What better way to take in the sights, sounds and aromas of the Summer of Love than to book a reservation on a Greyhound Bus Line “Hippyland Tour” of the famous Haight-Ashbury district.
This San Francisco neighborhood was the epicenter of psychedelia in 1967. Musicians, akin to snake charmers, hypnotized the beautiful flower-children who gyrated like whirling dervishes. India-inspired glad rags and Peter Max posters filled the funky shops. And LSD had everybody seeing white rabbits. Kids were heading to SF with flowers in their hair to obey Jefferson Airplane’s directive: find somebody to love. George Harrison dropped down from the heavens to partake of the scene. The Monterey Pop Festival was the place to be, and the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper” album (released on June 1) was the LP to smoke dope to. Time magazine’s July 7 cover story was “The Hippies: The Philosophy of a Subculture.” Mainstream society was catching on. TV’s most trusted anchorman, Walter Cronkite, clued the clueless in on the happenings on his nightly network news report.
I, a child of 7 whose favorite “Revolver” song was the hypnotic “Tomorrow Never Knows,” stared at our black-and-white cabinet TV with envy at the scenes of peaceniks putting daisies in the barrels of police rifles, hippies dancing in a hallucinogenic stupor in Golden Gate Park, and pinkos burning draft cards in Chicago. Heck, by the time the Age of Aquarius hit Pennsyltucky it was already the Age of Libra. But I could dream, couldn’t I?
It was cultural voyeurs like me (and profit potential) that no doubt inspired Greyhound to launch a “Hippland Bus Tour” of the Haight district in April of 1967. Imagine, everyone from wanna-be hipsters to well-coiffed housewives to short-haired accountants (as John Lennon described the unhip) gawking through bus windows, in awe of this psychedelic horn-a-plenty! It was a Magical Mystery Tour for those who dreaded what their kiddies might dream of experiencing. The media played up the Greyhound tour, drawing thousands of kids to the Haight to perform like wild zoo-children, while spectators snapped photos with their little Kodaks, safe behind tempered glass.
The youthquake of 1967 was a short-lived diversion from the troubles of the day. It wouldn’t be long before 1968 ushered in some of the worst tragedies of the decade: the mayhem at the Democratic National Convention, student-cop clashes on campuses, mounting Vietnam War horrors, and the assassinations of two leaders who offered us hope: Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. “Blood on the streets runs a river of sadness,” sang Jim Morrison.
Here’s the original Scott McKenzie song that set the mood for 1967. “If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.”
Nearly a year after first publishing this article, I was thrilled to receive an email from the beautiful young lady in the photo at the top of this post. Her name is Kathy Aydelotte Castro, and she was only 16 when photographer Robert W. Klein took this picture of her during a Summer Solstice gathering in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in 1967. He took the photo for the Associated Press; it was later published in various newspapers and magazines. Klein may or may not have asked for her written permission to publish this photo. Nevertheless, the name “Judy Smith” became attached to it. She’s never received any type of recognition for the picture, so I hope to correct that now! Thanks, Kathy, for finding my blog and contacting me. It’s great to connect with someone whose photo I chose from the dozens I screened for this article. (Apologies to Mr. Klein for using the photo without his permission.)
© Dana Spiardi, May 6, 2014
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Even if Bob Dylan hadn’t introduced The Beatles to marijuana at New York’s Delmonico Hotel, the boys would have lit up soon enough. From that August 1964 night onward, “let’s have a laugh” quickly became their code phrase for “let’s have a toke.” And laugh they did. At least until the infamous Sgt. Norman Pilcher and his drug-sniffing dogs Yogi and BooBoo came snooping around their London abodes.
The cop and his canines found 12 grams of cannabis in a binocular case in John and Yoko’s apartment in October 1968, and a few months later discovered a small amount in one of George’s shoes during a raid on his home. The response of “The Quiet Beatle” to this search and seizure? “I’m a tidy man,” he said. “I keep my socks in the sock drawer and stash in the stash box. It’s not mine.” Nice try, George. (Some say Sgt. Pilcher was the namesake of Semolina Pilchard, who climbed the Eiffel Tower in John’s song “I Am the Walrus.”)
