Summer of 1967

There has been a lot written about the summer of love in 1967. It seemed as if young people were trying to create a peaceful and more loving life style. It is particularly associated with Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco and very significantly, The Beatles Sgt.  Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, followed by Scott Mackenzie's If you're going to San Francisco, (wear some flowers in your hair.)
It was about trying a new social-ethos of sharing.
However, it is not surprising, but the summer of love in Haight-Ashbury turned into a dismal autumn.
By 1969, the same mass of youth were the Woodstock generation.
We tried to keep the spirit going up until late 69, but many factors formed road blocks for the crowds to move forward.
The peace & love & music culture was happening before the Human Be-In that occurred in San Francisco in January 1967.
I was in New York in the summer of 1966. I hung around Greenwich Village, Washington Square, all the places I heard mentioned in songs. The place was full of young people (yes, just like I was,) who were sleeping rough and simply bonding.
The big societal changes were already underway; The "anniversary" shows gloss over how many young people were hitch-hiking away from their safe suburban communities to the big cities on the coast; New York and California primarily.
There was a lot of segregation still that summer. I witnessed it on my Greyhound Bus ride from New York to Florida.
The summer of 1967 is also remembered as the time America's big cities were a cauldron of unrest. Riots, primarily in Detroit and New Jersey, set the black community on fire. The Detroit riot is the basis on a forthcoming movie, called, simply Detroit.
I recall the events vividly. I arrived in Windsor, Ontario in 1976 and people were still talking about that year when they stood on Riverside Drive and could see the flames and hear the police sirens and gunshots.
LBJ's "Great Society" took a little longer to foster real change.