My old high school friends have been turning a certain age this year. It’s been earth-shattering for us to say the least. We didn’t expect it to happen so soon. It just sneaked up on us while we were still having fun.
On the positive side, I have become a self-appointed sage, able to reflect on the events of the last half of America’s 20th century.
So, here’s a question for your consideration:
What happened to the Summer of Love and The Age of Aquarius?
In 1967, John Phillips wrote the hit song “San Francisco”. Sung by Scott McKenzie,
it was released on radio stations that May with the opening lines,
“If you’re going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you’re going to San Franciso
You’re gonna meet some gentle people there.”
By June, 100,000 hippies and “Flower Children” had descended on the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco and the Summer of Love had officially begun. Pretty amazing when you realize this was decades before the days of social media.
The rock medley “Age of Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In” was also written in 1967 for the Broadway Musical “Hair.” It was written for the same generation by the team of Rado, Ragni and McDermott and contained the cryptic astrological lines,
“When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius.”
With the start of college that year, we grew our hair long and had peace signs and colorful “flower power” stickers on everything from our spiral notebooks to our run-down Volkswagens, and sang songs like “Blowing in the Wind”.
But one year later, our naive dreams of the Age of Aquarius would shatter. Earlier that year, the world had witnessed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, followed by the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy on June 6.
And in the heat of Summer 1968, the Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois on August 26–29. Tens of thousands of peace activists poured into the city to protest our country’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
In response, Chicago Mayor, Richard Daley circled the convention hall with barbed wire while bringing in a total of 23,000 officers of the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois National Guard. The peace demonstrations soon turned violent with police and guardsmen beating the demonstrators with clubs and rifle butts. Shocked television viewers watched the carnage while demonstrators shouted “The whole world is watching!”
Walter Cronkite, the late CBS anchorman, kept the television cameras on young reporter Dan Rather as he was knocked down by police while interviewing an anti-war delegate being hauled off the convention floor, all in front of an audience of millions.
So, what happened to the peace and love of the Age of Aquarius? I may have to give up being a sage.
Our recessional hymn in church last Sunday was “Let There Be Peace on Earth” by Jill Jackson and Sy Miller. I didn’t need the hymnal. It was one I sang in Strafford School’s 6th grade choir so many years ago.
“With God as our Father, brothers all are we
Let me walk with my brothers, in perfect harmony.”
It’s been 57 years since the Summer of Love. What happened to the dream?
About Sally Denk Hoey
Sally Denk Hoey, is a Gemini - one part music and one part history. She holds a masters degree cum laude from the School of Music at West Chester University. She taught 14 years in both public and private school. Her CD "Bard of the Brandywine" was critically received during her almost 30 years as a folk singer. She currently cantors masses at St Agnes Church in West Chester where she also performs with the select Motet Choir. A recognized historian, Sally serves as a judge-captain for the south-east Pennsylvania regionals of the National History Day Competition. She has served as president of the Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates as well as the Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford where she now curates the violin collection. Sally re-enacted with the 43rd Regiment of Foot and the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment for 19 years where she interpreted the role of a campfollower at encampments in Valley Forge, Williamsburg, Va., Monmouth, N.J. and Lexington and Concord, Mass. Sally is married to her college classmate, Thomas Hoey, otherwise known as "Mr. Sousa.”
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