CBC Digital Archives

Hippie life: It ain't easy

Flowers and free love. Antiwar marches and acid tests. In the mid to late 1960s, youth across North America and Europe began to "turn on, tune in and drop out." Fed up with the establishment — parents, schools, police — they went looking for a new way of life. To Toronto's Yorkville and Vancouver's Kitsilano district they came, preaching peace, love and non-conformity.

media clip
In the summer of 1967, CBC Television checks out the hippie scene in Vancouver. An in-depth interview takes place with one of the many longhairs living in the super-hip Kitsilano district. He talks about the changes he's experienced spiritually and morally, and he alerts hippie wannabes that the life is not everything some youth dream it will be. Dropping out takes dedication.
. Willis Hawley, a political scientist from Berkeley, Calif., listed four types of hippies:
- the communalist, who preaches togetherness and co-operation and often sets up communes;
- the religionist, who strives to expand the mind and is often committed to Eastern religions such as Buddhism;
- the hedonist, who advocates free love;
- the protester, who is more concerned with political goals.

• On Aug. 22, 1967, the Toronto Daily Star provided "A Square's Guide to the Language of Yorkville":
acid: LSD;
bread: money;
blow your mind: to shock or delight;
freak: beyond the norm, good or bad;
go down: to occur;
head: a person who turns on through the use of "pot" or "acid";
heavy: serious;
horseman: Mountie;
The Man: policeman;
narc: narcotics agent;
strung out: mentally and physically exhausted;
turn on: to get high on drugs;
wasted: highly relaxed euphoria.
Medium: Television
Program: The Enterprise
Medium: Television
Program: The Enterprise
Broadcast Date: Nov. 29, 1967
Duration: 6:41

Last updated: August 27, 2013

Page consulted on November 27, 2014

All Clips from this Topic

Related Content

Woodstock Remembered

They say if you can remember Woodstock, you weren't really there. Of course, that's not entire...

Hippie Society: The Youth Rebellion

Flowers and free love. Antiwar marches and acid tests. In the mid to late 1960s, youth across ...

1978: Robin Williams freestyles on 90 Minutes...

Comedian Robin Williams brings his frenetic brand of comedy to Peter Gzowski's TV talk show.

25 years later, Woodstock remembered as 'cosm...

In this 1994 interview, two Canadian men who were at Woodstock reminisce about the event.

Rochdale: The hippie experiment explodes

A look back at the failure and legacy of Rochdale.

Our Native Land: On the pow wow trail

In 1974, native youth are hitting the road to escape the city and find the "old ways".