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Papers & Publications: Interdisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Research

Volume 6 Article 6

2017 of the West Coast: A Study of Gender Roles and the Evolution of the 's Definition of Freedom Lisa A. Scott University of North Georgia

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Recommended Citation Scott, Lisa A. (2017) "Hippie Communes of the West Coast: A Study of Gender Roles and the Evolution of the Counterculture's Definition of Freedom," Papers & Publications: Interdisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 6 , Article 6. Available at: https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/papersandpubs/vol6/iss1/6

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (CURCA) at Nighthawks Open Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Papers & Publications: Interdisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Research by an authorized editor of Nighthawks Open Institutional Repository. Hippie Communes of the West Coast: A Study of Gender Roles and the Evolution of the Counterculture's Definition of Freedom

Acknowledgments Thank you to Dr. Dee Gillespie for all of your help and faith in my work.

This article is available in Papers & Publications: Interdisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Research: https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/papersandpubs/vol6/iss1/6 Hippie Communes of the West Coast

Hippie Communes of the West Coast: A Study of Gender Roles and the Evolution of the Counterculture’s Definition of Freedom

Lisa Traylor Scott ome of my earliest childhood memories are of 1969 and the University of North Georgia half-hour Saturday morning rides from my home in Los Gatos to the coastal town of Santa Cruz, , where my father relished his weekly bowl of clam chowder. Invariably, there would Sbe a group of at the Highway 17 onramp, thumbs up, attempting to hitch a ride over the hill to Santa Cruz which was then, and still is, a haven for hippies who fled the deteriorating conditions of the Haight Ashbury in nearby . As a young child, my parents taught me to fear these -crazed who lived in outlandish communes in the hills above our town, but I remember being fascinated; they looked nice enough to me. Most think of members as free spirits who dropped acid, had free sex, and lived harmoniously in with each other and nature. In reality, many of the traditions and problems that commune residents sought to escape in society manifested again in communal life. Young people who left San Francisco for the nearby hills to create their own idea of freedom found that, much of the time, progressive commune life reflected society at large, especial- ly regarding racial segregation, gender roles, homophobia, economics, health issues, and dealing with unsavory individuals. In particular, Lisa Traylor Scott was born and raised in women of the communes had to adapt to ever-changing gender roles the Bay Area of California and, following high within these communities in order to survive. These issues, as well as the school, went to work for a major highway con- negative public reaction to their , ultimately led to the demise of tractor in San Jose. She resigned her position most of these communities by the mid-1970s. This study will compare after sixteen years at the birth of her son in 1998, deciding to dedicate herself to being a the founders’ expectations for communal life with the realities of that full-time at-home-mom. While at home, Lisa lifestyle. methodically completed an AS in history and Following the Summer of in 1967, the hippie scene in San another in paralegal studies at West Valley Francisco began to crumble. The Haight became increasingly overcrowd- College in Saratoga, earning the Paralegal Academic Achievement Award upon gradu- ed and evolved to being a sort of Miami Beach of the west coast, and with ation. In 2011, she relocated to the Atlanta, increasing numbers of speed freaks and junkies filling the city, hippies Georgia area. With her son older, she decided dispersed. Perhaps Billy Digger of the San Francisco put it best to fulfill her lifelong dream of completing a when he told , “The Haight is not where it’s at – it’s in your BA in her first love, history, and was accepted head and hands. Gather into tribes; take it anywhere. Disperse.”1 Hippies to the University of North Georgia where she finished her degree with minor in political leaving the city for communes felt a tremendous degree of disillusion- science, summa cum laude, in May of 2017. ment with traditional societal values as well as a great deal of negativity Lisa was honored to receive the UNG History due to the and high-profile assassinations. The commune Award in 2016. As an undergraduate, she movement was, in essence, a revolt against an impersonal society and was a member of the Golden Key Honor Society, the Society for Collegiate its pressures, chaos, pollution, and technologies. Thus, the commune and Achievement, and Phi Kappa Phi. She is movement began as a utopian vision that embraced nature and was currently seeking and entertain- ing the thought of graduate school. 1 “Year of the Commune,” Newsweek, August 18, 1969, 89.

