The Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco was a mecca for the "Beat Generation" until 1964. At that time a new generation invaded Haight-Ashbury, the "Hip Generation." Comprised of young people growing their hair, tuning in, turning on and dropping out, peacefully protesting the Viet Nam War. A young generation listening to new musicians like the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company.
Haight-Ashbury, lined with Victorian style houses, became filled with the sound of "Hippie" music, the smell of marijuana openly inhaled on the streets, and people wearing multi-colored paisley and tie-dyed skirts and shirts. It was a scene that scared parents of the time half to death.
The Haight district played host to the Summer of Love when tens of thousands of young people filled the streets and Golden Gate Park in 1967. What better place than Haight-Ashbury as the center of the Hippie Movement?
Today, the colorful Victorian buildings still line the streets. There are still "head shops", where the connoisseur of various mind altering inhalants can find water pipes, hash pipes, and various other paraphernalia, if they can afford it.
There are still second hand and consignment stores. You can walk into a poster/tee shirt shop where you are greeted by the aroma of stale incense as you pass through the door.
The ambiance of 1960's Haight has vanished. There is no longer the young lady, d
ressed in a multi-colored skirt and a blouse emblazoned with a peace sign surrounded by a tie-dyed pattern, selling flowers to be worn in your hair. There are a few die hard hippies. I briefly talked with a pony tail sporting gentleman who never left the district after he arrived in 1966. We agreed that no matter how hard people try, they'll never be able to resurrect the aura of Haight-Ashbury as it was in the 60's.
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