I was super excited to see John Donegan’s opinion piece, “Where are all the hippies?” (Aug. 29) because I have been wondering the same thing! Upon reading his piece I found that John really didn’t answer the question, but at least he made me laugh. The funniest examples John provides are the “great joys we had 50 years ago, which are now often banned.” All you have to do is visit Pismo Beach on a holiday weekend and you’ll see plenty of “campfires and beer drinking on the beach, riding in the back of a pickup truck, or motorcycling without a helmet.” Wait, those aren’t hippies, they’re rednecks from Bakersfield flying MAGA and Confederate flags. Oh, and one more thing, John, before you describe the Republican Party as “laissez-faire,” look it up in your Funk & Wagnalls.
Jim Souza
Los Berros
This article appears in Sep 5-15, 2019.
Fair point about campfires and beer on the beach, at least at our Dunes. But I come from the Bay Area, where those things ARE prohibited on the beach, and apparently my emotional traumatization has endured. And who says you can’t be a hippie “redneck from Bakersfield”, as well as from anywhere?