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created in response to societal negativity.2 had been involved in political , very few The hippies embraced their utopian vision were registered voters as formal , to the on many levels. Commune members rejected the average hippie, was futile and irrelevant; the few traditional biological family unit and, at least in who were registered to vote were members of the theory, embraced everyone equally as members . Most of the men had of a tribe. Traditional marriage, divorce, alimony, served in the armed forces and had come home and responsibility for children were “the mean- to a bitter and resentful public.7 ingless” since they viewed the Although local residents shunned the as isolated, conformist, hypocritical, dull in its hippies, the rest of the nation was fascinat- routine, and much too sanitized.3 Additionally, ed. To this end, Life Magazine sent two of its these hippies embraced a of new nat- youngest photographers to live in a commune uralism, rejecting the size and scale of industrial and document what they found. Before gaining society and its technological dependency as an access, the Life photographers had to win the assault on nature. They frowned upon the new commune’s , and they were extensively standards of food processing which removed interviewed in a solemn pow-wow. The tribe natural nutrients from their diets and instead finally agreed to allow them to come solely chose to develop organic farms where they could on the promise that their location would not raise their own vegetables free of dangerous be disclosed. The reporters made note of the pesticides.4 hexagonal lodge that was the center of daily life With hippies fleeing the Haight, Newsweek and held at least five-hundred books on every- dubbed 1969 as the “Year of the Commune,” thing from the occult to farming. Its forty-one and in that year, more than ten-thousand members ranged in age from seventeen to thir- young people created more than five hundred ty-two, including an actor, an office worker, a communes nationwide.5 So who were these former computer programmer from a large young people? Commune members were over- bank, and a welder. Most of the day was devoted whelmingly white and a product of , to hard work, which included chopping wood, nuclear intact families, but not all of them fit planting seeds, and washing clothes, and this a certain stereotype. Some were “conventional” was said to strip them of their city frustrations. hippies—young dropouts who sought The commune’s credo said it best: “Getting out and impermanent relationships, going from of the cities isn’t hard, only concrete is. Get it commune to commune looking to “crash” for a together. This means on your own, all alone or week or more before moving on. Others were with a few of your friends. Buy land. Don’t rent. older, married, professionals, such as professors, Money manifests. Trust. Plant a garden, create a lawyers, and psychologists. These free-spirits center. Come together.”8 were fed up with the rat race and wanted to One man who searched for communal create a more natural and real environment freedom was Richard Big Tree. A successful where they could raise their children and divest chemist for a mining company in southern themselves of material goods.6 Although most California, Big Tree, who lived in and drove a Jaguar, pursued what many would 2 Stephen Roberts, “Some Enter Communal Seclusion to Escape Turmoil, Others to Find Religion,” New consider the proverbial . His York Times, August 2, 1969, 28-29. wife, Little Tree, was a former dancer and mother 3 Stephen Golden, “Family Circle is Square: Hippies to three-year-old Lotus Tree, but both felt Go for Commune,” Atlanta Journal that their modern city lives were meaningless. Constitution, Sept 22, 1967, 34. 4 Gilbert Zicklin, Countercultural Communes: A 7 Neal White, “Getting Away from it All Down on Sociological Perspective (Westport, Connecticut: the ,” New , February 17, 1968, Greenwood Press, 1983), 3. 16-17. 5 “Year of the Commune,” Newsweek, 89. 8 John Olson, “The Commune Comes to America,” 6 Roberts, “Some Enter Communal Seclusion to Life Magazine, July 18, 1969, 16B-20B, quote on Escape Turmoil, Others to Find Religion,” 28. 20B.

