the outsiders
Russell Petherbridge HIPPIE
Us post-war kids in the 1960s were growing up with the first sight of freedom. The counterculture was raising its head – we were seeing through everything that had come before.
Back then, it was expected you’d just fit in. Church was still a very big thing, and job-wise, you had to climb the ladder, shake the right hands, do the right thing. There was no dole, no dropouts. Everybody worked – except the wives, of course. It was just accepted. But we wanted to smash those values. My parents were so straitlaced, the only way I could have any support and break out was if I got married. So, my partner and I married when we were 20. The last thing I did for my parents was shave for my wedding day.
When I was in university studying civil engineering, I got called up to fight in the Vietnam War. I was unable to accept the responsibility of fighting for a foreign country on foreign shores – it was appalling. I marched in those big anti-Vietnam war protests, and it felt powerful. I got a medical discharge, much to my parents’ disbelief, because I was actually fit
