While creating division among Americans, the early seventies was a time of inner reflection and self awareness for the younger generation. Highly motivated by the unpopular war in Vietnam and the exciting effects of hallucinogenic drugs, young people, especially in the universities, had successfully managed to overshadow traditional, conservative values of our society with a liberal, permissive, new way of thinking. Males who let their hair grow long in that generation, as a result of how radically different it was in those days, received the nick name of "Freaks." While they quite regularly celebrated their freedom from traditional American values and the "system," largely in the vicinity of my home town and Michigan State University, I strove among them. Although I had long hair and many of the same convictions on what our country was doing in Vietnam, my involvement with drugs was mostly experimental. I smoked pot and some hashish for about a year or so and tried most of the more common hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD and mescalin a few times. The only needles ever used on me were shots for pain in the army hospitals.
The drug culture seemed to have a little different perspective on life than I did. With somewhat crystallized values of living respectfully towards myself and others, I hadn't thrown in the towel on the possible existence of love and a God of the universe. Because of the popular resentment towards what our country was doing in Vietnam, the drug culture wanted to "throw the baby out with the bath water" and seemed to reject practically everything the United States originally stood for. After witnessing first hand the way the Vietcong and communist North Vietnam treated other Vietnamese people, just to gain political control and prevent the formation of a free society, there was no way I was going to encourage anyone to bring this kind of governing force to the US. Needless to say, the dramatic shift in thinking that had taken place, while I'd been away, mainly within my age group, created some distinct barriers between myself and some of my high school friends that I'd hung around with before going into the army.
As though they were somehow spiritually enlightened, it wasn't uncommon for Freaks to express themselves with a sense of heightened awareness stemming from hallucinogenic drugs. Other than studying the stars of the universe for answers, they had little to offer when asked about their thoughts on life after death. In a psychedelic culture of their own, they used unique sayings and terms, implying that the ideal state of mind was to have the perception of being somewhere other than planet earth. Instead of "cool," it was "far out," and when the drug they were using was of good quality or when they were overjoyed about something, they "got off!" When giving directions to someone, it was always "forward, never straight!..." Meanwhile, rapidly loosing it's appeal to the majority, was the conservative lifestyle of "straight people," or those against the use of marijuana and other drugs besides alcohol...
The contrasting lifestyle between the two sides was evident almost everywhere you went. Judging by the way you looked, you were stereo-typed as either a Freak or straight which didn't help when you were trying to find a job. While typically wearing homemade or worn out clothes with bell bottom jeans, along with having long hair, the appearance of Freaks conveyed a message of non-compliance with traditional values. Straight people, on the other hand, usually wore more subdued clothes and hair cuts reflecting current fashions coming out of Hollywood, and the latest of what was being sold in traditional clothing stores. Sometimes, however, the distinction between the two groups, among the 'one percenters', wasn't quite so obvious. It threw me off a little once in a while when I'd come across someone who smoked pot and used hard drugs, but were also very pro-establishment, patriotic Americans... Very seldom was this the case though. Apparently some liked the drugs, but not the drug culture. It wasn't unusual for the straight crowd or some of the redneck beer drinkers who were opposed and outraged at the free spirited anti-establishment folks, to do whatever they could to make life miserable for the "long haired hippies." On the legal end of it, narcotic agents known as "Narcs," disingenuously disguised as Freaks, busted a lot of people for using and selling drugs...
A legendary football game that I was fortunate enough to attend one time, showed the extent of public rivalry that was felt across the country during that time between the two sides. Taking place in my home town, back in the early 70's, it was a game between the "Freaks and the Pigs," or between the long haired hippies team and the local East Lansing Police Dept. team. I went to see it at the East Lansing High school football field. With their principles in striking opposition to one another, the players on each team were completely devoted to their own cause, just as it was across the entire nation. Needless to say, the bleachers were crammed full of energetic fans from both sides...
I remember telling a friend of mine about it. I said, "Hey man, they're havin' a football game between the Pigs and the Freaks." He had long hair too and said, "Far out man! Lets check it out." The heavy concentration of Freaks and Pigs in the same proximity that day reminded me of the May-Day activities at West Potomac Park, when the Vietnam veteran Freaks were having a meeting on how to shut down govt. office buildings. Along the Potomac river, several Pigs, or policemen, calmly looked on from the outside of the roped in area of the park while about sixty or seventy Vietnam veterans discussed ways of trying to shut things down. The one noticeable difference was that the Freaks in DC kept going in and out of an old school bus to shoot up drugs. This wasn't an option during the football game however, especially in the presence of two thirds of the local law enforcement agency...
The Pigs had been notorious for singling out and busting long hairs on the road, for what ever reason... While filled with disdain towards one another, you could feel the friction in the air between the two sides, especially in the bleachers... It seemed great to see head to head contact between them on the football field. There was finally a time for ordinary citizens to take out their frustrations on the presiding order of the "system," or the "establishment." The crowd stood up screaming and yelling every time one of the Pigs, or Freaks, made a good play. I'd been to a lot of football games, but never to one quite this entertaining. I was, of course, seated on the Freaks side. The game was full of "timeouts" while several of the injured were carried off on stretchers that day from both sides. The Freaks didn't get any THC or pot for pain, and the cops, for once, weren't able to give out tickets for what the Freaks were doing to them, but it did look a little like the Pigs were in better physical condition. I think they won that day. Nevertheless, the Pigs took a beating, so it wasn't a totally one sided game to say the least...
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