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The Tree family decided “to get everything off divest themselves from material wealth, African our backs” and escaped to the wilderness of Americans, long familiar with poverty, had Oregon, and soon others joined their simple no interest in voluntarily ridding themselves community built of stones from a nearby river. of accumulated . As the Civil Rights These communes seemed to represent a new and Movement splintered, young African Americans more durable phase of the hippie movement as of the San Francisco area gravitated not to rural, families reduced life to the essentials and recon- white communes but to urban activist groups nected with the land.9 such as the Black Panthers. The primary goal of To a great extent, hippie communes were the Panthers was to monitor law enforcement’s self-reliant and free from the trappings of pro- treatment of people of color and, to this end, gressive society. Members taught each other young African American men armed them- different skills such as auto repair, cheese and selves with guns and patrolled Oakland streets. incense making, organic gardening, and bee- Ultimately, by the 1970s, African American keeping, and they cared for animals and the land women made up the majority of the party.12 in a way that had been disappearing for the last Commune members expressed disappointment forty years. Generally, communes allowed people since they embraced social equality and desired to choose when and how they worked, and indi- diverse interaction; one young woman who viduals would work at what they did best for the visited many communes was very disappointed benefit of the commune as a whole. Communes that “she had never encountered a single ‘third raised their own vegetables in organic gardens world person’ in any of them.”13 free of pesticides and chemical fertilizers as well The commune movement sought a simple as raising hens for organic eggs and cows and life free from the trappings of modern American goats for milk. Hippies found great satisfac- society, but what remained constant was the tion in seeing a task through from beginning counterculture’s division of labor. Frequently, to end, and they lovingly prepared the ground rural communes were without electricity or with special to promote growth and picked running water, so hard physical work such as bugs off of their beloved plants while chanting hand-washing clothes and lugging water from a or listening to .10 They lived a much creek filled the hippie woman’s day. Generally, simpler life and, in a very real way, emulated commune conformed to their parent’s Native American culture, referring to their traditions where man was “bread-winner” and groups as tribes. They embraced the Native’s woman “bread-server.” A pattern emerged with philosophy of “open land” in that no one could women performing traditional women’s work own land, and they frowned upon society which such as cooking, cleaning, washing, harvest- parceled up Mother Earth. Hippies respected ing, and childcare while the men ran tractors and took care of the land and valued all that and sawed wood—the assumption being that resided upon it much like the Native Americans women could not physically handle the heavy and, as a result, they and hippies got along well.11 equipment. In the evenings, while women Although white commune members were cooked dinner and washed dishes, men would open to accepting members of color, black “rap” by the campfire at night.14 In many men and women were generally not attracted communes, men and women defined their roles to the “hip” culture of the communes. While reminiscent of pioneers of the pre-industrial white, middle class young people wanted to American frontier. They believed that such a

9 Roberts, “Some Enter Communal Seclusion to 12 Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Escape Turmoil, Others to Find Religion,” 29. Divided: The Civil War of the (New York: 10 Zicklin, Countercultural Communes: A Sociological Oxford University Press, 2015), 176. Perspective, 37, 121, 129-130. 13 Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond, 11 Timothy Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and 154, 170, quote on 170. Beyond (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1999), 14 Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond, 153. 212.

