'Original hippie' still holding on to her ideals

[suchandra]

San Bernardino County Sun, today: "Eastern religion very much influenced the hippie movement, and Deanna Adams and friends would go to Buddhist temples or Hare Krishna gatherings in Haight-Ashbury to dance."

 

'Original hippie' still holding on to her ideals

<!--subtitle--><!--byline-->Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, Staff Writer

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_6666967

<!--date-->Article Launched: 08/20/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

 

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love in 1967 in San Francisco. This is the seventh in a series of profiles on San Bernardino-area folks who were there.

"In tattered tuxedos, they faced the new heroes and crawled about in confusion.

And they sheepishly grinned for their memories were dim of the decades of dark execution.

Hollow hands were raised; they stood there amazed in the shattering of their illusions.

As the windows were smashed by the ringing of revolution."

- From "Ringing of Revolution," by Phil Ochs

SAN BERNARDINO - The doors at the historic white-and-blue Victory Chapel on North F Street are open from morning until dusk to those seeking a moment of peace away from the city's troubled streets.

It is chapel owner Deanna Adams' way of reaching out and connecting with people.

She has done so since she was a 16-year-old hippie questioning authority on the streets of San Francisco.

"I am an original hippie. Someone who was rebelling against the whole `Father Knows Best' and `Donna Reed Show' lifestyle - that 1950s conservatism - even before the Summer of Love," said Adams, 60, as she sat in the whitewashed, flower-filled sanctuary of the chapel.

Adams started life far from San Francisco, in the then-Dutch colony of Indonesia.

Her father was the Dutch commandant of prison camps there. Her mother was Indonesian and once a prisoner.

Saddened by the plight of the much-persecuted Indonesians, her father championed their cause.

He continued to do so when the family returned in 1952 to Holland.

"He worked on a lot of social problems and also stuck up for them," she said.

Those early experiences instilled a desire in Adams to look out for the underdog.

"I saw how cruel, senseless and prejudiced people could be, and it shaped my life," she said.

Adams, her siblings and mother moved in 1959 to San Francisco. They settled in the Mission District and later the Richmond District.

Her father was supposed to join them, but he died before he could make the trip.

Adams said she soon learned English, and enjoyed being a student in American schools.

In about 1964, she and other teenagers in the city began rebelling against the constraints of the conservative post-World War II years.

They grew their hair long, dressed in loose-fitting clothing and wore sandals. Many young women discarded their bras.

"The whole hippie thing started to emerge, because we felt we were living someone else's life, even at that age," Adams said.

She spent her days at anti-war marches in Berkeley, discussed social change while sitting in a circle at beaches in San Francisco or Santa Cruz and listened to the Grateful Dead perform in Golden Gate Park.

"There were good vibes everywhere. Stores gave out free furniture and food in Haight-Ashbury, and if you saw someone, you would put your arms around them," she said. "There was a feeling of removing boundaries, that humanity is all one."

Eastern religion very much influenced the hippie movement, and Adams and friends would go to Buddhist temples or Hare Krishna gatherings in Haight-Ashbury to dance.

While others chose to use drugs such as LSD and marijuana to reach a state of higher consciousness, Adams said she turned to meditation.

"I found the whole drug scene senseless," she said. "I believed I could reach the same state of awareness through meditation."

Adams said she refused to eat meat, and spoke out if she saw people wearing fur coats and diamonds.

"I didn't like how animals were trapped. So if I saw someone wearing a fur coat at a concert, I would ask why they were wearing it," she said. "And I opposed the way people who mined the diamonds were treated."

By June 1967, kids arrived in droves in San Francisco. They wanted to be a part of the free love, drug and music scene.

"There were so many who had had enough of the way they had been taught to live," Adams said. "Everyone was dancing in the park in trances induced by the pot and LSD."

By the end of that summer, Adams felt the whole movement had been tainted by those drugs.

"For me, the whole idea of the original hippie, was supporting women going to work, ending the Vietnam War, because there was no reason to be there, and the civil-rights movement," she said. "And what I was seeing was people intent on ruining their own brain. All these kids lost and drugged out and getting diseased until the mayor had to step in and end it."

By the 1970s, she was attending San Jose City College. She soon married and had two sons.

Adams studied religion and wanted to start her own church. She heard the old Victory Chapel was for sale, bought it in 1984 and moved to the area.

"It seemed like it would be a good place to do some really nice work," she said.

At the chapel, she offers services for all religions, and space for communions, quincineras, receptions and weddings.

Ever the original hippie, Adams has been active in fighting redevelopment projects that would impact historic sites, including her chapel.

"I fought injustice then, and I still fight it now," Adams said. "I truly believe in the issues we addressed in the 1960s and feel we need to put them in practice again today."

[AncientMariner]

 

San Bernardino County Sun, today: "Eastern religion very much influenced the hippie movement, and Deanna Adams and friends would go to Buddhist temples or Hare Krishna gatherings in Haight-Ashbury to dance."

 

'Original hippie' still holding on to her ideals

<!--subtitle--><!--byline-->Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, Staff Writer

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_6666967

<!--date-->Article Launched: 08/20/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

 

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love in 1967 in San Francisco. This is the seventh in a series of profiles on San Bernardino-area folks who were there.

