Photoessay #1059 - Counter Culture

I got together with an old friend of mine and somebody in her book group who had taken the memoir certificate program at the U. Turns out the friend had completed a similar program on family history and genealogy and had completed a nice piece about her grandfather whom she had never met but had raised two young sons as a single parent when the mother had died in the influenza epidemic. Complete with pictures and documents. Turns out the friend and I had some things in common, both had graduated from high school in California in 1970. She had lived in Terra Linda (I was just there a week or so ago! Home of Sue and the late Dan Beittel) and attended Sonoma State College at the time I was at UCSC

My friend is a few years older and came out from a bit more conservative place, growing up here in Seattle. She and her friend had a lot in common coming from Irish Catholic families who had left Ireland in very hard times.

I shared my idea about possibly doing a piece about UCSC in the early 70s. A fascinating place at a fascinating times with brilliant students and faculty. Born of educational idealism striving to recreate the college systems of Cambridge and Oxford and subsequently much affected by the counter culture. The friend agreed that could be quite compelling being in the greater Bay Area at the same time.

My friend however dismissed the idea as trivial and not worthwhile. Her experience with the counter culture characterized it as silly indolent ideas that soon disappeared from lack of merit. Specifically her husband had been in the military and resented the protesters of the time. Plus she had experience, as a young teacher, at a new school based on an 'open classroom' concept derived from this movement which did not succeed.

Certainly many of the symbols of the counter culture (see picture) are easy to ridicule. Took me about 1 second to find this image on google which does look silly and shallow. But, the influences at UCSC at the time ran deep and many in that institution certainly questioned many of the establishment principles. Yet the scholarship remained vigorous and standards high.

In some ways it would be difficult to do as I did not consider myself much successful there. Not from the counter culture influences but from struggling to meet those high academic standards.