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down-home environment would make women more counterculture men “equated the of less anxious about gender expectations; women mutual, reciprocal obligation as a hindrance to cultivating their own individual identities would pure, uncorrupted, on-the-road freedom,” and be detrimental to the community as a whole as a result, many took off on extended road trips that needed them to perform traditionally away from their families.20 female tasks. By filling their time with cooking On the outside looking in, women of the and childcare, as well as being able to freely were angry and puzzled at commune voice their opinions and mystical visions, hippie gender roles. Feminists characterized supposedly women, at least in theory, would be able to free progressive hippie men as even more chauvin- themselves from the “feminine mystique” type istic than mainstream males in that they were traumas of suburbia.15 free from the responsibility of supporting their With the emergence of 1960s , families as well as the daily grind of nine-to- female commune members puzzled at their five employment to pursue their supposedly progressive men’s satisfaction with hearts desired. Feminists were appalled that traditional “sanitized, hypocritical, and con- their commune sisters, who in theory were formist” roles.16 Rachel, a blossoming feminist supposed to be liberated from the 1960s Donna and member of the Satna commune, was partic- Reed homemaker role, were instead living a ularly perplexed that “at first, one of the single more physically demanding and sexually re- men expected that the women would do part pressive existence than that of their mothers. of his housework...he approached Rachel with In its manifesto, Valerie Solanas’ Society for some of his clothes that needed sewing and Cutting Up Men (SCUM) described hippie washing. Rachel, indignant...told him to ‘fuck men as “excited by the thoughts of having lots of off.’”17 By the early 1970s, commune life became women accessible to him, [and he] rebels against blatantly sexist making many idealistic young the harshness of the breadwinner’s life and the women even more vulnerable to “macho hippie monotony of one woman.”21 Solana went on to cowboys” than they were in urban settings. say that communes existed primarily to satisfy Without the bonds of traditional marriage, male needs, and that women commune members many in communes had sexual relations with a fulfilled a dual role of sexual plaything and breast variety of partners, but sex was not as univer- feeding Madonna. Any objection by women sally wide open as some might believe.18 There would be perceived as unnatural, “not grooving is no doubt, however, that hippie men did with nature,” and going against the way things indeed take advantage. Free from the shackles were “supposed to be.” In her feminist manifesto of a marriage license, men “split” whenever Goodbye to All That,Robin Morgan equated the mood struck them, and any obligation to women commune members to freed African women and children was largely unenforceable slaves of the nineteenth century. According to as counterculture ethics forbade contacting the Morgan, although previously enslaved women courts or police.19 As time went on, more and were free, they were still living the life of a slave. For Morgan, the redefined role of “liberated 15 The Hippies: A 1960s John Anthony Moretta, commune women” was nothing more than rein- History (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and 22 Company, 2017), 252. stituted oppression under another name. 16 Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond, Many hippie women simply ignored the 212. budding feminist movement and chose instead 17 Zicklin, Countercultural Communes: A Sociological Perspective, 127. 20 Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, Daughters of Aquarius: 18 Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond, Women of the Sixties Counterculture (Lawrence: Uni- 202. versity Press of Kansas, 2009), 87. 19 Bennett Berger, The Survival of a Counterculture: 21 Lemke-Santangelo, Daughters of Aquarius: Women Ideological Work and Everyday Life Among Rural Com- of the Sixties Counterculture, 22. munards (Berkeley: University of California Press, 22 Lemke-Santangelo, Daughters of Aquarius: Women 1981), 151. of the Sixties Counterculture, 22.

