WhatheckR "Flower-Seniors" and Where Do They Go on "Sidetrips"?

Whatsa "Flower-Senior"?

I began using the term when I realized that, as it is presently used, the descriptor "hippy" seems to hold negative connotations that it didn't have back in the 60s when we ("we" because I still have my "tribal union card") called ourselves and were called by some of the other factions of society by that label. . .

To put it a bit more accurately, the term "hippy" doesn't seem to have retained any hint of its more positive aspects such as a love of arts, crafts and music, a sense of whimsy, generosity, mutual respect for others and a reverence for the environment -- traditionally associated with it.

In these days of issues dressed starkly in blacks and whites, many of my younger associates (and even many of those who are old enough to remember how it was but, for reasons I have yet to figure out, don't seem to want to remember) immediately latch onto what was in all seriousness probably the least important requirement for admission into "hippydom": Drug use.

It seems to be a common association that most people make today. . .

Have you noticed that, if you say the word "drug" today, most people seem to recoil in horror?

As the words are presently used, a "drug" is a what pot-heads and crack addicts "do" and "prescriptions" (or "medications") are substances taken by good, moral, upstanding people (at the direction of a licensed physician, of course). The fact remains, however, that, inclusively, all of them are "drugs". . . (Isnt it odd how words assume shades of morality over time that seem to subtly change hues under different regimes?)

At any rate, I have always preferred what I consider to be the more aptly evocative term "Flowerchildren" (hence the screenname. . .) and, since most of us meeting the requirements of such a term are sufficiently chronologically advanced to now qualify for substantial discounts on our "Grand Slam Breakfasts", I felt as though a metamorphisized term was called for and, so, have coined the term "Flower-Seniors". (Clever, n'est pas?)

As Far As "Sidetrips" Are Concerned:

The objectives of journeys or quests historically undertaken by "flowerchildren" (now, "flower-seniors") seem to have a habit of becoming secondary to the points in-between, the means used and/or the concerns of the people who may help them along the way. . .

Further, the rewards realized by most of us during these sojourns this long period of time have, for the most part, become great assets (indeed, sometimes even outweighing the benefits of the objective originally sought) . . . and it is those "sidetrips" that I plan upon charting here:

The byways, detours and incidentals of life of the some of us who are proud to have lived long enough to become "Flower-Seniors". . .


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