400k wds, some neologisms. Story of a young bohemian bawn and bred in the briar patch that lay between the borders of St. Elvis Era and the Eleusinian Feels of alternity.
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Maybe the advent of LSD could be used as a benchmark pinpointing the beginning of the Sixties?
Well, the flower children out in California were tripping on LSD in the early 1960s, as were many of the old "beatniks" up in Greenwich village. This is not to mention Eldar Elfish folk such as Hoffman, Ginsberg, Huxley, Wasson, & Co. In Ann Arbor, Michigan and other communities at the forefront of cultural change, non-conformists grew beards and went to class barefoot. In Memphis, Tennessee (exactly like the rest of Middle America), the Beachboys were still the highest level of subcultural deviance. And believe you me, the vastest major portion of Middle America was still wandering in the overripe Sangsara of the Red Scare.
The Cosmos heaved a weary sigh. It would take a heap of groundwork before the children of America were ready for the next stage in illumination.
By sometime in 1962 (actually, I could've sworn it was '63), just a few months before the Beatles' music became known in the USA, two new hairdos for men and boys hit the classrooms: the Caesar Cut and the Princeton. The Caesar Cut consisted of simple bangs, hanging straight down and cut straight across horizontally. The Princeton consisted of uncut bangs combed at a slight slant across the forehead. Hair in the back and on the sides was still rather short. These stood in sharp contrast to the accepted styles for men at the time, which consisted mainly of the crewcut or, for those daring enough, a slicked-back or sprayed-back Fifties rocker hairdo.
There was as yet no mention of dress code at Hillcrest High, and none needed. Most male students wore "Ivy League" clothes, what we would now call "Preppy". Those who didn't were pretty much considered outside of the mainstream of humanity. Pariahs or worse, greasers, slickumbackers.
Make no mistake about it. In 1962 and 1963 one wore Ivy League and Ivy League only. Ivy was strictly defined, too. Shirts had to have button-down collars (including, for Pete's sake) the button in the back, pleats just so, and Ivy loop. The Ivy loop was crucial, since high school girls collected them. They would sneak up behind you and rip the damn thing right off your shirt, sometimes taking half the shirt with it. Pants had cuffs or none, whichever was in at any particular moment. Belts were medium width with rounded, undecorated buckles. And it all had to go together or you were out of the ballgame.
The typical Caesar cut was exemplified by its namesake Julius as well as by Moe Howard of the Three Stooges. Had Adolf Hitler grown his hair a little thicker and shampooed it with Prell to give it that blow-dried, washed-out fluffiness, it would have been a passable Princeton cut. Oh, and he would have to grow some 'burns.
Male students kept their sideburns short, to the middle of the ear, and the hair in back off the collar. Nobody even dreamed of having it longer. Still the grownups made fun of the kids every chance they got: "Say, that boy looks just like a little girl! What bathroom you going to? Are you a boy or a girl?" These masterpieces of witticism were repeated over and over, word for word, by grownup after grownup to their own endless mirth. It was a joke that never aged among the aged. Years later, when the show "Hee Haw" was a big hit, we realized at last that our parents' generation had the marvelous ability to laugh at the same joke again and again, each time as if it were newly birthed from the formless aethers.
