The period of the 1960s and 1970s was a crazy time to move through your teens and 20s. Part of the hippie culture not only involved experimenting with drugs and some incredible music, but a desire for many to search for a change. That translated into a movement both physically and mentally from what had been a restrictive period in the 1950s and toward more freedom.
On the physical side the changes often meant a move from a rural upbringing and location, which itself, was often rooted in the church. The move, at least in Texas, might be from a small town to a big city like Austin, Houston or Dallas. On a more dramatic scale, the move might be to a more open and welcoming culture which seemed to center in California and more specifically San Francisco and Los Angeles.
News stories often covered the music festivals, venues, kids with long hair and hippie-associated attire enjoying life. Many kids saw that as a way to escape and give their lives a new meaning. Many dreamed of it, but few had the guts to actually pick up and make the move. As the 60s turned into the 70s, that scenario sadly and quickly changed. With the "death" of the 1960s came the death of many great figures in the world of music, Martin Luther King, another Kennedy assassination, the dragging on of the Vietnam War and a shift of the government to the far right, the repercussions of which are still felt to this day.
I personally experienced some of these feelings. I definitely was not interested in fighting in Vietnam and thought about escaping to Canada. I didn't have it in me to do it, so I stayed in college. I was enamored with California too. I even drove with three of my college buddies from Oklahoma halfway across New Mexico before the drugs wore off and sanity came crashing down on us. We didn't have a clue what we would do in California. Eventually, I would make it to LA while working in the music business in the late-70s and early-80s, and finally moved there as an attorney in 1985. At that point, it was far different from the fantasy world so many of us had dreamed of.
Having lived through much of this, and my own experiences in those early years served as the spark for the poem "Walk Away From Trouble".
The story is about a country boy who moved from his rural home in east Texas to try to find a better and more exciting life in Dallas. It could have taken place in the late-60s to early-70s. Quickly, reality hit for the boy. He had no education so the best he could do was work as a bartender in a dive and brushed up against some spoiled rich Dallas socialite girls. These girls didn't know much about the real world but they too were trapped in their own social scene, albeit very different from his. Still, they had heard about the great times in California. He was smitten with one of the girls who in turn was smitten with California. She hooked him into driving her west with the promise of a wonderful and happy future. The boy knew better, but he couldn't help himself and off they went. The title echoed the advice from his father.
Symbolically things turned increasingly worse as evidenced by the descriptions of the scenery as they traveled west. As soon as they arrived, they each saw it differently. She saw beauty and a party and he saw a bunch of burnt-out druggies. She dumped him right then and there. He immediately turned around and headed back to Texas.
I left home the fall following high school graduation. I returned home about a year later when I could not locate another roommate to share apartment costs. Had opened the door to Gene by that time. I only went as far as Dallas, but that 13 months I call my year of sin. Liquor and maybe a bit of free love. Nuff said. Janice