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to wear granny dresses, enter monogamous rela- and provided extra hands whenever needed. By tionships, and bond with like-minded women. the early 1970s, many in the commune, such as For others, however, the commune movement Ahni, asserted that traditional gender roles had was just a stop on the feminist highway. These no place in a community supposedly dedicated women soon tired of their men being withdrawn to equality for all persons.26 and unambitious and eventually embraced Feminist consciousness-raising changed feminist ideals.23 Indeed, the rising feminist the mindset of the women of the Black Bear, movement took notice of these hip women, and and they gradually redefined their sex-defined publications such as Everywoman, a feminist daily tasks. Women held separate meetings that paper out of Los Angeles that printed articles provided female camaraderie and gave them the such as “Hymans for Husbands,” incorporated courage to speak their minds to the men. With an obvious counterculture tone in their graphics this new-found female unity, women were em- and makeup.24 boldened to insist that men take on more of the Over time, more commune members household labor, including the cooking, dishes, embraced feminist ideals. For example, Ahni, laundry, and in particular, the endless washing who lived at the commune of dirty diapers. Some women transformed in , questioned why she was into the female counterparts of their rugged one of two women responsible for the daily care mountain men, becoming feminist leaders of the pigs while the men merely pontificated known as “women heavies” or “winch-wind- on ’ value as a living being versus a ing women” and encouraging the more timid food source. When slaughter time came, a man women to stand up to their men. Black Bear wrestled a pig to the ground, presented it to the women soon learned new outdoor skills and, as women as a caveman might present a wild boar, they did, a truer equality among individuals was and then drifted away, leaving the grueling pro- finally achieved within the commune.27 cessing work to the women. Black Bear males Although prejudices against homosexuali- embraced the self-image as “lawless mountain ty were beginning to change by the late 1960s, men” in direct opposition their suburban coun- counterculture communes were much like terparts—the clean-shaven, crew-cut sporting, mainstream society in that most condemned nine-to-five suburban advertising executive type. as unnatural, and although many These rugged macho men were frequently absent commune members accepted gays and lesbians on impromptu road trips for weeks or months for who they were, they still did not want at a time as “the work of the women freed them them in their communities. As a result, radical to create a world of masculine camaraderie un- lesbian feminists abandoned the idea of joining interrupted by labor for wages or the bourgeois traditional communes that they perceived to family man’s familial obligations.”25 While men be dominated by sexist men to live their own were having their fun, women at the Black Bear idea of freedom in lesbian communes such as worked continuously. They breast-fed babies, Woman Share, Cabbage Lane, Dragon Wagon, watched over other children, milked goats, hand- and Owl Farm—mostly in Oregon.28 Residents washed endless dirty diapers, tended gardens, of Owl Farm strove to create an independent carried water, split and stacked wood, cooked lifestyle in which they relied solely upon each for the commune’s forty to eighty members, other and Mother Earth for survival far away

23 W.J. Rorabaugh, American Hippies (New York: 26 Hodgdon, “The Male Work Ethic Was Busted: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 128. Manhood, Feminism, and the Sexual Division of 24 Timothy Miller, The Hippies and American Values Labor at Black Bear Ranch, 1968-1974,” 95-97, 100. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1991), 68. 27 Hodgdon, “The Male Work Ethic Was Busted: 25 Tim Hodgdon, “The Male Work Ethic Was Busted: Manhood, Feminism, and the Sexual Division of Manhood, Feminism, and the Sexual Division of Labor at Black Bear Ranch, 1968-1974,” 106. Labor at Black Bear Ranch, 1968-1974,” Communal 28 Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond, Societies 23 (2003): 95-120, quote 98. 138-9.

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from the influence of men. They called them- picking apples in eastern Washington .32 selves a “woman’s land” so as not to exclude Many earned “bread” by forming and perform- those who did not yet identify as lesbian, and ing in bands such as the Triple A Band in Marin they established their commune as a refuge and the Salvation Army Band in San Francisco or where feminists would survive the ultimate by singing in Santa Cruz houses. A former collapse of traditional patriarchal society and teacher of film at a state university used her skills western civilization. Interestingly enough, just to make and sell movies. Others made pottery as in heterosexual communes and main stream to sell at town festivals.33 Commune members society, the races did not mix—women of color earned money in a variety of creative ways, but were not represented at Owl Farm.29 the irony was that while they viewed the state Hippie women began to emerge as as repressive and corrupt and sought to escape the economic providers of the communes. the working world as much as possible, they They skillfully foraged for produce in urban ultimately relied upon assistance to dumpsters, and Italian grocery stores were par- survive. They justified this by reasoning that the ticularly generous to the women, readily giving amount of welfare they received was minuscule them unsellable produce while spurning hippie in governmental terms, and cities benefitted by men, who they viewed as deadbeats. Hippie achieving their goal of ridding themselves of the women were the ultimate scavengers who unwanted hippies.34 found usable furnishings and household items Since hippie men frequently “split” for in dumpsters, alleys, and abandoned buildings. greener pastures, commune women, in addition They purchased clothes at thrift stores or garage to their domestic duties, soon found that they sales. While mainstream society looked at them needed to derive significant income in order as pathetic dumpster divers, hippie women to make it. The idea of working in the capi- viewed their recycling efforts as morally virtuous talist system was repugnant to most, so hippie and a mode of resistance against wasteful main- women engaged in entrepreneurial ventures, stream society.30 much of the time focusing on food preparation Despite their best efforts to reject tradi- and procurement which was a result of the tra- tional society and its materialistic trappings, an ditional division of labor in communes. Hippie inescapable reality soon manifested itself: they women experimented with new diets and foods, needed a certain amount of money to survive. As utilizing natural and environmentally sustain- a result, commune members eventually resorted able ingredients and rejecting processed foods to short term and/or part time “straight” jobs and chemically injected meats. Most were vege- in nearby towns. In a reversal of traditional tarian, and these entrepreneurial young women gender roles, women now became the primary eventually established the first food co-ops breadwinners by receiving government support to market the natural foods they ate in the such as welfare, food stamps and alimony from communes. As interest in natural foods spread ex-spouses. Hippie women also depended on throughout the country, entrepreneurs, ironical- handouts from parents and relatives; others ly mostly men, stepped in to pocket a share of turned to crime in the form of petty theft or the market which, ultimately, became a major drug sales.31 Most Owl Farm residents received industry. Without these hippie co-ops, it is ques- food stamps, and they made additional money tionable as to whether chains like Whole Foods

