It was rooted in the opposition movement to what many of us thought was an unjust war, that being the Vietnam War! The expression was coined by the American beat poet, Allen Ginsburg in 1965 as a means of transforming war protest into peaceful, non threatening street theater. Hippies embraced the symbolism by dressing in clothing with embroidered flowers and vibrant colors, wearing flowers in their hair and giving flowers to the public thus becoming known as flower children. The term later became known as a way to represent the hippie movement and a culture of drugs, psychedelic music /art and permissiveness. I feel this demeaned the importance of the movement.
For many of us it was a time of deep cultural divide. Before this time in the US the young people listened and believed what their parents believed in social/political matters. The wars up until Vietnam were generally supported by most of the population. There had been men who would not fight in wars and took the very controversial and some would say brave stand that they would not kill anyone but never before did a generation stand up and shout "Hell no, we won't go".
I remember some very heated conversations with my uncle and dad about the war. When I was called to take my physical for the draft with seven of my buddies it was a scary time. Amazingly six out of eight of us flunked our physicals. The ride back to our town was as confusing as the times. We almost wanted to celebrate, to laugh and shout but two of us would be going to Vietnam. One of those two was completely deaf in one ear but faked the hearing test (I have no idea how) and was drafted.
There was also very mixed feelings. We were all raised in homes that loved this country and we did and still do. We just did not believe in this war, it was not our fathers' or grandfathers' war. We were not attacked and many felt we were there for political reasons.It was not easy to justify those feelings to ourselves when raised in such a different environment. After all John Wayne never disagreed with his country (he actually made a film about the war that looked as though it was written by the administration).
I know some of us were conflicted about our own thoughts. Before my physical I honestly had thoughts on running off to Canada and that made me feel like a traitor to my country and family. I also thought that I would probably just go off to war and that made me feel like a traitor to myself! As I said it was complex times!
There was so much killing going on inVietnam and in our own country. It seemed like everything was changing; our feelings on the war and our country, our feelings on racial injustice, our feelings on women's rights, our feelings on the 'sexual revolution' and our feelings about the drug culture revolution. It was a strange, interesting time to be young in the US.
Then slide in all the 'normal stuff' hormones and feelings of inadequacy !!!! Did Sally like us, would she go out with us? Scott broke up with you! How would you ever find another love like him? Seems silly now but in those young years it was very important! The Flower Power movement, like most movements died out but it was important. It helped change the public perception of the war and helped end it!
So remember a time when the young people of this country voiced our opposition to a war and using the symbol of the flower helped change how a nation thought!
I took these on our trip back to Massachusetts. We were driving with my brother Vin and his wife Susan when we found a field of sunflowers that my brother Bob told us about.Vin and I left the car and started walking across a field to get to the flowers. It looked promising from this distance.
But when we came closer it was obvious that the flowers were a week or so past their peak!
I adjusted my thoughts and decided it might be a portrait shoot, a portrait of flowers!!! I started looking for individual flowers that were still in good shape. I had to find flowers that I could backlight or sidelight to get the best images.
As I walked around this large field of flowers I was able to include more of the field in my shots.
I hope you enjoyed this flower power post and will check out some of the other bloggers involved in the Marvelous Mondays at
http://networkedblogs.com/mg0v6
