I've
built this Web site for a hobby hoping that it would be a
source of some first hand information about what it was
like to be hippy/
hippie
in the 1960s, and also what influence it had on the rest
of my life. I've done that for several reasons. Some of
them were because most of the Web sites I found on the
subject were made by folks who usually were a bit too
young in the '60s to fully understand what was really
going on there and then, or some of them weren't even
born then yet. Another reason was that the '60s the media
portrays is often an image created to serve corporate and
conservative propaganda interests. So, if you won't
expect too much from my writing skills and find the time
to go through at least some of the stuff I've posted on
this site, perhaps you'll find some useful first hand
information and opinions on the subject. Therefore, this
will be more of a biography of a 1960s Chicago hippy
rather then a scientific work on the subject done by
someone who has not actually been there, or someone who
has seen it from a distance, and/or done a lot of
research on the subject. I am also aware that there may
be other former 1960s American hippies, who may have had
different experiences from my own. But in 2001, when I
decided to create this site there weren't many on the Web.
Perhaps that was because many of them may have not been
skilled in Webmastering (though hippies and
psychedelics did played a major role in the development
of computers, informatics and the World Wide Web), many are not with us anymore,
or perhaps they had not thought that anyone would be
interested to hear their story. So, I encourage everyone
to publish their photos and stories as I have before time
distorts the facts about our movement and generation.
Chicago is also well known
among hippies for the demonstration at the 1968
Democratic National Convention, the Chicago
Seven and also as the birth place
of the Yippie
Movement that was initiated there by Abbie
Hoffman. There were so many things
going on in those days. Too bad I didn't think of
documenting it all for the future. In fact, many of us
thought of taking pictures as something that squares did.
And perhaps my Brother was really a square for taking
some of the '60s pictures of me that have inspired me to
built this website. I guess I was just a bit too European
for the 1960s America. Perhaps that's also why there are
not so many '60s photos around taken by hippies
themselves. Whatever the reasons may be, I am very happy
to have the few photos from those days.
The disco movement burned itself out by the early 1980s. It was soon after it became extremely popular with the mainstream culture through the success of the movie "Car Wash" and later especially "Saturday Night Fever". It lost a lot of its exclusivity and underground character. The masses of people that joined the scene perhaps didn't fully understand its core ideas or had a different concept of it. That's probably why some of us started turning away from it and going towards the Punk scene that many clubs in New York, Chicago and San Francisco started switching to. Finally it was in Chicago again that an end of another great era came about. It started with mass burning of disco records at a Chicago baseball stadium. It was later followed by another one in New York and perhaps in other cities. The idea came from a Chicago radio DJ. I was told that homophobia and racism played a great role in drawing uneducated riff-raff to those anti-disco gatherings.
Yet, the spirit of the 60s and
70s still survives. In fact, it has always accompanied
mankind. Today, it seems to be trapped in a vicious
circle between the Old Continent and the New Continent,
but it's really strongly rooted in the Afro-American
culture that I well remember from South
Chicago. It keeps transforming itself
anew into different forms of being, but the same core
ideas remain at its base. And this time it was Donna
Summer's disco song "I Feel Love" that gave
rise to the Euro-Techno, Trans and Dream music scene.
Today, the Love Parades in Berlin and other similar
freedom oriented scenes around the globe are actually a
continuation of that ancient spirit that was well known
among Shaman at the time of dawn of mankind. The same
core ideas and desires for love, freedom, wisdom and
happiness are at play. They are the basic factors
responsible for creativity, the evolution of the Universe
and the species, and the expansion of consciousness to
higher levels of awareness. Yes, I believe that it is
that desire for freedom, growth and expansion that is the
driving force even in the smallest atoms that our
material Universe is built of.
The thing that puzzles me most is how I managed to be near the center of many important world events such as the Peace Movement in America or the Solidarity Movement in Poland, and yet how I managed to miss the many opportunities, which became available to me at those times. But most of all the one that I do regret most, is not meeting Allen Ginsberg when he was in a Warsaw Old Town Café near my apartment in the Capitol of Poland. I also regret not going to his concert that I was invited to by its organizers. I liked Allen a lot as an artist who had something wise to say. And he was very good at getting his message across in a humorous way that marked his genius. Allen, we really miss you!
Oh, and what about Woodstock? Well, I did that
wrong, too. Instead of going there with my friends from
Chicago's East Side as I hoped to, my family decided to
screw up my plans and sent me off to Europe for an
extanded vacation that year. I was seventeen and didn’t
object because a vacation in Europe sounded really cool
and there was a draft on, you know the “Uncle Sam wants
you in Vietnam” type of draft. Besides that, a trip to
the Old Continent was a chance to see my family, find my
roots and meet some interesting people. If not for that
trip I may have never gone back to Europe in the future.
My vacation in Europe was extended to a half a year. It helped to make me more cosmopolitan and also solved my draft problems. Later, after reentering the United States through Canada, changing my address, dropping out of High School for a few years and not registering for the Armed Forces my draft situation was under control for a while. However, I was risking a lot in case if I was cought. I’m still a bit sorry though, that I missed a chance to go to Woodstock and play around with my buddies in the rain and mud or the pond and the bushes. On the other hand, I visited Canada, England, Holland, Denmark and Poland. In Poland, I was kept on the border for hours, had my luggage searched and had many things taken by a Customs Officer. And after all of that, I was made to pay a ridiculous costumes tax on used clothes. All this because the customs officer found a Peace button, Zig-Zag rolling papers and a pipe in my luggage. It was a year after a wave of 1968 student protests in America and Europe. And it was also a year after the January and March 1968 student protests in Poland. But I did not find any hippies in Poland. What I found there were students and kids that were trying to look fashionable. They were also interested in buying my jeans and LP phonograph records. The time spent there was like falling into a time warp for a while. I also learned a bit about Marxism, which I found had nothing to do with the Marx Brothers or Marks & Spencer. I also knew the language. And in those days English was not as popular in Continental Europe as it is today. Besides that, it was also a cheap place to stay.
Later, I found out that Karol Marx was a romantic, who believed that the working class should have social benefits and more time to enjoy music, art and culture. He was greatly influenced by Adam Smith, a well known 19 Century Scottish Economist. Marx believed in globalization and that socialism would be good only for highly developed and industrialized capitalist nations. He did not recommend socialism for developing such developing countries like, for example Russia or India (!). Perhaps that's why it had failed in Eastern Europe but survived especially in neighboring with Russia and the Soviet Block Western countries such as Finland or Sweden. In those countries the Working Class gained many social benefits and greater autonomy from government because of fear of spread of Communism.
Now, I must point out that my life was not exactly a bed of roses. It was a bit like some extreme sports I like. I am still reaping the consequences of the events of the 60s that altered the course of my future forever. As a consequence of dropping out of school I got my High School Diploma a few years later. But if not for the efforts of my Brother Mitchell, who had helped me to get back to school and drove me to it almost every day or the guidance of my good friend Charles (Larry) Hribal I wouldn't have Graduated. He was a Russian American, who used to play football for Notre Dame University. Later he worked as a High School Teacher and a Coach in New York, Florida and in Illinois. He also coached me though life for a while in the 1970s, taught me some self-confidence and was one of the best friends I had. Larry moved to California in the 1980s just as I was moving to Europe. Last I heard, he was employed as a Surveillance Agent at the Flamingo Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada and passed away in 2000 after a long illness. After the end of the Vietnam War, President Carter gave amnesty to guys like me and abolished the draft. He is my favorite President and I wish we had more like him, especially now.
Poland had major unrests with student and labor protests in 1968 and 1970. But 1969 was a good and quiet year for my visit there. Though, I was probably monitored a lot by the KGB. My Mother’s help and understanding made my move to Europe possible. I also had some friends there from the 1969 visit. And then in 1980s I made it back just in time to witnessed some historical events in Eastern Europe that were to changed the face of the world forever.
I moved into a modern one bedroom apartment in a fashionable downtown neighborhood. It was across the street from the Chinese Embassy where once stood a Warsaw Ghetto wall built by the Nazis during WW2. My apartment was also a few blocks from the Warsaw Ghetto Monument, the Warsaw Uprising Monument and other historical landmarks of the Polish Capitol. In fact, I was surrounded by all kinds of monuments and visited by some ghosts from the Ghetto. I believe that there was some kind of magnetic field in that place that drew me to it and kept me there for so many years. But besides all this, some of the best times I have had in the 1980s were on nudist beaches near Warsaw (this is Europe, you know). Too bad interest in the Naturist Movement had declined after 1989 in Poland due to its disapproval by the Roman Catholic Church. The Solidarity Movement that liberated much of Europe from the oppressive Communist system brought about freedom to the 90% Polish Catholic majority. However, it did leave behind many minorities that were also oppressed by the Communist system and by the Nazies before that. Those minorities are still struggling for acceptance and their rights.
Some of my school friends from
the 60s and early 70s joined the Coastguard, some died in
Vietnam, others went on to study at Berkley and other
universities. And many of them moved to California. I had
hoped to continue my education at the University
of Notre Dame when I was in High School.
