Haight Ashbury

The sun is shining. I’ve got a good friend on one arm. We are strolling down Haight Street, trying to imagine what this place was like back in 1969. We step into a tie-dye shop for a minute and take a look around. Back in 1969, this was a TV repair shop, run by my friend’s father. It’s gone through a few changes since then, first as a key shop, and now as a clothing store, and in twenty more years, who knows?

It’s funny how things change, flowing from one thing to the next. One person’s life walks into this place for a time, only to be replaced by another’s. The guy who currently runs the shop takes us back in time about twenty years when he first moved to the Haight. He reminisces about the families living out of their vans all along the street, people building a life centered around a purpose and with a productive energy about them. 

We make our way to Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park, finding the Saturday morning drum circle in full swing. A dozen drummer, a couple dancers, a few people tossing batons, and several more just relaxing on the side of the hill. Fun, pleasant. But again, I wonder what this place was like a few decades back, with crowds of young people searching for a way to freely express themselves.

It’s different now. No more vans, no more families, just a few drunks and stoners sitting on the curb, not living for a greater ideal, not contributing to a higher purpose. Just a few drummers and a couple lonely dancers. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy walking around Haight Ashbury, looking into all the funky shops, wondering where I would have fallen on the hippie spectrum back in the 60’s. But there is also a recognition that I am looking at the shadow of a place that once was. So what is it now? And where is the next truly revolutionary place? What is the next revolutionary idea?