Scrapbook of a Taos Hippie: Tribal Tales from the Heart of a Cultural Revolution

Rating:
Summary: A Valuable Historical Chronicle
Review: About half way through this book, I got the bright idea of listing all the people mentioned in it that I knew personally, had met, or knew of. When the number reached 50, I stopped counting. It's easier to count the people in it that I DON'T know - on the fingers of one hand. Three of my oldest and dearest friends are featured here, one pictured on the cover. So I can't be unbiased and objective about these "tribal tales from the heart of a cultural revolution." I've lived them and loved them, so for me, it's a manifesto.

It enters you into a movie of life in those days around Taos. A rainbow of different voices speak. And the voiceover of the narrator is sure and true. Most delightful to me was remembering things I'd all but forgotten - like the Oriental Blue Streaks (a band), Da Nahazli (a hip school), Old Martinez Hall (a place, and the summer solstice at New Buffalo (a happening). Here in these pages, I've found people and places I haven't thought about for a long time - Feather, Preacher, Pabla, Teddy the Juggler, Hotsy Totsy, the Stragecoach Hot Springs, the General Store, peyote meetings on the mesa, Little Joe and Henry Gomez. It all comes back in color and glory and story and song, and it's food for the heart.

"I was always on the hunt for a mythological explanation of the world," says Keltz. "We were reverting to an old form - tribalism - but in a very new way. We would not be a tribe because of lineage, race, language, or tradition. We were a rainbow of people becoming a tribe because we had a collective belief in an alternative to materialism, greed, military power and an unpopular war fought using our brothers, schoolmates and boyfriends."

Not that there weren't some down times, hard times, foolish mistakes and even dangerous blunders. The author makes that clear. We were feeling our way, making it up as we went along. It was colored funny and fun and scary and serious. We knew that the only way to change the world was to change ourselves first. And we did that. None of us who lived through those times are the same people today.

I did catch some inaccuracies - but those are all in the memories of individual voices here. None of them are egregious errors or deliberate slights or misrepresentations as those often found in other chronicles of this time. Somebody said, "If you remember the '60s, you weren't there."

When you're living the life from day to day, it can seem ordinary. You chop wood and haul water, you cook oatmeal for the kids, you gather watercress and rose hips by the rio, but when you step into the world of this book, and the author does her magic for you, the patina of years transforms it into a whole round thing - like a soap bubble in the sun.

I learned a lot about what I'd missed - the hippie New Mexico oracle, "Fountain of Light" and the hippie-made Bicentennial silver and gold concha belt that was worth many thousands (but priceless really) and destined for the Bicentennial 1978 exhibit at the Smithsonian - but was stolen. I slept through all that but sure am glad to know about it now.

There's no index in this, so you can't look up any nouns, but after reading the whole thing, I think I understand why Iris didn't do an index. The story, the saga, is greater than its individual parts and greater than the sum of its parts.

Says Keltz, "We were the critical mass that could change the direction of our capitalistic society" and, "...we were unafraid of our inconsistencies, a people who embraced paradox as the slippery road to a glorious future."

Friends who have this scrapbook have told me that they skipped around, reading only about themselves and their friends, but I recommend doing as the White King advises. "Begin at the beginning; go right on until you come to the end; then stop." That way, you know what to go back to and look at again - photos, drawings, dialogue - whatever. Even if you don't know a single person, place or idea in this book, I believe the work stands on its own merits as a valuable historical chronicle. Sounds like marbles rolling, doesn't it? Rolling through this scrapbook, this album, this experience. Splendid stuff.

[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: A Valuable Historical Chronicle
Review: About half way through this book, I got the bright idea of listing all the people mentioned in it that I knew personally, had met, or knew of. When the number reached 50, I stopped counting. It's easier to count the people in it that I DON'T know - on the fingers of one hand. Three of my oldest and dearest friends are featured here, one pictured on the cover. So I can't be unbiased and objective about these "tribal tales from the heart of a cultural revolution." I've lived them and loved them, so for me, it's a manifesto.

It enters you into a movie of life in those days around Taos. A rainbow of different voices speak. And the voiceover of the narrator is sure and true. Most delightful to me was remembering things I'd all but forgotten - like the Oriental Blue Streaks (a band), Da Nahazli (a hip school), Old Martinez Hall (a place, and the summer solstice at New Buffalo (a happening). Here in these pages, I've found people and places I haven't thought about for a long time - Feather, Preacher, Pabla, Teddy the Juggler, Hotsy Totsy, the Stragecoach Hot Springs, the General Store, peyote meetings on the mesa, Little Joe and Henry Gomez. It all comes back in color and glory and story and song, and it's food for the heart.