Paul was the most prolific pot puffer of the bunch, busted 5 times in all. Actually, wife Linda took the rap on one occasion, when cops pulled the couple over for running a red light in L.A. and found cannabis in their Lincoln Continental.
Paul’s first bust, in Sweden in 1972, cost him $2,000. Fear of serving time in prison for such an offense supposedly inspired him to write “Band on the Run” (stuck inside these four walls / sent inside forever.) His second arrest came in 1973, when police found more than your average garden-variety weeds growing in the soil of his Scotland farm. Paul pleaded agricultural ignorance, saying he was merely growing seeds sent to him by a fan. How was he to know they would sprout cannabis?
His famous drug bust at Japan’s Narita Airport in January of 1980 landed him in a Tokyo prison for 9 days. (It’s been rumored that Yoko set him up by tipping off airport security officials ahead of time.) Interestingly, the Japanese were among the world’s biggest Beatle fans. They probably bowed like crazy all the while they were charging him. I love the fantasy of Paul wrapped in a blue and white yukata, sitting on a jail cell tatami mat, taking song requests from prison guards. “Beatle-san, prease pray “Prease, Prease Me.” Arigatou gozaimasu!
You’d think he would have finally learned a tough lesson about the dangers of pot-on-the-go, but NO. Almost four years to the date after the Narita Airport arrest, he and Linda were busted in Barbados. AND, returning home from the trip, Linda was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport for the prior day’s incident! As Paul’s “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” lyrics testify, he truly believed in hands across the water, heads across the sea.
As Americans cheer (or jeer) the marijuana legalization bandwagon that’s moving from state to state, it’s interesting to note that as early as 1967, prominent Britons were petitioning the government for the reform of cannabis laws.
The Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein were 5 of the 64 people – many of whom were medical doctors and pillars of society – to sign a petition that appeared as a full-page ad in The Times on July 24, 1967, titled “The law against marijuana is immoral in principle and unworkable in practice.” It advocated research into the medicinal uses of marijuana, demanded that the smoking of weed on private premises no longer be considered an offense, and asked the government to commute the sentences of those convicted of using cannabis.
It’s no surprise that Paul paid for the ad, which cost about $2,300. It inspired a public debate that actually did liberalize laws against marijuana use in Britain.
But today, according to Wikipedia, it’s still illegal to “possess, grow, distribute or sell [cannabis] in the U.K. without appropriate licenses.” Charges range from a “warning” and/or fines, to 5 years in prison for possession, and up to 14 for production and trafficking.
Still, both the U.K. and U.S. have become a lot more accepting and forgiving of former drug offenders. After all, the Queen knighted pot-head Paul, and the American public elected one-time hash-hound Barack Obama as President.
And as for Mr. McCartney, it appears he’s retired his roach clips, pipes and Zig-Zag papers for good. In 2012 he told The Daily Mail: “I smoked my share. When you’re bringing up a youngster [10-year-old daughter Beatrice], your sense of responsibility does kick in, if you’re lucky, at some point.” Ah, but the nose knows better. During a concert in 2013, he stopped mid-set and said, “That’s some pretty good weed I can smell up here. “Whew! What are you doing to me?”
Paul invited us all to get “Hi, Hi, Hi” with him in 1976! The video features his lovely Linda and the band Wings. Oh, yeah…Paul really was the cute Beatle.
© Dana Spiardi, July 25, 2014
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“We create our own unhappiness. The purpose of suffering is to help us understand we are the ones who cause it.”
“Most of the stuff I’ve read about me has been true.”
“It’s a good thing I had a bag of marijuana instead of a bag of spinach. I’d be dead by now.”
“You know why divorces are so expensive? They’re worth it.”
“But if you think of all the people who don’t like me, just think of all the millions who’ve never heard of me!”
“I like myself better when I’m writing regularly.” [Yer blogger’s comment: Me, too.]
His memoir is available in America’s few remaining bookstores, and on Amazon.com.
© Dana Spiardi, Nov 25, 2012
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