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Memoirs of an Ex-Hippie: Seven Years in the Counterculture 
Reviewer: Skip Stone | See all reviews by Skip Stone
Section: Reviews | Category: Book | Topic: Hippiedom
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Memoirs of an Ex-Hippie: Seven Years in the Counterculture
By Robert Roskind
Review by Skip Stone
 Just as the Beats immortalized their lives and times in such books as On The Road, Robert Roskind likewise commemorates the liberated lifestyle of the hippie era. This look back, while very personal, is also the archetype for a whole generation whose quest for freedom and the meaning of life led to some mind-blowing experiences. Whether it was dealing with parents and the “generation gap”, or trying to avoid getting sent to Vietnam or tripping out on LSD at Altamont, we hippies trod the same path, often in the same places. This implies our common experience was a result of an underlying phenomenon that ultimately changed ourselves, our society and the world.
Roskind’s nostalgic trip down hippie lane is a travelogue of life’s alternative byways and an exploration of the communal mindset of the period. His honest recollections about his psychedelic drug use, run-ins with the cops, communal life, free love, and self-discovery were all part of the hippie trip. Roskind’s tales of many cross-country journeys, picking up hitchhikers in his converted bus, leave us longing for those simpler times, when total strangers would become friends faster than you could light a joint. Those days are over now, but still very much alive for those who lived them.
While many original hippies “sold out” long ago and joined the “establishment”, some of us have held true to our beliefs and continue to explore alternative lifestyles and businesses. Roskind likewise shows us his crisis of faith and how he resolved to live a life of service to others and carry on the hippie philosophy in practice. Having realized that Love is the answer to many of life’s questions, he now teaches others the transcendental power of unconditional love through his books and lectures.
The only flaw I find in the book is its title. Roskind is no Ex-hippie. The hippie inside still lives on and his love for the hippie way and how it changed his life comes thru loud and clear in this well written autobiography. Memoirs of an Ex-Hippie is liberating reading, and will take the reader on the same voyage we all experienced back in the 60s, without drugs!
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Visitor Comments about Memoirs of an Ex-Hippie: Seven Years in the Counterculture
Posted by mucka on 2008-01-30 15:25:22
My Score: 
Comment: I laughed my head off.Of course you never forget your first trip.The first trip i took was with my best pal.And we had never laughed so much in all our lives.That was back in 68 or 69,i`m not sure anymore.So yeah i could totally empathise.And of course what he was saying about the bad baggage of the past is true.My beautiful son fucked himself up on acid,when i told him not to go there.Because of what his cruel mother had done to him.He had to much bad baggage.So letting people the truth about such things is VERY important
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Posted by Pete on 2006-03-20 04:25:20
My Score:
Comment: Thanks Norman..you hit it.
I still go to 5 to 7 folk and rythem and roots festivals a season..its in my blood. always will be..i just have a bigger bus :)
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Posted by altarlight on 2005-07-17 01:17:06
My Score:
Comment: (Note: Score for review is given without reading the book...kind of...impotent scoring.)
I am a hippie...always have been...and yet didn''t always know it. In the 60s, I stood on the sidelines and participated without much of what hippies became identified with. And yet, while I thought I was watching from the sidelines, it was truly impossible.
Hippies changed the world in the direction it clearly needs to do more than any other figure in history, and while I started out seeing myself as part of that world being changed, I came to understand that I was indeed participating in very hip ways.
Hippie used to mean something without regard for traditionalism and establishment, and yet now, when someone says "hippie"...it seems to mean some particular thing...the hair, the sex, the drugs, and some idea about freedom. It was...and is...all those things were but window dressing.
I find it appropriate to just thank everyone who was there, who thought they were there, who thought they weren''t there, who became enlightened, who thought they became enlightened, who became dissillusioned and lost to the trek that was going down. Those days are absolutely not gone...they are very deeply my life, and your life...and far more that a reminescence of experiences gone by. The entire world will never be quite the same. The establishment is not the same establishment, even though it "evilly" tries so hard to be. I am simply joyful at having the opportunity to be part of it, to think I was somehow on the sidelines, and to be swept up into the hipness of it that transcends even the "hippie" tradition itself and washes a lot of crap out of the soul.
Doug Couch (altarlight)
altarslight@aol.com
(with an "s" in it)
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Posted by manfred krop on 2003-08-07 04:22:00
My Score: 
Comment: Any review of the hippy life in the 60s that does not focus on the effect of the possibility of being sent to the VietNam killing fields does ill service to the young people involved.
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Posted by gabi on 2003-07-19 16:15:20
My Score:
Comment: whether or not "Christian" is a changeable state is very debatable.
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Posted by Norman on 2003-01-17 10:43:45
My Score:
Comment: Any time I read or hear about an "ex-hippie", the hair on my neck stands up. I''t kind of like someone saying they''re an ex-Christian or ex-homosexual. These aren''t changeable states; if you were one, you will always be one.
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