True story, swear to God
Jul. 30th, 2006 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
transemacabreHIPPIES! ADVENTURE! DANGER! ROMANCE! VEGAN FOOD!
Fourth of July weekend, 2005. My boyfriend Adam and I, along with our friends Keith, Andrew, Kenny, Barnakal and Don, drove into the boonies of West Virginia for the Rainbow Gathering, a big hippie get-together.
Upon arrival at the campgrounds, we were greeted by a young woman wearing fairy-wings. People walked past, waving and saying, "Hello brothers and sisters! Loving you!" We set up our tent at the camp of some friends of Barnakal's, punk kids from B'more who were heavily into the E. Our camp was called 'Camp America', and our symbol was an upside-down American flag pinned to a tree.
Hippies, hippies everywhere. Naked hippies, breastfeeding hippies, pregnant hippies, kid hippies, Hare Krishna hippies, old hippies, young hippies, lesbian hippies, every imaginable sort of hippie. You would be greeted with cries of "Hello brother! Hello sister!" and sometimes people would walk up and give you apples. I met people named Breakfast (because she was born during breakfast, duh), Enigma, Freshman, and Amnesia. The smell of marijuana and patchouli filled the air.
We climbed up some very slippery hills to reach the Hare Krishna camp, where we helped prepare food and then ate some of it. I don't think I ate anything else the whole weekend but Hare Krishna food. There was a rumor they put saltpeter in it but I never saw any. We would carry out watermelon to the revelers in the high field, who would dance and play drums to celebrate Mother Earth. All the guys took off their clothes hoping the women would be inspired to get naked too, but they didn't, so there were lots of naked men surrounded by amused women.
I carried some Hare Krishna food back to Camp America. Don came shuffling in, starving, so I offered him some, then accidently stepped in the bowl. Undeterred, he took the bowl and happily scarfed down the food that my foot had just been in. Barnakal was telling a story and was gesticulating so wildly that he accidently whacked Kenny across the face with a pot, and Kenny bled all the way down the side of his head and down onto his chest. He looked like a murder victim. Keith went looking for a hippy honey of his very own. We discovered that someone had snuck into our tent and had sex in there. We found an empty condom wrapper. We consoled ourselves with the knowledge that at the very least they had practiced safe sex.
At the Rainbow Gathering there was a Hug Tent, where if you felt like you needed a hug you could enter and join in a big group hug. There was a Moment of Silence on the morning of the Fourth so you could better commune with the Earth. There was a baby born in Bus Camp that morning, too; there's always a baby born on the Fourth. You could barter for goods (zuzus, or candy, is always popular), but food was free at the kitchens. At night you can join the Circle, where people light a bonfire and play drums and everyone dances. Then the fire-dancers came out and perform, and they were spectacular. The funniest part was the cops. Because the Rainbow Gatherings are held on public land, the local cops always prowl around, as though drawn by the scent of hippies. They'd do periodic sweeps through the camps, but you'd know about them from a mile off because everyone would raise the call of "Six up!" upon seeing them, that being slang for cops.
We met up with some folks who knew of a secluded stream deep in the mountain forests, so we piled in a van with Bill and Ira from Michigan and drove off to find it. There was this gorgeous mountain stream, with the coldest, clearest water imaginable. We splashed in, laughing and smiling, and swam around to wash off the muck and grime. Afterwards, we climbed up on large boulders in the water and sunbathed and smoked pot.
Adam, who had been the most reluctant to go on this whole adventure, ended up being the one who most regreted having to return to Babylon, aka the Real World. I think he would've run off with a hippie caravan if I hadn't stopped him. He spent the whole weekend wearing his blue swimming shorts and big clunky boots. I ran around in one of his oversized yellow t-shirts with a sarong and painted my face. Our friend Keith, more amazingly, wore a white shirt the entire weekend and that thing was spotless. We're still not sure how he did that.
The ride back was harrowing. It rained a bit that morning, so as we're carefully making our way down those serpentine mountain roads, our Honda hydroplanes and slams into a guardrail! We were thisclose to going over a forty-foot cliff. Don got out and kissed the guardrail in appreciation. Then we hit Tropical Storm Cyndy on the way back, the rain was coming down so hard you couldn't see your own headlights, much less the car in front of you. We were all terrified, except for Kenny, who was so high he had no idea where he was. As we're hurtling along slick highways, screaming, all of us convinced we're about to die any second, in the backseat Kenny is like, "Bananas! I like bananas!"
At one point, we had to pull over because the rain was coming down so hard we couldn't see the road in front of us. Keith got out of his truck and ran up to Adam's car and pounded on the windows, trying to get his attention. But the rain was so heavy that not only could we not see him through the windows, we couldn't hear him, either. So Adam decided to merge back on, and ran right over Keith's toes!
Anyway, in the end everyone made it home safe and sound from our hippie adventure in West Virginia.
