hippie wannabe

I think I was born in the wrong era. Well, not really, but I would probably have been a hippie back then. My inner self is crying out for braids, long skirts (oh, the long, flowing skirts), tie die shirts, bell bottom pants, and several more pair of Birkenstock sandals. But, my closet is full of high heels, flip flops, tennis shoes, and straight cut jeans. I don't have a garden (yet), but I eat organic and prepare strange foods. I am kind of crazy about natural birth and I make my own concoctions to cure my illnesses and injuries. But, I wear make-up and fix my hair every day. I do burn incense in my house...can't do scented candles. What to do?

So as for my inner hippie or at least the inner 70's in me....

I would not be much for anti-war protests or bra burning (well, possibly bra burning, but only for my own sake - dang under wires!). I doubt I would have worn my hair parted down the middle with peace sign jewelry all over me and a leather tie around my forehead. But, if lived back then, I would quite possibly have decorated my home with macrame plant hangers and wall hangings - probably of an owl, and big shaggy rugs. I would have had a big orange, brown, green couch that was most likely extremely uncomfortable to get comfy on. I am sure I maybe would like to watch Mary Tyler Moore or go disco dancing. Did hippies watch t.v. and dance? I would be the exception.

I would have the most amazing brown kitchen appliances and herbs growing in the windowsill above the kitchen sink (the legal kind of course). There would be orange and gold checkered carpet on the kitchen floor. Ok, that just sounds gross. I would grow all my food out in the garden.

I would ride my banana seat bike everywhere. It would have a basket on the front of it. I may have a car, not sure. I would read at the park in the afternoons on my quilted blanket. I may roll my eyes as I pass a phone booth where 20 people are trying to stuff themselves inside.

Of course, I wouldn't have a cell phone back then. But, then again nothing is "urgent" (unless you are having your baby of course) and if I am home and you call, I would visit with you. Otherwise, call me later.

I wouldn't wear make-up and my hair is long and flowing. Sometimes I would put it in braids.

My record player would play Bee Gees and Fleetwood Mac.

I might actually have a pet rock too!

Not sure my occupation. I would probably be a some sort of birth support person, but that was before the word "doula" was around. Maybe I would be a midwife when midwifery was coming into play and birth was coming back out of the hospitals again.

If I were a mom, I would play wooden blocks with my cloth diapered babies and take them to the park in a sling. The thing about all of this is that these people did this and didn't even try. There was something instinctual about it. Now you hear about all these parenting ideas and gimmicks. "Do this and your kid will learn this"...."do that and your kid will be do or say that".....I don't think they they consciously thought about it back then. Wearing your kid in a sling was quite possibly "just what you did". Kids didn't sit in front of the t.v. for hours. They played outside. Parents didn't worry about them running around the block with the neighbors. Oh, and I would be that mom who attends a breastfeeding group since breastfeeding would just be coming back. I can see it now, all the moms sitting in the park in a circle on blankets breastfeeding their babies while their older kids run wild in the park. Makes me kind of giddy to think of it because these women would have come from the generation whose parents formula fed and they were breaking the cycle!

Well, I am a child of the 80's with side ponies, Barbie doll houses, My Little Ponies, and over-sized shirts tied in a knot on the side with leggings and jelly shoes. Now I am an adult in the the 21st century with all kinds of technology and fashion that I can't get away from if I wanted to. Oh, how I wish I was a hippie living on a mountain off the land somewhere.....

I wonder if I would have been friends with my parents back then?

Stayin' alive, stayin' alive, ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!