The draft, my engagement in the Peace Movement,
alienation from a overly consumption oriented mainstream
culture and dropping out of school for a while changed
all of that. The solidarity among hippies and their like
brought about the hippie movement. When the War was over
that solidarity disintegrated and the movement did too
for a while. It left many such as I somewhat adrift. I
have realized how I have grown old and become somewhat
more conservative. Guess time takes its tall. That
reminds me of what we used to say, that you should not
trust anyone over 30. And I am over 30 now. So, if you
happen to disagree with me somehow, please don't get too
hung-up about it. You may very well be right. The
contemporary world is facing many complex problems that
the world of my generation was not confronted with or
just not aware of. There's still plenty of things to be
fixing in the world. So, let's rock!
The Peace Movement was over in the mid 1970s, underground FM radio stations turned commercial, head shops closed and so called hippie ghettos or Meccas turned into popular tourist traps. The War was over! Lennon got married, the Beatles were breaking apart and the Peace Movement was over. Some hippies returned back to their suburban homes, finished schools, got jobs, joined political parties, the Rotary Club, climbed up the ranks of the decked out world, became the establishment ect. And in the 1990s, during the George Clinton era led America to the longest period of prosperity in history stopping just short of stating “Better living through soft drugs”. The President even admitted to smoking pot [without inhaling it, though] in the 1960s. And what about me? Well, I smoked it too, inhaled it and ended up in Poland, where pot was legal untill about 1999. That's why I advice you not to do anything I would. In the 1990s I experienced the longest period of strife in my life and also the greatest rush of creative inspiration. That's when I decided to build a website for a hobby around a few 60s photos I had. And this is that website.
I have never sympathized with
communism. I am an individualist and a communal life has
never appealed to me outside of my bedroom, of course.
However, I do admit being curious to learn something or
other about it, and about some of its enigmatic leaders
such as Ché Guevara. Many hippies read Ché’s
Motorcycle Diaries, a book about his travels through the
Andes. My favorite tee-shirt had Ché's portrait on it,
too. I did not know much about his later life in Cuba or
the terrible things he did there and in Africa. Ché's
Motorcycle Diaries were an inspiration for many old
hippies before he became a violent revolutionary. The
book was also an inspiration for many Beat Generation
Writers. He was a symbol of a free and united South
America/ Latin America, and also of a fight of the weak
for freedom. In the Motorcycle Diaries Ché said that
revolutions are never peaceful. He probably said that
because in his times there were no peaceful revolutions.
In those days many prominent freedom loving Americans
also had hopes that communism would bring about a better
world for the oppressed masses. Since then we have had
many reasonably peaceful revolutions lead by those who
grew up on Ché's book. And communism turned out to be
the most repressive, bloody and utopian political system
the world has known yet. However, none of those enigmatic
personas could compare to Einstein or Gandhi, who in my opinion,
most 1960s hippies took as their role models, and perhaps
many still do.
I do not want you to get a
wrong impression... I am not saying that Poland is a
hippie Mecca or anything like that. Please remember that
Pope John Paul II was Polish. And take it from me, it’s
probably one of the straightest nations in Europe, if you
know what I mean. But on visiting Poland I've had some
nice times in Krakow and the mountains,
and at the 1969 Warsaw Jazz Jamboree where a bop musician
called Dizzy
Gillespie and other Jazz musicians gave
some really awesome concerts for a few days in a row.
Though Chicago was once a big Jazz capitol, and Gillespie
was almost a household word there for a while, we did not
have such Jamborees there or anywhere else like that as
far as I know, accept for perhaps New Orleans or San
Francisco. In earlier decades of Jazz music (1930-50)
many famous Jazz musicians and bands played at the
Sherman House (formally one of the largest hotels in
America). I used to work in that hotel as a cigar stand
Night Manager around 1971. It was the first job I ever
had. The hotel stood just across the street from
Chicago’s City Hall. Mayor Daley, against whom I
demonstrated earlier in the 60s had his headquarters on
the first floor of the Sherman House. I served the Mayor
often when I used to work there. Today on the site of the
hotel stands the State of Illinois Building. And now, his
Son is the Mayor of Chicago. Had I gone to neighboring Czechoslovakia in 1969 I might have
bumped into George Clinton who was studding in Prague
then or into one of his future advisors. I did that wrong,
too. What more can I say? I guess that’s why they
called me The Polish Hippy. Oh ye, one more thing... if
you see Woodstock the Movie, you might get a glimpse of
my friend’s Cadillac hertz parked near some bushes or
woods. Well, I am sorry not to have spent a night or two
with them in that car... But who would have guessed then
that that would turn out to be such an important
historical event. After all, I did participate in other
important events in Chicago, which are hardly remembered
by anyone today or not at all.
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