When I was little I was afraid of Canadian Indians and hippies. Back then the big hippie song was "The Age of Aquarius." One day I got curious about my astrological sign and looked it up. What a surprise I got when it turned out I was an Aquarius!
In recent years, I went to a Halloween costume party as a beatnik. I wore a blazer and turtleneck, shades over my glasses, a fake beard from Malabar Costumes, and my mother's beret. (She'd stopped wearing it after seeing that video of Monica Lewinsky meeting President Clinton while wearing a beret. It must have reminded her of the time in her youth when berets were associated with "fast girls"!) I also did the thing where you trace a square with your fingers.
Of course, back at the time there were different degrees of bohemianism. There were some hard-core hippies, who were into free love and communes and such, but of course most of them were dilettantes going through a phase, who overestimated their own daringness. But it's the same with every generation of youth. (Every generation is fated to turn into their parents...)
Remember Rocky and Bullwinkle? Bullwinkle as Mr. Know-It-All once talked about "How to be a beatnik" and said, "Beatniks are found in unemployment lines, health food stores, and especially coffee houses!" (Mr. Know-it-All is my favorite part of the show.)
I was in Seattle once in a store selling all sorts of curious items, and one was a 1960s sign saying "Hippies use side door"!
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