"I was always on the hunt for a mythological explanation of the world," says Keltz. "We were reverting to an old form - tribalism - but in a very new way. We would not be a tribe because of lineage, race, language, or tradition. We were a rainbow of people becoming a tribe because we had a collective belief in an alternative to materialism, greed, military power and an unpopular war fought using our brothers, schoolmates and boyfriends."

Not that there weren't some down times, hard times, foolish mistakes and even dangerous blunders. The author makes that clear. We were feeling our way, making it up as we went along. It was colored funny and fun and scary and serious. We knew that the only way to change the world was to change ourselves first. And we did that. None of us who lived through those times are the same people today.

I did catch some inaccuracies - but those are all in the memories of individual voices here. None of them are egregious errors or deliberate slights or misrepresentations as those often found in other chronicles of this time. Somebody said, "If you remember the '60s, you weren't there."

When you're living the life from day to day, it can seem ordinary. You chop wood and haul water, you cook oatmeal for the kids, you gather watercress and rose hips by the rio, but when you step into the world of this book, and the author does her magic for you, the patina of years transforms it into a whole round thing - like a soap bubble in the sun.

I learned a lot about what I'd missed - the hippie New Mexico oracle, "Fountain of Light" and the hippie-made Bicentennial silver and gold concha belt that was worth many thousands (but priceless really) and destined for the Bicentennial 1978 exhibit at the Smithsonian - but was stolen. I slept through all that but sure am glad to know about it now.

There's no index in this, so you can't look up any nouns, but after reading the whole thing, I think I understand why Iris didn't do an index. The story, the saga, is greater than its individual parts and greater than the sum of its parts.

Says Keltz, "We were the critical mass that could change the direction of our capitalistic society" and, "...we were unafraid of our inconsistencies, a people who embraced paradox as the slippery road to a glorious future."

Friends who have this scrapbook have told me that they skipped around, reading only about themselves and their friends, but I recommend doing as the White King advises. "Begin at the beginning; go right on until you come to the end; then stop." That way, you know what to go back to and look at again - photos, drawings, dialogue - whatever. Even if you don't know a single person, place or idea in this book, I believe the work stands on its own merits as a valuable historical chronicle. Sounds like marbles rolling, doesn't it? Rolling through this scrapbook, this album, this experience. Splendid stuff.

[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous photos and oral histories
Review: As a veteran of communal life in the 60's, I truly appreciate the authenticity--and pure fun--of Iris Keltz's book. The photos, articles, memoirs, and hippie artwork take you right to the spirit of the times. What a great trip!!

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous photos and oral histories
Review: As a veteran of communal life in the 60's, I truly appreciate the authenticity--and pure fun--of Iris Keltz's book. The photos, articles, memoirs, and hippie artwork take you right to the spirit of the times. What a great trip!!

Rating:
Summary: My Mum would approve
Review: I bought this book to understand where my mum is coming from when she speaks, acts and walks five dogs down the road. I picked it up in Taos New Mexico on a pilgramage there. It is a wonderful book with lots of different views throughout in the form of interviews/essays. The pictures are great and the author even includes old menus and health posters from the time. She tells it like it is and includes the flaws of the movement as well as the beauty that was there. Buy it for the coffee table.

Rating:
Summary: My Mum would approve
Review: I bought this book to understand where my mum is coming from when she speaks, acts and walks five dogs down the road. I picked it up in Taos New Mexico on a pilgramage there. It is a wonderful book with lots of different views throughout in the form of interviews/essays. The pictures are great and the author even includes old menus and health posters from the time. She tells it like it is and includes the flaws of the movement as well as the beauty that was there. Buy it for the coffee table.

Rating:
Summary: Near and Far from me now.
Review: My heart soared when I saw the cover of this book. Yes, I was drawn to communal life in Taos back in the late sixties and early seventies. I lived with the Family. I still dream of going home to the Family. Yes, this book is true and accurate - as much as a memory can be. There is always more, like the night the Indians turned the hot springs cold. This book is wonderful archive of this time and place. Thanks Iris for helping me remember a time when belonging was more important than haveing.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding biographical narrative of 60s counter-culture.
Review: Scrapbook Of A Taos Hippie is a biographical narrative of the some of the agrarian hippies of the 60's who attempted to live the Aquarian Age in Taos. The author's memoirs contain 3 years of colorful experiences. How did the dream play out? In the end, did practicality supersede idealism? What were the chief obstacles? Why was Taos important? You will be left with more questions after you arrive at the author's answers to these. Many black and white photos and topical news sources' stories decorate this album-like book. The author says she wrote it in response to her children's request to tell them about her hippie days. Scrapbook Of A Taos Hippie is more than a nostalgic look at a time and life now past. It captures the bitter poignancy of the day. It will appeal to specialized interests audiences.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer