Not The Ultimate 1960's Book

All throughout its writing history, there were many times I wished I could’ve taken this trip two years earlier, say in 1969, so I’d be able to call it, tongue-in-cheek or not, “the ultimate 1960’s story.”  After all, there are so many hippie ideals and characteristics from the 60’s brought to the forefront: long hair, rebellion, freaks, alternative lifestyles, life in the moment, free love, mind-bending drugs, cool music, promoting peace, gentleness, optimism, etc. But the book takes place in 1971, so calling it a 60’s tome was always out.  The truth was, we were too young to appreciate the 1960’s. We missed everything. Nor did we have the life experience to put the 60’s into perspective. On page 182, Trish (several years older) asks the guys with envy, “Did you go to Woodstock?  That’s around where you live, isn’t it?” Otto says, “I know people who went,” but couldn’t include himself. He would only have been fifteen in 1969, and his parents were too square and protective. Roger adds, “There was no direct way to hitchhike.” That’s another roundabout admission that events like Woodstock in 1969 were simply out of reach. Another reason I can’t call this a 60’s book: Things were already changing quite a bit by 1971. New laws made it tougher to hitchhike; corporations were merging into mega-companies (Esso became Exxon in 1972); protesting against the war in Vietnam was being squashed by President Nixon’s paranoia, and inflation and increases in interest rates was rampant.  Life had changed ever so slowly but definitively. My book is not about the 1960’s.