I was driving back from a home schooling swim meet up and listening to Judy Collins. She really takes me back to my child hood. I was looking at the clouds and though about all the happy hippie homes I went through in my childhood. Then I wondered, what is your all's ideal when you think of the perfect happy hippie home.
One thing I strongly remember in one home is that nothing matched. The chairs, the dishes, none of it was identical. It was all beautiful and very well maintained. the furniture had been stripped and restored. Often times, the music system was the best, most recent and central to one room if not all rooms of the home. Lots of prisms, lots of windows that were often open. If there were kids, there were lots of them. Somewhere in the house there was a toddler, in a diaper and it needed to have it's nose wiped. There were dishes often in need of washing, compost to be taken out and "weird stuff" to eat
Meditation and yoga were parts of the happy hippie home, too. No cigarettes, ever. Most stuff was bought at thrift stores or rummage sales. Very often the homes were a hodgepodge of fixed up. There was often something in the process of being fixed or constructed. Very, very strong women ran the homes sometimes alone sometimes with a mate. All the homes were Christian but I think that had more to do with the people being friends of my parents then anything.
There were books. Lots, and lots, and LOTS of books. You'd be hard pressed to find a best seller in the house, aside from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".
Oh, and there was love. Lots and lots of love
__________________
Elizabeth
Mama to Annabelle who is making me feel ancient now that she's EIGHT!
Last edited by IBelieveInFae : 04-02-2005 at 12:43 PM.
Just wanted to tell you that you write magically!!
Couldn't have said it better myself. My house is somewhat like you described and everyday it gets closer. That is what I strive for and I imagine that someday my children and maybe even grandchildren will look back and have fond memories of my "happy hippie home"
Now see. these weren't homes i grew up in these were homes of friends of my parents. My own home was ver standard lower middle class with a hippie edge. I think the only reason we had the hippie edge is because my Mom is a native Californian and my Dad loved folk music.
I think the only unsuual thing about my home as a child is that we had no alchol in the house. My parents just didn't drink.
Thank you for saying I write well! I try hard and often wonder if my words match what's in my head. Now I know they do
That reminds me a lot of the home I grew up in and my home now. The furniture part was especially funny to me since scattered around my home are many thrift store pieces of furniture in various states of repair and in various phases of refinishing. Currently our "entry table" that we put our keys, mail, etc. on is an antique desk that I found at a thrift shop and have stripped only the top of so far. So it's in limbo and has a pretty piece of fabric draped over it and some eclectic pieces on it to decorate.
__________________
Jo ~ mama to Jonah, 7 ; Analiyse, 6 ; Josephine, 3 and Luna, 7~5~08 ; Lover and best friend to Adrian .
I was driving back from a home schooling swim meet up and listening to Judy Collins. She really takes me back to my child hood. I was looking at the clouds and though about all the happy hippie homes I went through in my childhood. Then I wondered, what is your all's ideal when you think of the perfect happy hippie home.
One thing I strongly remember in one home is that nothing matched. The chairs, the dishes, none of it was identical. It was all beautiful and very well maintained. the furniture had been stripped and restored. Often times, the music system was the best, most recent and central to one room if not all rooms of the home. Lots of prisms, lots of windows that were often open. If there were kids, there were lots of them. Somewhere in the house there was a toddler, in a diaper and it needed to have it's nose wiped. There were dishes often in need of washing, compost to be taken out and "weird stuff" to eat
Meditation and yoga were parts of the happy hippie home, too. No cigarettes, ever. Most stuff was bought at thrift stores or rummage sales. Very often the homes were a hodgepodge of fixed up. There was often something in the process of being fixed or constructed. Very, very strong women ran the homes sometimes alone sometimes with a mate. All the homes were Christian but I think that had more to do with the people being friends of my parents then anything.
There were books. Lots, and lots, and LOTS of books. You'd be hard pressed to find a best seller in the house, aside from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".
Oh, and there was love. Lots and lots of love
You just described my childhood home perfectly. Aside from the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. And the Christian aspect. My mom had astrology books and scripture books everywhere, and we follow the Vaisnava path to God. Which makes us Christian in the true sense of the word, in that we are basing our lives around being pleasing to God, and following the instructions of Lord Jesus Christ, but we don't do the "Christian" way of life.
Our house doesn't look like a happy hippie home right now, cause dh is not like that, but we still have a huge shelf of natural supplements and rememdies, meditation and yoga are still a big part of our life, and wierd things to eat are very common!
