University of Virginia Library

Boston Resident Discusses Hippie Influx

By Randy Foote

With Spring the Boston underground
is beginning to enlarge and
emerge above ground. Its
manifestations, from AVATAR to
Resistance to smoke-ins, are difficult
to ignore (although the mass
media seem to have overcome this
difficulty) and show the great
potential there is in this area. With
the influx expected this summer
added to the force already present,
there should develop strength
to effect much change throughout
the country.

Last summer the potential lay
in San Francisco, the coming together
of youth seeking freedom
and awareness, youth who had
been turned off by the Great
Society and were looking to form
a new society based on a new
awareness. They looked to find
love, and most got caught in the
easy trap that drugs can be. They
hung themselves up on acid and
speed and whatever, dropping out
of the old society with no new
one to drop into, left wandering
aimlessly down Haight Street. The
Summer of Love ended in despair.

Do's and Don'ts

But that was not the end, for
there were many people who knew
that his was only the failure of a
first attempt, and was no reason
to give up. Some left the cities
and grouped communally in Big
Sur or Vermont; others are still in
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston,
New York. They have been
building foundations for another
summer. Last summer taught them
some things not to do, and they
do not want to repeat those mistakes.
The Haight Experiment will
not have been a total failure if we
all learn from it.

Now it is Boston that is receiving
the kind of media buildup
that led the invasion of San
Francisco. People are starting to
arrive because they have heard that
Boston Is Where It's At; some
are beginning to sleep in the streets
and the parks, as in Haight last
year. To find out what's happening
they read AVATAR and go
to the smoke-ins. Either these new
people will be assimilated into
the community here and add to
our strength, or they will choke
the city as in San Francisco. Whichever
happens will be determined
primarily by us, who are building
this community as something
better than the Great Society.

Rootless Youth

The people who are arriving are
similar to those who came to San
Francisco. Most of them are rootless
and young, recently freed from
old ties and not having formed
new ones. They are looking for
a better life but are not sure what
that means; they have great potential
because they are open and
looking. But here they will be alone
in a city that is not as open as
San Francisco, and which has a
government that does not know
what to expect and will be easily
scared into hostility. Boston does
not have any street scene, and the
police aren't likely to be receptive
to seeing one form. Remember
what happened in Cambridge last
year with the War on Hippies.
The South End and Roxbury,
where the newcomers will probably
be living, are black neighborhoods
that will be tense this summer. A
few mistakes could explode it all
very easily.

Need Unity

To avoid such an explosion we
must act as a real community—
com-unity: with unity. We have
a responsibility for the lives and
minds of those who will come, as
well as all those who are already
here, for they are our people.
If we are united with purpose, we
will be successful; if we are fragmented
or aimless, it will be a
very long summer.

We must establish communications
with the city government,
convince the police that we do not
want to hurt them or anyone.
They seem antagonistic now, but
it is as much to their advantage
as ours that we understand each
other. We must have communication
within our community, expanding
what AVATAR has been
doing already. There exists a Communications
Company which will
hopefully be active when needed.
Information on jobs, food, housing,
medical care, etc., should be
available from central sources.
Smoke-ins should become weekly
(at least) community gatherings;
anyone with extra food or grass
should bring some to give to his
brothers. Those who make money
dealing grass should be especially
generous. Several bands in the
area have promised to play in the
parks, and more should do so.
Such celebrations will help bind us
together into a strong community
and will bring more life to the city.

Start planning now—this is our
most important task this summer,
for if we succeed we will be stronger
than ever before and no longer
underground. If we fail, whatever
we have now will be in ruins.