Hippies and Diggers

Further to this forty years a band of non-conformists are reviving the Sixties spirit giving away everything free.

In a park in the west Coast city, the group has been gathering every month for a "Really Really Free Market." Here nothing carries a price tag. "No Cash, No Ads, No Barter, Everything is Free!"

Back in the spring of 1967, along San Francisco's Haight Street, a group calling themselves "The Diggers" opened several "free stores" to clothe the influx of flower children drawn to the neighborhood for the Summer of Love. No cash needed, just take what you need and leave the rest.Diggers cooked up huge stockpots of stew and baked bread in old coffee cans to feed the new arrivals in Golden Gate Park.They took their name from a short-lived 17th century movement in the English countryside which temporarily reclaimed land for the commoners, spurning all forms of buying and selling.

The spirit of the Diggers has found new life in the monthly market.

More on the original Diggers here

From far-out to far-reaching

From the Herald :-

The hippie generation's influence on mainstream culture runs deeper than the lyrics of a Grateful Dead song.

A new poll reveals that hippies have had a profound effect on the British way of life. Today the movement has moulded mainstream society's views on everything from war, government, sex, fashion, food and alternative therapy to the environment .

46%, agree with the hippie rallying cry "Make Love Not War''

49% are opposed to nuclear weapons

35%, think there is never any excuse for war

48% of British people also now believe in questioning authority

47% think there are too many rules

30%, disagree with party politics

82% of Britons saying they believe in Environmentalism and the need to save the planet

47%, said they would consider trying to produce all their own food

26% said they would build their home from recycled materials

43% would live solely with alternative energy sources

75% now hold no objections to sex before marriage

35%, said they had smoked marijuana

8% said they had taken LSD

43% said they were open-minded about meditation

25% believe in astrology

In the words of the The Dead - " What a long strange trip it has been "