Our Summers Of Love - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

**Canadian Bacon** · 10-04-2008, 05:51 PM

I'm not sure if any tpunks are from San Fransisco... but i recently learned about the Summer of Love, like this huge hippie gathering in 1967 and prior, that I thought it was the most awesome and powerful thing in the world.

I definitely would have wanted to be a part of that. Anyway, there are bunch of stories about the Summer of Love... and they're worth reading. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NG2NPUD1C1.DTL

There's also a History Channel documentary on Youtube:

I think the moving thing about it all is that what they strove for during the movement was to not only challenge the establishment, but also an attempt to reach the heights of human happiness. You know, the moments which are so sacred, they are seared into your memories. For myself, and I think for all of you, the only time we've been able to reach and heights of happiness, is though we're backpacking... which makes me think - can backpacking be considered its own movement?

Is backpacking something that is as big as the hippies movement ones? Are there are any collective 'principles' of backpackers? Personally, I go backpacking again and again to experience that world, not just sight-seeing. And backpacking is really like being connected into a different world, a world of happiness. Anyway, I think its a great topic to write a social science paper on.

San Fransisco had their summer of love. I wonder if, for our generation, backpacking is the summer of our love?

wong name · 10-05-2008, 07:43 AM

ya, i just saw a special on this like 3 weeks ago. i forget what channel it was on.

**Legitikick** · 10-05-2008, 11:48 AM

That sure is an interesting city. I just got back from Love Fest in SF, what a crazy, crazy time. Its cool that the police there have sorta allowed all these social movements and events to go on.

**Canadian Bacon** · 10-05-2008, 01:09 PM

yeah but don't any you think that backpacking is like the summer of love? And its something that defines you and says something about your experiences and your outlook of the world?

PS: I love philosophying about backpacking

**Legitikick** · 10-05-2008, 03:39 PM

Yeah I see what you mean. A time when you don't have a whole lot of concerns and mainly focus on making the most out of life. Although us backpackers are a bit more productive than hippies . . . arguably . . . sometimes . . .

**Elizabeth** · 10-05-2008, 04:52 PM

I think being on the road makes us feel things more intensely. I can't say my journeys have been the height of happiness because sometimes bad things happen. Sometimes there are some days when nothing happens. But the intensity makes it more memorable.

I don't think its necessarily a good thing that the only time we can reach the height of human happiness is when backpacking. If you take say, a 2 month trip every year, is it really a good thing to spend the other 10 months wishing you were on the road?

If you should feel this way, maybe all your happiness is concentrated into a x month long period of being on the road, whereas maybe Jane Suburbia loves working in her garden every Sunday, and her happiness is distributed evenly over a number of weeks.

And why are we only at the height of human happiness when backpacking? Its no secret a lot of people hate their jobs. Backpacking is of course the ultimate Saturday. Does backpacking reveal discontent with ones life back home? Maybe even discontent someone is unaware of.

**Dig** · 10-05-2008, 05:10 PM

Personnally I don't think the summer of love is similar to backpacking. There are parallels, but I think the origins are completely different. Both I think are awesome. I do feel that the backpacker society is very outgoing and caring and loving. However, vastly different, but that is just me and I may have a weird view of things :D .

**Legitikick** · 10-05-2008, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lizz

And why are we only at the height of human happiness when backpacking? Its no secret a lot of people hate their jobs. Backpacking is of course the ultimate Saturday. Does backpacking reveal discontent with ones life back home? Maybe even discontent someone is unaware of.

You speaking directly to me?

**offhegoes03** · 10-06-2008, 05:43 AM

I really like how Lizz put things. I love traveling, and I think the part I enjoy the most is not having any obligations or anything due the next day or next week. Now, I haven't traveled for longer than a month, so I'm not sure how longer term travel would affect me. Usually if I'm off from doing "work" for too long, I get antsy and need something to keep my time occupied. But if I was changing cities every 5-6 days, I think I could stretch out a vacation much longer than I usually could stand.

Lizz is right that if we work in a job that we hate just to travel again, it just doesn't seem right. I'm still trying to find a job that I like (or can at least tolerate), but after traveling, it's hard to find something that I enjoy to do more than just moving around and meeting people.

If only I could afford to backpack and not have to worry about work...