Fourth of July weekend, 2005. My boyfriend Adam and I, along with our friends Keith, Andrew, Kenny, Barnakal and Don, drove into the boonies of West Virginia for the Rainbow Gathering, a big hippie get-together.
Upon arrival at the campgrounds, we were greeted by a young woman wearing fairy-wings. People walked past, waving and saying, "Hello brothers and sisters! Loving you!" We set up our tent at the camp of some friends of Barnakal's, punk kids from B'more who were heavily into the E. Our camp was called 'Camp America', and our symbol was an upside-down American flag pinned to a tree.
Hippies, hippies everywhere. Naked hippies, breastfeeding hippies, pregnant hippies, kid hippies, Hare Krishna hippies, old hippies, young hippies, lesbian hippies, every imaginable sort of hippie. You would be greeted with cries of "Hello brother! Hello sister!" and sometimes people would walk up and give you apples. I met people named Breakfast (because she was born during breakfast, duh), Enigma, Freshman, and Amnesia. The smell of marijuana and patchouli filled the air.
We climbed up some very slippery hills to reach the Hare Krishna camp, where we helped prepare food and then ate some of it. I don't think I ate anything else the whole weekend but Hare Krishna food. There was a rumor they put saltpeter in it but I never saw any. We would carry out watermelon to the revelers in the high field, who would dance and play drums to celebrate Mother Earth. All the guys took off their clothes hoping the women would be inspired to get naked too, but they didn't, so there were lots of naked men surrounded by amused women.
I carried some Hare Krishna food back to Camp America. Don came shuffling in, starving, so I offered him some, then accidently stepped in the bowl. Undeterred, he took the bowl and happily scarfed down the food that my foot had just been in. Barnakal was telling a story and was gesticulating so wildly that he accidently whacked Kenny across the face with a pot, and Kenny bled all the way down the side of his head and down onto his chest. He looked like a murder victim. Keith went looking for a hippy honey of his very own. We discovered that someone had snuck into our tent and had sex in there. We found an empty condom wrapper. We consoled ourselves with the knowledge that at the very least they had practiced safe sex.
At the Rainbow Gathering there was a Hug Tent, where if you felt like you needed a hug you could enter and join in a big group hug. There was a Moment of Silence on the morning of the Fourth so you could better commune with the Earth. There was a baby born in Bus Camp that morning, too; there's always a baby born on the Fourth. You could barter for goods (zuzus, or candy, is always popular), but food was free at the kitchens. At night you can join the Circle, where people light a bonfire and play drums and everyone dances. Then the fire-dancers came out and perform, and they were spectacular. The funniest part was the cops. Because the Rainbow Gatherings are held on public land, the local cops always prowl around, as though drawn by the scent of hippies. They'd do periodic sweeps through the camps, but you'd know about them from a mile off because everyone would raise the call of "Six up!" upon seeing them, that being slang for cops.
We met up with some folks who knew of a secluded stream deep in the mountain forests, so we piled in a van with Bill and Ira from Michigan and drove off to find it. There was this gorgeous mountain stream, with the coldest, clearest water imaginable. We splashed in, laughing and smiling, and swam around to wash off the muck and grime. Afterwards, we climbed up on large boulders in the water and sunbathed and smoked pot.
Adam, who had been the most reluctant to go on this whole adventure, ended up being the one who most regreted having to return to Babylon, aka the Real World. I think he would've run off with a hippie caravan if I hadn't stopped him. He spent the whole weekend wearing his blue swimming shorts and big clunky boots. I ran around in one of his oversized yellow t-shirts with a sarong and painted my face. Our friend Keith, more amazingly, wore a white shirt the entire weekend and that thing was spotless. We're still not sure how he did that.
The ride back was harrowing. It rained a bit that morning, so as we're carefully making our way down those serpentine mountain roads, our Honda hydroplanes and slams into a guardrail! We were thisclose to going over a forty-foot cliff. Don got out and kissed the guardrail in appreciation. Then we hit Tropical Storm Cyndy on the way back, the rain was coming down so hard you couldn't see your own headlights, much less the car in front of you. We were all terrified, except for Kenny, who was so high he had no idea where he was. As we're hurtling along slick highways, screaming, all of us convinced we're about to die any second, in the backseat Kenny is like, "Bananas! I like bananas!"
At one point, we had to pull over because the rain was coming down so hard we couldn't see the road in front of us. Keith got out of his truck and ran up to Adam's car and pounded on the windows, trying to get his attention. But the rain was so heavy that not only could we not see him through the windows, we couldn't hear him, either. So Adam decided to merge back on, and ran right over Keith's toes!
Anyway, in the end everyone made it home safe and sound from our hippie adventure in West Virginia.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-31 03:32 am (UTC)My parents were hippies, and they NEVER put me through that.
What happened to your friend's toesie woesies?
no subject
Date: 2006-08-01 01:25 am (UTC)Keith's toes are fine. He thought it was more funny than anything. :)