"In tattered tuxedos, they faced the new heroes and crawled about in confusion.

And they sheepishly grinned for their memories were dim of the decades of dark execution.

Hollow hands were raised; they stood there amazed in the shattering of their illusions.

As the windows were smashed by the ringing of revolution."

- From "Ringing of Revolution," by Phil Ochs

 

SAN BERNARDINO - The doors at the historic white-and-blue Victory Chapel on North F Street are open from morning until dusk to those seeking a moment of peace away from the city's troubled streets.

It is chapel owner Deanna Adams' way of reaching out and connecting with people.

She has done so since she was a 16-year-old hippie questioning authority on the streets of San Francisco.

"I am an original hippie. Someone who was rebelling against the whole `Father Knows Best' and `Donna Reed Show' lifestyle - that 1950s conservatism - even before the Summer of Love," said Adams, 60, as she sat in the whitewashed, flower-filled sanctuary of the chapel.

Adams started life far from San Francisco, in the then-Dutch colony of Indonesia.

Her father was the Dutch commandant of prison camps there. Her mother was Indonesian and once a prisoner.

Saddened by the plight of the much-persecuted Indonesians, her father championed their cause.

He continued to do so when the family returned in 1952 to Holland.

"He worked on a lot of social problems and also stuck up for them," she said.

Those early experiences instilled a desire in Adams to look out for the underdog.

"I saw how cruel, senseless and prejudiced people could be, and it shaped my life," she said.

Adams, her siblings and mother moved in 1959 to San Francisco. They settled in the Mission District and later the Richmond District.

Her father was supposed to join them, but he died before he could make the trip.

Adams said she soon learned English, and enjoyed being a student in American schools.

In about 1964, she and other teenagers in the city began rebelling against the constraints of the conservative post-World War II years.

They grew their hair long, dressed in loose-fitting clothing and wore sandals. Many young women discarded their bras.

"The whole hippie thing started to emerge, because we felt we were living someone else's life, even at that age," Adams said.

She spent her days at anti-war marches in Berkeley, discussed social change while sitting in a circle at beaches in San Francisco or Santa Cruz and listened to the Grateful Dead perform in Golden Gate Park.

"There were good vibes everywhere. Stores gave out free furniture and food in Haight-Ashbury, and if you saw someone, you would put your arms around them," she said. "There was a feeling of removing boundaries, that humanity is all one."

Eastern religion very much influenced the hippie movement, and Adams and friends would go to Buddhist temples or Hare Krishna gatherings in Haight-Ashbury to dance.

While others chose to use drugs such as LSD and marijuana to reach a state of higher consciousness, Adams said she turned to meditation.

"I found the whole drug scene senseless," she said. "I believed I could reach the same state of awareness through meditation."

Adams said she refused to eat meat, and spoke out if she saw people wearing fur coats and diamonds.

"I didn't like how animals were trapped. So if I saw someone wearing a fur coat at a concert, I would ask why they were wearing it," she said. "And I opposed the way people who mined the diamonds were treated."

By June 1967, kids arrived in droves in San Francisco. They wanted to be a part of the free love, drug and music scene.

"There were so many who had had enough of the way they had been taught to live," Adams said. "Everyone was dancing in the park in trances induced by the pot and LSD."

By the end of that summer, Adams felt the whole movement had been tainted by those drugs.

"For me, the whole idea of the original hippie, was supporting women going to work, ending the Vietnam War, because there was no reason to be there, and the civil-rights movement," she said. "And what I was seeing was people intent on ruining their own brain. All these kids lost and drugged out and getting diseased until the mayor had to step in and end it."

By the 1970s, she was attending San Jose City College. She soon married and had two sons.

Adams studied religion and wanted to start her own church. She heard the old Victory Chapel was for sale, bought it in 1984 and moved to the area.

"It seemed like it would be a good place to do some really nice work," she said.

At the chapel, she offers services for all religions, and space for communions, quincineras, receptions and weddings.

Ever the original hippie, Adams has been active in fighting redevelopment projects that would impact historic sites, including her chapel.

"I fought injustice then, and I still fight it now," Adams said. "I truly believe in the issues we addressed in the 1960s and feel we need to put them in practice again today."

 

That's nice and all don't get me wrong but I read something from Prahbupada that indicated to me that he thought the hippies kind of blew it by rejecting and rebelling against their parents and all that. There is a lot of ideals that I can appreciate about the hippies and I hung out with some neo-hippy Grateful Dead followers in the 1990's but that lifestyle didn't seem that conducive to happiness to me. It was basically a gathering of ape-like humans pretending to really love each other but suffering from the same inherent envy, insecurity etc. as basically all humans.

[theist]

 

That's nice and all don't get me wrong but I read something from Prahbupada that indicated to me that he thought the hippies kind of blew it by rejecting and rebelling against their parents and all that. There is a lot of ideals that I can appreciate about the hippies and I hung out with some neo-hippy Grateful Dead followers in the 1990's but that lifestyle didn't seem that conducive to happiness to me. It was basically a gathering of ape-like humans pretending to really love each other but suffering from the same inherent envy, insecurity etc. as basically all humans.

LOL!!!!!

 

 

"We love Jerry!"

 

 

 

All they need to do now is tie-die their fur.