very clean people, but they only showered once a week if their water supply was scarce.

The next type of hippie was the “freak” hippy. This type of hippie didn’t necessarily follow all of the rules to live like a hippie because he or she didn’t want to be a part of that kind of movement. They were usually high on some form of pill or another, and they used drugs as their gods.. Not all hippies came in contact with these freaks, but those who did saw them playing drums under streetlights at four o’clock in the morning. They are usually found at “be-ins.”

The next type was found at a Grateful Dead concerts or any other jam band event. These types of hippies liked to dance and follow the same routine every day, but they did it with music playing in the background. They took ecstasy and other psychedelic drugs, and they couldn’t imagine life without them.

Hung up on a dream…

Another type was the “white trash” hippy who lived in a VW bus and smoked pot all day and night. This type of hippie liked driving through small towns and handing out flowers to children – even though the children ran away from them. You sometimes caught this guy eating a Burger King Whopper with extra tomatoes, no pickles.

Then, there was the “hippie couple.” They were usually seen on Haight Street holding hands and walking a dog or baby in a stroller. Their clothes were clean and most of the time they wore matching clothing. They rode public transportation, listened to the Grateful Dead, ate vegetarian food with tofu and read Kerouac in coffee shops.

You also had a variation in the “hippie family.” This type of hippie lived in upstate New York or Vermont. You found them at Woodstock, but only in August. They ate organic food and made their own granola with raisins and prunes. Their children played drums and guitar, and all of the kids liked swimming naked in streams while the parents sat on rocks nearby smoking pot.