As many as 100,000 people participated in the 1967 Summer of Love. There were 450 at the recent anniversary celebration on Cortes, which is a huge turn-out for our little island.  I was there, asking what the 50 Summers of Love says to this generation.

What the 50 Summers Of Love Says To This Generation

As you can hear in the attached podcast, I wandered through the crowd asking people about their experience.

One participated in the original Summer of Love in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury neighbourhood.

Another was at the 1967 Be-in in Vancouver’s Stanley Park.

Two were not yet born, but never-the-less look upon it as a time of “love, caring and interest in social concerns.”

One of my respondents felt that the message of hope so integral to the sixties has been almost completely forgotten.

Another added that little has changed over the intervening decades.

More described the sixties and seventies as a life changing experience that has lasted to this day.

We Need To Carry The Spark

Here are a few quotes from the podcast:

“I was just finishing school and trying to decide whether to go to Woodstock, or go to work …”

“John Lennon told us that the sixties was just the beginning. It was a spark and we need to carry the spark, so that is what I have been trying to do.”

“It’s about caring about whats around you, rather than just thinking about yourself and at this point what’s around us and needs the most care is the earth.”

“People have to loosen up a little, they have gotten far too serious.”

“What did hippie give us? Hippie gave us Cortes Island as we know it today.”

There is far more in the podcast.

Top photo credit: View from the sound area at Cortes Island’s 50 Summers of Love – Courtesy Richard Truman from  http://www.richardtrueman.com/