29 Pelican Lee, “Setting up Women’s Land in the 1970s: Could We Do It?,” Off Our Backs 33, no. 3/4 (2003): 43-47, accessed March 9, 2016, http://www. 32 Lee, “Setting up Women’s Land in the 1970s: jstor.org/stable/20837791. Could We Do It?,” 44. 30 Lemke-Santangelo, Daughters of Aquarius: Women 33 Zicklin, Countercultural Communes: A Sociological of the Sixties Counterculture, 89. Perspective, 147-8. 31 Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond, 34 Lemke-Santangelo, Daughters of Aquarius: Women 160. of the Sixties Counterculture, 96.

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and Sprouts Market would exist today.35 women made hippie inspired candle creations. Additionally, commune women published Another lucrative business pursuit was the numerous cookbooks in the . occult and healing arts, and commune women One of the first counterculture cookbooks, set up shops as psychics, tarot card readers, and Ita Jones’ The Grub Bag: An Underground herbalists. When women failed to succeed in Cookbook, was published in 1971, and it was these entrepreneurial pursuits, they often had quickly followed by Lucy Horton’s Country to settle for “straight” jobs. Since most were Commune Cooking in 1972.36 Perhaps the book young and inexperienced, their options tended that best captured the hippie woman’s love of to be limited to childcare, waitressing, retail, natural cooking was Laurel’s Kitchen by Laurel and clerical; many more became strippers, go-go Robertson. In her book, Robertson laid the case dancers, and massage “therapists.”39 for a totally natural, home-cooked vegetarian In addition to economic issues, rural diet and proposed that a homemaker was the communes reflected society-at-large in that they “‘keeper of the keys’ ... to the household, to its could not escape illness, and unlike their Native storerooms, attics, chests, and cupboards, was a American counterparts who lived with relative- position of great responsibility and, therefore, ly few serious diseases prior to the European of great honor.”37 According to Robertson, invasion, hippies brought mainstream diseases women had the ability to influence the fate of with them to the communes which spread the planet by returning to the frugal practices easily in the primitive conditions. Hepatitis of their grandmothers by using wisely, ran rampant due to the lack of sanitation, as pushing back against feminist criticisms of the did staphylococcus, ringworm, threadworm, traditional role of women in communal life. scabies, lice, and sexually transmitted diseases; Although commune women did not receive the many commune members lived with a perpetual satisfaction of a paycheck or promotion, “no cold. Hippie women resorted to natural herbal other job or career involvement [could] be quite remedies, but when these failed, they were so effective in bringing about the world we all forced to rely on doctors and hospitals in the want to see.”38 city. Sanitation was indeed a huge concern in While women cultivated their epicurean many communities such as the Morningstar in talents, they also utilized their creative abilities northern California. Here, the commune’s two to earn money in a variety of ways. Many toilets were overwhelmed, and members took to did elaborate beadwork, and although labor defecating in the woods, frequently not covering intensive, beading was a popular pursuit due their feces and toilet paper.40 to its low overhead costs. Bay Area commune Just as in mainstream society, communes members formed the Great Ooga Booga Bead had to deal with eccentric personalities as well Company and sold their creations in downtown as law-breakers and, without a doubt, many on San Francisco. Other women made handmade the outer fringes of society were drawn to these quilts, knitted and crocheted items, and created communities. The Wheeler Ranch discovered elaborate macramé plant hangers to sell at craft that two men who had been living amongst them fairs and street markets. Others became expert for six months were actually escaped convicted woodworkers and sculpted a variety of furniture murderers from nearby San Quentin Prison. The items and natural cooking utensils while other hippies received advanced word of an impending 35 Lemke-Santangelo, Daughters of Aquarius: Women police raid, and the convicts escaped before law of the Sixties Counterculture, 90-91. enforcement arrived. Ironically, the convicts 36 Lemke-Santangelo, Daughters of Aquarius: Women never caused a minute’s trouble living in the of the Sixties Counterculture, 92. commune. The Morningstar had an African 37 Laurel Robertson, Laurel’s Kitchen: A Handbook for Vegetarian Cookery and Nutrition (New York: Bantam 39 Lemke-Santangelo, Daughters of Aquarius: Women Books/Nilgiri Press, 1976), 38. of the Sixties Counterculture, 93-95. 38 Robertson, Laurel’s Kitchen: A Handbook for Vege- 40 Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond, 50, tarian Cookery and Nutrition, 48. 200.

