It all began in the summer of `67 other wise known as the “Summer Of Love.” The Beatles had released Sgt. Peppers album and Jim Morrison’s “Light My Fire” was the hottest record during one of the most memorable summers of all. It also was a time of gatherings, happenings, love-ins and be-ins. There were open air concerts in San Francisco. One of the biggest events of the Summer was the “Festival of Flower Children” in Great Britain, ironically enough in the grounds of the stately home of the Duchess of Bedford, Woburn Abbey. According to the Sunday Times, it attracted over 25,000 hippies from all over Europe! The Hippie movement, the flower children, as a whoe generation was called continued to gather in places like Grenich Village in New York all the way to Hait Asbury. College campuses were the breeding grounds for a international movement that was all about peace and love. Ironic though in this time, the “Summer of Love” against the backdrop of so much anguish, misery and woe brought on by the Vietnam War.
The protests of that era were brought on by the continuing carnage being carried out by the war in Vietnam. In a time where most of the population thought that the United States really didn’t need to be so heavily involved, if at all. Where people were dying everyday created a sense of urgency in the protests by the youth of the time. The hippie movement openly embraced the concept of harmony and literally practiced peace and love everywhere. Much like the movement that is afoot today with the Occupy Wall Street but, back in `67 the protests all over the United States and Europe were focused on ending the conflict in Vietnam. As it was then with any protest the youth are the ones that initiated the outcry of change and revolt against events, circumstances, and policies that greatly affects their lives.
So amidst this summer of love on the shores of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin what was happening in a world far away only accentuated the personal experiences that prevailed on so many hot summer nights. Being a lifeguard actually opened up so may avenues to experience first hand a coming of age where the innocence of adolescence gave rise to a maturity of young manhood. You might say my coming of age into the man I was to become all began during that summer, the summer of 1967. The endless summer for a whole generation. The period of transformation from boyhood to manhood.
I had always had an independent streak since my parents often left me alone. In many ways I found solace in my imposed solitude. The imagination of my youth carried me to fantastic adventures of fantasy. There were days I was conquering the world and others zooming to far away galaxies. In all those wondrous days of fantasy, imagination, and self fullfilment they really did enable me to over come all the sorrows of the tomorrows. It is a shame that youth imaginations of today are so squandered and even repressed by all the “marvels” of today’s technology and a social structure so void of the morals of a by gone era.
As the days of my childhood ebbed away in that June of `67 the realities of the events of the world came rushing into my consciousness. For it was then when boy meets girl took on a whole different context. The innocence of youth gave way to a passion an un quenching thirst for Love, itself. Unlike the summer of `63 where a generation whose innocence was latter to be destroyed by events on November 22nd. The summer of `67 in so many ways only exasperated that loss innocence. A realization that the world around had become so filled with hate, deception, and deceit that breeds more of man’s inhumanity to man and nature had over taken a generation.
It was that summer with all those wondrous days filled with love’s great passion all of the events occurring around the world were to us a world away. “We’d hide from the lights on those soft summer nights” from “It’s A Very Good Year” symbolizes the atmosphere and tone of all those glorious summer day’s. Then as suddenly as Loves great passion cast ed away the innocence of youth the realities of becoming a man caused the first of many sorrows of the coming tomorrows. When there I stood alone again on a cold rainy summer day, the Love of my life of that summer had gone away. The heartache of the passing of time for which no one can renew only solidified the memories of a loves great passion to be forever linked to that summer of `67. For me it really was the “Summer Of Love” with all those hot summer nights firmly entrenched in the memory of my mind.