There was a cultural war raging in the pages of McCall’s magazine in September 1967. Alongside advertisements for Cool Whip, a page of jokes from Johnny Carson, and fashion spreads featuring crisply tailored polyester shift dresses that would put a smile on Marlo Thomas’s face, there was a story introducing readers to a revolution happening outside their living room. In a word: hippies.
“I’m not on your trip,” read the headline, describing a “strange new breed with a strange new creed.” The story was accompanied by dozens of pictures of unkempt looking men and women wrapped in wildly patterned, ill-fitting ensembles. Was it a coincidence that the next story in the magazine was about the dangers of pregnant women using LSD?
This issue of McCall’s was a seismometer of the international youthquake that had already begun. A year later, the concept of the free-loving hippie would not be a curiosity in a magazine but a permanent and unshakable part of pop culture.
Read the full article at Bostonglobe.com
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