I miss the easy, comfy old way, though I like this way, too. I was just thinking the other day about how our dishes when I was a kid never matched, and I liked it that way. I miss the music in every room, too. My dad used to buy old 8 track systems, and record over them with spiritual music, and jerry-rig speakers in every room of the house, so it was playing constantly, everywhere you went. I miss that so much. Dh isn't like that, and I can't do it, so we just have one player in one romm playing loudish to hear from other rooms.
Anyway, I have been thinking about this lately, and then you post such a spot-on description of my childhood. Makes me go all sentimental! LOL
Well, my parents might have been called hippies by some, but the houses were not homes and they were not like that!
Well, my dads had the exterior things- mis matched furniture & lots of projects, great stereo, kids that needed their nose wiped and in diapers, windows open, quilts, big garden, dogs, prisms, weird stuf to eat, and dirty dishes -
I owned that book and he owned motorcycles.
But no one was meditating except me!
To me, a happy hippie home or a happy any home is just where there is a lot of love but I like your description fine!
Hope
__________________
Mom to Ettie, Drake, Isabella, and Jasmine
That sounds lovely. I'm gradually getting the happy hippie home. I'm already there with the books, books and more books, but you'll find a few best sellers in there (gotta read my Harry Potter books, LOL). I think the whole house stereo thing is a GREAT idea, might have to see about rigging something like that up as long as I can take the boys rooms off the loop at night and we can still listen.
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It sounds beautiful...I also love your writing, Elizabeth! -- and it does sound like my home somewhat. Except we are very minimalist. I knew no hippies growing up. My parents were solid, middle-class, teetotalers. Mom, teacher; dad, electrician. My images come from my young adulthood -- my friend's mom's cottage in Longboat Key, FL. Beautiful brightly colored Mexican Indian art on the walls, a lovely tropical feeling, Satillo tile, jalousied windows open and ceiling fans spinning, wicker couches and Mexican blankets on the furniture. And then my hippie friends in various places, whose homes are very much like you describe. Lots of Eastern area rugs. A tapestry over the TV if there is one.
My house has a huge, open great room with cathedral ceilings and skylights and lots of windows, cream-colored walls and honey-colored wood floors. But our walls just have a few pictures on them; nothing is as colorfully decorated as some of the other hippie homes I have been in. We have children's art on the walls. A shoe rack to put your shoes on when you come in either door. Bamboo blinds and unbleached cotton curtains. Purple, dark rose and blue batik curtains in the bedroom. Children's hand and foot print paintings in their bedroom. Our stereo speakers were a major investment.
Oh yes and a Family Bedroom - our bedroom has one king-sized bed and one double futon in it. At this time, with our 6 and 4 yo, sleeping configurations vary nightly. We have the requisite '68 Volkswagen Microbus, but ours is in the garage in the middle of being restored.
My toddler whose nose needs wiping is now a young child of 4 who is potty trained.
__________________ Be realistic: Plan for a miracle. ~Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
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Hye, my Dad has a VW bug! I do think some old VW was required for membership in the Hippie Nations! LOL!
No VW, but how 'bout an old van SPRAY PAINTED fluorescent blue inside and out with homemade curtains in the windows??? That was our classy family vehicle! Oh, and it had the back row of seats ripped out and an old mattress thrown in. Also headphones hooked up above the seats so we could listen to plenty of Bob Dylan, John Denver and James Taylor on road trips!
We're def on the hippie side of life. LOL Much to my very mainstream, middle class family's (parents and sister) horror. We don't have a bug, though my dd is obsessed with them. We do have a Prius. Maybe that is the modern hippie's car?
The furniture part was especially funny to me since scattered around my home are many thrift store pieces of furniture in various states of repair and in various phases of refinishing. Currently our "entry table" that we put our keys, mail, etc. on is an antique desk that I found at a thrift shop and have stripped only the top of so far. So it's in limbo and has a pretty piece of fabric draped over it and some eclectic pieces on it to decorate. 
; Analiyse, 6 
; Josephine, 3 
and Luna, 7~5~08 
; Lover and best friend to Adrian 
.
My toddler whose nose needs wiping is now a young child of 4 who is potty trained.
That was our classy family vehicle! Oh, and it had the back row of seats ripped out and an old mattress thrown in. Also headphones hooked up above the seats so we could listen to plenty of Bob Dylan, John Denver and James Taylor on road trips!
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