The Summer of Love seen from afar

The summer of 1967 was also-known-as the Summer of Love. I was at school in the deep sooth; a school that helped shape a few notable individuals. Daniel Kohn-Bendit, also-known-as Danny the Red, had attended briefly around 1964. His moment of youthful activism produced memorable photographs in the Paris Match of June 1968. I remember studying them in the library.

An iconic image from long ago and far away.

Another pupil was incensed by the closure of the pirate radio stations. In September 1967 they persuaded me to make my first political protest; I signed a petition which was duly ignored by the powers-that-be. I did not know then that this young person would go on to spend much of their life in jail. It takes all sorts to make a world.
On a return to the school some years ago I was told that another old-scholar had changed their name. This was, according to the story, to evade the consequences of being involved in one of the small groups that occasionally became news stories in the seventies.
The Jimi Hendrix years began in October 1966 in Evreux, France. They ended with his tragic death in September 1970. Many young people believe that those four years were 'The Sixties'. But the sixties was longer and it had its share of tragic deaths. I don't know if it was grief at the tragedies or disappointment as youthful dreams turned to ash in my mouth but I blame the sixties for all my wrinkles and the uneasy feeling that a better world was possible.
Fifty years ago, in September 1967, Che Guevara was in Bolivia; fighting for his vision of human dignity. "One, two, three ... Lots of Vietnams!".
What went wrong?

An MZ motorcycle smells the flowers, Port Elphinstone, Scotland, August 2017.

Louis Mair