**Canadian Bacon** · 10-06-2008, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by offhegoes03

I'm still trying to find a job that I like (or can at least tolerate), but after traveling, it's hard to find something that I enjoy to do more than just moving around and meeting people.

If only I could afford to backpack and not have to worry about work...

This is what I mean and exactly why backpacking and Summer of Love have such strong parallels, regardless of the causes.

Certainly we have intense experience elsewhere... you know, sweet moments with your family, lovers, friend etc.... BUT I can't think of too many things in live that I have experienced that comes close to what its like while backpacking, I find it to be the only time I am really at ease and at peace with myself. At the same time, that experience is short lived - you can't backpack forever.

The same way the Summer of Love pretty much fell apart as soon as it started... for them the 'perfect world' existing for only a few weeks and the practical problems like overcrowding, drug addition, crime destroyed the hippie utopia. But regardless of how it turned out, they reached that state of nearly total perfection for just a split second, and this split second transformed the nature of American culture ever since, and the lives of those who particpated in it.

Backpacking is sort of the same thing in terms of what it means to us, at backpackers. (or to me at least). It's not like a drug that you must be on at at times, but its an experience that is incredibly intimate, and at times, perfect... if only for a split second. This is why I am asking the question: with globalization and the value system of our generation (who have no 'defining' event) is backpacking an expression of the same values of the Summer of Love, but within the current historical context? I think there is a strong argument to be made.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to try to write this semester's philosophy paper on it.

**Elizabeth** · 10-06-2008, 09:56 AM

I don't know about in Canada, but here in the United States those who backpack are considered to be in some kind of "culture." The culture of "graduate college and their parents give them a passport and give them a backpack and say go off and travel the world."

Seriously, if I tell anyone I have travelled, either they ask if my parents paid for it or I immediately have to follow up with I worked for it and I paid for it myself. I don't really tell anyone about it because I'm sick of explaining in so many words that I am not a spoiled princess.

"Did your parents...?"
"Wow! You must be rich!"
"I could never afford that."

So I don't think it can be a defining experience if its not accepted by many people, even ones in our generation.

**Canadian Bacon** · 10-06-2008, 11:14 AM

Of course there will be people out there who want to label "backpackers", just as there were majority of people who labeled hippies as freeloading good for nothings who were divorced from reality. And yeah, I know lots of people who look at backpackers, as you've described, as spoiled rich kids like on Eurotrip... or the other end, endless drifters without a purpose. The point is that those people do not understand it, and therefore, do not matter.

How you paid for it, how long you went and where becomes irrelevant in the grand sceme of things... its the fact that you went that matters. (Actually the hierachy of what is a 'pure' backpackers also runs parallels with the hippie movement, who also debated who was a true 'hippie' and who were just stoned losers)

**Elizabeth** · 10-06-2008, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadian Bacon

How you paid for it, how long you went and where becomes irrelevant in the grand sceme of things... its the fact that you went that matters.

I believe that if you had to earn your money to backpack, rather than having it paid for by someone like you parents it ends up meaning something different, if not meaning more. You don't agree?

**Canadian Bacon** · 10-06-2008, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lizz

I believe that if you had to earn your money to backpack, rather than having it paid for by someone like you parents it ends up meaning something different, if not meaning more. You don't agree?

I semi-agree. I see your point, but just because someone help pay for the trip, I don't think it "taints" your experience, because when it comes down to it: you're in a strange place, you some money, and a backpack. We all become equal.

**offhegoes03** · 10-06-2008, 02:41 PM

It's a tough argument whether paying for it yourself enriches the experience much because there are so many other factors to consider. I wouldn't consider myself spoiled, but my parents helped out with the trip that my brother and I took 2 years ago to Ireland, but the money we got were birthday/christmas gifts. I had a great time with my brother, and I think that's why my parents didn't mind funding part of the trip. On the other hand, this last trip I took was exclusively paid for by money I saved up from working. It was a great time, but I'm not sure I felt any different about paying for it myself... It's really hard to say b/c I never really thought about it before.

**Dig** · 10-06-2008, 05:44 PM

CB - I can understand some of your points. While backpacking you meet people for only a short time and I, and I assume you and many others, open up and show your true self. Why not? What is there to lose? I find that I bond much quicker with fellow backpackers and seem to find things in common with.

I do think that paying for ones own trip makes it more worth-while, as do most things.