Where are the Hippies?

Today's prompt:  Write about the first (or second) memory that comes to mind when you see this image:

Photo:  Battelle.org

An ashtray, one box of Larks, one of Parliaments and two glasses of Boone’s Farm Apple Wine sat on the table in the kitchen. Amidst the avocado green appliances, two young women sat with them, alternately sipping the cloyingly sweet wine and, chins pointing upward, exhaling hazy blue smoke ceiling-ward. Only now do I realize how young they really were:  one, not yet 30, was the mother of three daughters; the other, at 36, was the mother of two, my sister and me.

This was their late afternoon custom—developed to fill the time after work, when we girls were at Brownies and it was too soon to start dinner. Or perhaps, it was the friends’ defense against a crazy world. Richard Nixon was president, body counts dominated the nightly news, and Helen Reddy, Peter Paul and Mary, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and the Kingston Trio were the musical backdrop to our lives.

Me (interrupting the peace of the women's afternoon ritual): “Ma, I told Nancy I’m going to be a hippie for Halloween and she said that God doesn’t love hippies.”

Ma: “God loves everyone—especially hippies."

Me:  "Why does God love hippies?"

Ma:  "Because they want to end the war.”

Me: “Then I’m going to be a hippie for Halloween.”

Where are today's hippies who want to end today’s wars?!

Remembe(RED) is the memoir meme of The Red Dress Club.  Thanks for reading...and feel free to offer thoughts, ideas and/or constructive criticism.  I appreciate hearing what you have to say.