Can You Dig It

Nowadays you would be excused for thinking, “Can you dig it?” might refer to excavating or creating a hole in which to deposit a plant, a treasure, or perhaps a body, especially if you were born after 1980.

Whall Nutzenbier, one of the Justin Case and friends’ brotherhood, was tasked with digging and setting poles for the Tin Can Communications Company in Chasing the Wendigo. But I digress.

A hippie (or hippy) also known as a flower child, was a person, especially from the late 1960s and early 70s, who rejected the values and established institutions, hence the term: counterculture that emerged after WW2 ended, and went against accepted society turning to alternative lifestyles like communal living, psychedelic drugs and bright clothing styles.

The hippies were way different from their predecessors from the 50s who were called Beatniks or Beats.

The hippie male wore their hair long and everyone wore folksy or used clothing adorned with beads, headbands and often flowers. They stressed the importance of love and peace. Some tried to expand their consciousness through various psychological techniques like meditation or using mind altering drugs like marijuana or LSD. Timothy Leary, an American psychologist and writer known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs, coined the phrase: “turn on, tune in and drop out”. They were also against the Vietnam War and the men objected to the draft.

They tended to congregate in districts in bigger cities, which came to be known as hippie villages. Some of these neighbourhoods were Haight-Ashbury, in San Francisco, a famous bohemian enclave in the late '50s and '60s Old Town in Chicago, Greenwich Village in New York City and Yorkville in Toronto. They had their own gardens, head shops, music venues, restaurants and provided cheap ways of living and alternate lifestyles. They promoted vegetarianism. The music hippies promoted were the folksy, psychedelic riffs of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.

By the mid-60s, Haight-Ashbury was attracting had become the centre of hippie counterculture. By 1967, thousands of American teenagers and those in their early 20s migrated there for “love-ins” during the “Summer of Love”.

Woodstock, a three-day music event attended by more than 400,000 people took place in Bethel, NY at the 600-acre farm of Max Yasgur from August 15 through 17, 1969. The festival featured top rock artists of that era like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jefferson Airplane.

The relaxed and laid back attitude of the 1970s fostered an almost Alien language of the Hippie sub-culture. Generally Slang serves two purposes; first it lowers the formality of language and secondly it is used to identify with one’s Peers. The tribe mentality of the 1970s was prime breeding ground for some great slang.

Following are few of the slang words and phrases:

· “Can You Dig It” Do you understand?

· “Psyche someone out” To trick someone.

· “Don't be such a 'spaz” A 'spaz' was someone that was accident prone, clumsy, or just acting stupid.

· “Dream on” a term used to get someone down to earth, or tell them they are being unrealistic about something

· “Far out” cool

· “Good night, John-boy.” An annoying phrase popularized by the entire cast of "the Waltons" -- except by John-boy" himself.

· “In your face!” I have succeeded in embarrassing or up-staging you

· “To the max”! Take it to the maximum or taken to an extreme.

· “You're so stunned” Meaning the person acted or said something stupid, dumb.

· “Right on”!! Right on--was used when you agreed to something

What slang terms were popular where you grew up? (Please keep it clean and refrain from the derogatory)