Daytona Beach And The Hippies

As summer is approaching and we have either already gone on vacation or are getting ready to go, I am reminded of my first trip to that Southern vacation paradise, Daytona Beach. The place that even today can take me back to childhood just by being there.

As a child my grandparents went to Daytona Beach just about every year and the summer that I was turning eight years old I got to go. You can only imagine the anticipation I had about this trip.

First of all since my grandparents were farmers and to make it even harder they owned chicken houses. There were very few opportunities to get away for a vacation. So after a long night where my Grandfather and my uncles had to catch chickens and get them loaded on a truck we got to leave.

Unlike today where there are interstate highways all the way, the interstate highway system was not complete, so for the most part the trip was spent traveling down Highway 41. Today I can make it to Daytona in about 8-9 hours, back then it seemed like an eternity and also if you can picture four adults and two kids in my Grandfather's Chevrolet there wasn't a lot of room.

To this day I still remember my first look at the mighty Atlantic Ocean, and I still I stand in awe of its beauty and magnificent waves. I'll never forget the many hours I spent riding a rented canvas float on those waves.

I have an Aunt who is only two years older than me, and growing up she seemed more like a sister than an aunt. So the best part of the trip was when the two of us got to go to the arcades on the Boardwalk.

But before we left the first time, and I can still hear it today my Grandmother warned us to watch out for the hippies. For you who don't know what a hippie is ask your parents. Funny thing now as I walk around the boardwalk when we go, I wonder just how many of those who were then called hippies now own the businesses there.

Maybe many of us are in the words of the Bellamy Brothers, just "an old hippie and he don't know what to do. Should he hang on to the old? Should he grab on to the new." I like hanging on to the old, and I love the memories of my first trip to Daytona Beach. I even like remembering the hippies.