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American resident nicknamed “Mystery.” by Torchlight Motel owner and president of was the norm at the Morningstar, and the Santa Cruz County Motel Association, Al when the sheriff made one of his frequent visits Conquest. Meetings were held with local law to the Bay Area commune, Mystery would tie a enforcement and judges, but since vagrancy blue ribbon around his penis to point out that his laws were found unconstitutional in 1958, little was the largest. Why he did this, no one knew. could be done. The committee requested that According to commune members, Mystery was the county building inspector investigate as to a kleptomaniac. Residents would frequently whether the commune was unsanitary, but he notice their dope missing, and Mystery would found no serious violations and the group “very comment, “that sure is a mystery.” The victim ” to any suggestions he made.44 The would then reply, “yeah, that sure is a mystery, irony is that these days Santa Cruz uses its hippie Mystery.”41 Law enforcement was called on image to attract tourists. A popular bumper another member of the Morningstar who in- sticker in the Bay Area today is “Keep Santa nocently cut the mane of a neighbor’s horse Cruz Weird.” because she worried he could not see through For many years, the communes thrived the long . The animal, a valuable and highly in spite of the public’s best efforts to be rid of competitive show horse, was ruined for years, them. Ultimately, most failed by the late 1970s, infuriating the owner. Other situations were overtaken by the 1980s yuppie culture. The hippie more dangerous. For example, one visiting movement died with them. Although they could scholar spent the night in a sweat-filled sleeping not completely escape the society that so disil- bag while a psychopathic commune member lusioned them, many found, at least for a time, randomly shot a rifle into the darkness—some a renewed connection to the Earth that their rounds coming very close to his head.42 parents had all but forgotten. Unfortunately, Local reaction to these communes was many of the traditions and problems that mostly negative, and after the commune residents sought to escape manifested murders in 1969, suspicion increased. Years again in communal life, including the division later, one former Black Bear resident asked a of races, repression of women, and intolerance local resident what the locals thought of them, of homosexuals. Additionally, they could not and he got a two-word answer: Charles Manson. escape the financial realities of the world they With so many communes in the North Bay lived in, and communes were plagued with including the Morningstar, Wheeler Ranch, and health issues and unscrupulous individuals. the Chosen Family, Sonoma County residents Throughout all of this, the hippies still believed feared their soaring home prices might be jeop- in their utopian vision, and women in particular ardized.43 Near Ben Lomond in the mountains found a freedom that they never imagined by above Santa Cruz, Holiday Commune members establishing creative entrepreneurial enterprises met with violence. Locals paid children fifty that changed the food industry for years to come. cents to shoot BB guns and throw rocks at the Today, former commune sites, such as Olompali commune, and they held vigilante meetings, State Park in California, are popular excava- going so far as to bomb the commune bus tion areas, and the artifacts found tell us much with a Molotov cocktail. Santa Cruz business about the counterculture of the 20th century. By owners became increasingly alarmed about the rejecting the meaningless, hippies found a new influx of hippies in the nearby commune and kind of freedom, and this added a very colorful formed a so-called “anti-hippie committee” led chapter to the history of the American people.

