I was approached by a friendly TTC worker in uniform on the subway in Toronto recently. At first he stood by a nearby pole and watched me for a bit, and then smiled. He was not young but not old, somewhere in that middle ground where they think about death a lot.

I smiled back and he opened with “I wish I had been brought up in the sixties”.

I would have liked to see my face expression. A wry smile? Eyebrows lifted in surprise I suspect. I love how once you are identified as old it becomes quite a vague description, you are just old and no one knows how old you are.

I was born in the early sixties, I said kindly, but I grew up in the seventies. Letting go of the question of how exactly how old I was I continued the conversation with the observation that it was great to be brought up in a time without cell phones and we chatted for a bit.

He seemed somewhat new to the idea that cell phones are destroying our minds and health and as we chatted I warmed to my new role as a wandering old prophet. We talked about today’s society, COVID madness and his fear of death and I had my first experience as a guru.

I think this might be something that could work for me! Still, I am not sure about this hippy label.

Why does everyone think I am a hippy? I suppose the way I look is practically an illustration from a history Wikipedia page, but it was a common look in the seventies – long hair, no make up, no bra!

I think the hippy pants that I was wearing that day, so darn comfy in the summer heat, did me in. They even have beads hanging off toggles. I looked ready to ‘read’ energies, and I was. And I did. I read his and I tried to calm his worries.

Do I believe in energy fields? Well, yes. And good clean food, sure. I don’t smoke pot anymore but that is no longer the rebellious mind set that it was in our day.

I suppose if you were looking for a clichéd old white hippy lady you could find me find me hanging round my colourful kitchen making kombucha or bread. Burning incense. Railing against the government. Praising the energy of love.

Alright, I sound exactly like a character in a made-for-television movie about an old hippy lady living in an old house full of books and cats!

But I don’t want to be dismissed as a hippy. If I am labeled that way it makes me sound like a two dimensional character, out of time and out of date.

I don’t see myself as a hippy. To me hippies were people who belong to the past; they are the generation that fought against the Vietnam war. In their day they questioned authority and rejected conformity but the idolized hippies of the past are just an empty Hollywood cliché now.

And where are the actual hippies today? What happened to their spirit of rebellion? If they still carry that mindset, if they still believe in questioning authority, where are they now? Joni Mitchell? Pah.

It seems like most of the hippies sold out and now run the world. They were disappointing politically. When the huge demographic population block of hippy/boomers grew up they became today’s established artists, bankers, politicians, shareholders, entrepreneurs, scientists and doctors. They are today’s makers and planners and did the world improve? Look around.

And talk about the ‘me’ generation! Whatever stage they were going through, that’s what dominated the news. If they’re having children, the market spikes in children’s items and entertainment. If they fear death from a virus, everyone around them has to fear death.

I don’t identify with hippies, they are not my people. They had a massive influence on the psyches of the following generations but so did the live wire energy of punks. In fact, the punk mentality had a huge impact in the seventies and probably helped to form my growing world view and psyche more than hippies.

When I was a teen I took acid and went to live punk shows and it’s true that I had serious angst, cut off all my hair and wore odd lace up boots. I felt the spirit of rebellion and agreed with the idealism of anarchy but I wasn’t a punk anymore than I was a hippy. The punks I knew really committed to the scene (the hair and clothing were a big deal) and I was not into imitating a style or belonging to a group.

By the early eighties I had met my life partner at a party. We shared the same world view that all people are equal but some are cooler than others. We shared an appreciation for wit and brains and a disgust for snobbery and elitism. Not big on conformity or consumerism we never adhered to any particular script, religion or ideology. So, not hippy, not punk. Not attached to our social or religious backgrounds. Not slacker, not grunge, or whatever came next.

Looking back on our youth I would say we were old fashioned. We worked hard at our jobs and in college. We were monogamous, painted our apartment walls, grew plants on the fire escape and had beloved pets. Clean cut, really, but not straight enough for the suburbs or serious enough to completely dedicate ourselves to externalized ambition.

Just moral, happy people who kept open minds and were always ready to rethink a concept, analyze a pattern, or change our minds about a preconceived notion.

For example, when we became pregnant with our first child ten years later we did not know that we would end up having a fabulous home birth and then decide not to accept childhood vaccines. It was a well researched and informed journey.

And in terms of public schools, we were proponents of the great democratic equalizer and expected to send our child to school but her experience was so negative that we opened our minds to home schooling. And from then on it was always an option for our children, they could go to school if they wanted or study at home.

Every decision we made was based on the the data at hand, what we were experiencing and what we were observing. We would research, talk and think, and then do what was best for the family and the individual.

We were fairly vocal if not active supporters of the NDP and much later I even campaigned for the Green Party mostly to try to lighten the spirits of my youngest child who was getting seriously depressed by the climate crisis emphasis in the public school system.

But today, even though I feel like I am basically the same person with the same ethics as my younger self, I am no longer aligned with the NDP. I am ashamed of how the NDP backed the corrupt Liberals and also betrayed and ignored the truckers and working people involved in the protest against the mandates.

As the world around us contorts and twists, I hold on to my strongly held beliefs. I still believe that censorship is dangerous and that bodily autonomy is essential. I still believe that heartless corporations are destructive and dangerous.

I still believe that humans are essentially good and have the basic instinct to work collectively for the good of all. Whether they are facing climate change or a virus, I believe humans will naturally work together to solve the problem and do not need to be mandated or controlled like cattle by those who ‘know better’.

I am always ready to rethink my position but from what I have observed in the last four years I would say the liberal/left has become much more dangerous to our children’s future than the conservative/right.

I know that my ideals and values are the same as ever so it must be that the world around me that has changed. And it has. In the last four years we have seen our government move towards a totalitarian control that eclipses the rights of individuals and maintains strict control of the banks, judicial system and media.

When we get a chance to vote, assuming that voting still works like in a real democracy, we will be voting conservative, if only to right the ship. That’s what this old 1970’s non-conformist is going to do, and I am happy to chat about it over tea in my happy kitchen, if you want to join me.