I hate hippies!

I hate hippies! I hate them with a passion. I hate the way they speak; I hate the way they think, the way they just blatantly ignore reality, their lifestyle, but most of all, I hate their lack of hygiene. I'm the most anti-hippie person you'll ever meet in life, so imagine my irritation when I was assigned to go interview this old hippie guy named Gerry who'd once apparently been some kind of groupie for Janis Joplin.

I was working as a reporter for the New York Times and they were doing a piece on Joplin so they needed as much info as possible to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her death.

"Can't you find someone else to do this?" I asked the editor, exasperation clearly lacing my eyes.

"No, Jenna. You're the best we have and I don't trust anyone else with this," he replied.

"Ugh! Fine," I huffed before storming out of his office.

***

And so, here I was, outside the old apartment building where Gerry was supposed to be residing. As I expected, this guy was still living in the past and dressing like a hippie at 50. I rolled my eyes - this guy was the epitome of the stereotype hippie - rags for clothes, dirty, long and unkempt hair and yes, lack of hygiene. He also seemed to be stoned - big shocker there huh!

I sighed and introduced myself.

"Oh yeah, you're the reporter chick from the New York Times. Come on in," he drawled. Yep, definitely high...

"Uh, thanks. So um...okay, let's start. As you know, we're doing a piece on Janis Joplin since it will be 20 years since her death next week," I started. When I saw him nod, I continued.

"You are one of the very few we've managed to track down who were actually groupies of hers. How would you describe your experience?"

"Oh, it was far out man, we were always on the road and ran into a lot of trouble. But it was always a gas..." he started before going into a lot of details of his times with Janis Joplin, her band and the other groupies. I tried my best to look interested but I doubt he even noticed; he was in a world of his own by then.

After about 3 hours of just listening to the guy and me trying my damndest not to look at my watch so much, he'd stopped talking.

"And that's about it really...I will never forget those times."

I put on my best smile and said, "Well, that's quite a story, Gerry. I'm sure it will make a great addition to the Janis Joplin cover story. I have to go now. Thank you so much for your time."

I stood up and he did the same in order to walk me to the door. Well, at least his manners were still intact.

"It was my pleasure Jenna Summers..." he started, "Summers...any relation to Rebecca and Michael Summers by any chance?"

I blinked before nodding slowly, "Yeah...they're my parents...did you know them?"

His eyes widened and sparkled with recognition, "Know them? They were like the king and queen of our group! Best hippies I've ever seen in my whole damn life!"

"WHAT?!"