41 Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond, 177. 42 Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond, 177-178, 220. 44 Holly Harmon, Inside a Hippie Commune: Santa 43 Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond, Cruz Mountains and Beyond (Santa Cruz: Harmon 219-220. Publishing, 2013), 94-95, 179.

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Moretta, John Anthony. The Hippies: A 1960s His- References tory. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Berger, Bennett. The Survival of a Counterculture: Company, 2017. Ideological Work and Everyday Life Among Rural Olson, John. “The Commune Comes to America.” Berkeley: University of California Life Magazine, July 18,1969, 16B-20B. Press, 1981. Roberts, Stephen. “Some Enter Communal Seclu- Golden, Stephen. “Family Circle is Square: Hippies sion to Escape Turmoil, Others to Find Reli- Go for Commune.”Atlanta Journal Constitution, gion.” New York Times, August 2, 1969, 28-29. Sept 22, 1967, 34. Robertson, Laurel. Laurel’s Kitchen: A Handbook for Harmon, Holly. Inside a Hippie Commune: Santa Vegetarian Cookery and Nutrition. New York: Cruz Mountains and Beyond. Santa Cruz: Har- /Nilgiri Press, 1976. mon Publishing, 2013. Rorabaugh, W.J. American Hippies. New York: Cam- Hodgdon, Tim. “The Male Work Ethic Was bridge University Press, 2015. Busted: Manhood, Feminism, and the Sex- White, Neal. “Getting Away From It All Down on ual Division of Labor at Black Bear Ranch, the Hog Farm.” New Republic, February 17, 1968–1974.”Communal Societies 23 (2003): 1968, 16-17. 95-120. Accessed March 12, 2016.Via interli- “Year of the Commune.” Newsweek, August 18, brary loan. 1969, 89-90. Isserman, Maurice, and Michael Kazin. America Zicklin, Gilbert. Countercultural Communes: A Divided: The Civil War of the1960s.Fifth Addi- Sociological Perspective. Westport, Connecticut: tion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Greenwood Press, 1983. Lee, Pelican. “Setting up Women’s Land in the 1970s: Could We Do It?” Off Our Backs 33, no. Acknowledgements 3/4 (2003):43–47. Accessed March 9, 2016. Thank you to Dr. Dee Gillespie, Professor of http://www.jstor.org/stable/20837791. History, UNG Gainesville, for your inspiring Lemke-Santangelo, Gretchen. Daughters of Aquarius: lectures, hours of help on this paper, and faith in Women of the Sixties Counterculture. Lawrence: my work. Thank you also to Dr. Kristine Stilwell, University Press of Kansas, 2009. UNG Library, Gainesville. Your research assis- Miller, Timothy. The 60s Communes: Hippies and Be- tance was invaluable. yond. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1999. Miller, Timothy. The Hippies and American Values. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1991.

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