rock & roll health chick


Back to the Garden There is a long history of “squares”


making fun of “hippies.” Southern rockers and hippies haven’t always gotten along ei- ther. I was always confused by this. As a kid, a long-hair seemed like a hippie and vice versa, but I later learned the two weren’t always in- terchangeable or mutually exclusive. As a young adult, I noticed my long-haired, heavy metal crowd wasn’t always accepting of hip- pies either. There have always been those who were


automatically suspicious of any male whose hair wasn’t short or any woman who didn’t spend her days in the kitchen, “barefoot and pregnant.” Somehow, I guess conforming to the old expectations made people feel safer and more secure in the world. I’d like to think we have evolved, but sadly I am often re- minded that some people not so much. They feel threatened by anything different and don’t bother to explore and learn what good there may be in those differences. For example, when it comes to natural


health, the hippies were ahead of their time! They studied the health practices of the Na- tive Americans or other cultures, which did not subscribe to the practice of big, western medicine. They experienced the foods and diets of other cultures, which were and are very often riddled with less disease and mate- rialism than our supposedly advanced society. They were and are much more in touch with the practices of our ancestors, who didn’t have access to for-profit medicine. A large number of people didn’t live in big cities in decades past, and even if they did, many could not afford to visit a doctor or hospital. The small-town doctor would usually trade


medical care for chickens, grains or textiles. Many people knew the practices of natural medicine, passed down through the genera- tions. Some practiced Native American medi- cine. Some brought their own traditional cures from their homelands. These practices had been used through the ages and lasted a lot longer than western medicine has been in business. Granted, many people died from lack of good care, but some of the home reme- dies are still very valid today. We are seeing a return to some of the natural practices, and it is a very encouraging and welcome change in our culture of declining wellness. I was born at the end of the ‘60s, and


grew up in the ‘70s around many a hippie, in- cluding my parents. My dad was offended when I called him a hippie and would insist he was a Beatnik instead. Some of their friends were pretty odd people, doing odd things with odd products around their houses, as far as I, the little kid, was con- cerned. They had vibrant and unusual art, in- credible, but weird music and stuff they called food that I was sure wasn’t.


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