Modern Hill Woman

Recently my friend Tracy and I saw (and loved) the movie “Jesus Revolution.”

I was nine during the “Summer of Love” in 1967. The evening news with Walter Cronkite showed us thousands of young people descending on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco to protest the war in Vietnam, participate in free-love and drug experimentation, and to reject materialism. They had given up conformity for bare feet, long hair, rock’n’roll, and peace and enlightenment through spiritualism.

Over time, a lot of problems arose in Haight-Ashbury, and many became disillusioned. A set of evangelical street preachers arose and urged people to forsake drugs and promiscuity and follow Jesus.

The Jesus movement began. It spread throughout North America, subsiding in the late 1980s. Members of the movement were called Jesus People or Jesus Freaks. They were calling the church back to a more Biblical style of Christianity. The unconventional ways of these new believers antagonized many Christians. They kept their long hair and their music, which developed into contemporary Christian rock and pop.

A high school friend of mine happened upon the music of an early Christian rock band on a Memphis rock radio station one Sunday morning. He became a fan of the Resurrection Band who were a part of Jesus People USA based in Chicago. One day he was riding his motorcycle in Ripley County and passed a mailbox that had the letters JPUSA on it. He recognized the name, turned down the driveway to the lodge, and introduced himself. He spent considerable time with the Jesus People in the early 1980s and met the musicians when they’d visit from Chicago. They weren’t well received in Ripley County, and mostly stayed to themselves, keeping a low profile. My friend also became acquainted with a commune around Ellsinore.

My sister Wanda and her husband Rance met two young hippie couples. One of the men came by their house and asked for a ride. Wanda was cooking a pot of beans on the woodstove and the man thought that was the coolest thing ever. Rance gave him a ride and ended up selling him a car for $50. The couples bought a piece of property by Hunter and raised chickens, goats, and a garden. They would come into Grandin with a big waterbed mattress strapped to the top of their little car and fill it with water at the fire station.

I never understood why this area didn’t accept these people more readily. Ripley was one of the poorest counties in Missouri. We were all living off the land, most were living in little more than shacks with no indoor plumbing, and running around barefoot.