Paul Bieniek
pbb001@marietta.edu
Marietta College is known for many things: championship sports teams, a world-class petroleum engineering program, Doo Dah Day, and a beautiful campus among them. But the first thing people think of when they hear “Marietta College”, in all corners of the country and indeed the world, is undoubtedly the vibrant, actively-passive, flower-sniffing, tree-hugging, free-loving, drum-circling, bonfire-burning hippie community that descends upon the mid-Ohio Valley every August.
Studio art major Sunshine Meadows has really taken to the school’s hippie life.
“Every one is, like, so groovy here,” Sunshine, whose given name is Mary, said. “Thursday night drum circle in Herman Bowl is definitely the biggest blast we have. It’s a total gas.”
She added that the daily “circle of love” protests around Brown are “pretty far out too.”
“One time, a petro major came up to me and told me to please excuse myself, so I told him to excuse himself from destroying the earth. I felt so radical and empowered!”
At this point the interview was cut off as Sunshine remarked she “had to blow.”
“Brother Rainbow and I are gonna go to Qdoba for some gut wadding, then we’ll probably smoke some grass… and then I guess we’ll need some more gut wadding,” she noted.
Later reached for comment by phone, Rainbow exclaimed, “I’M SO BAKED RIGHT NOW,” and hung up.
Philosophy major Peaceful Revolution leads meditation and discussion “love groups” every Tuesday evening.
“We almost always address the same central question ‘What is life, man?’” he said.
“We also talk about why love is awesome.”
Peaceful also claimed they try not to make the meetings “a total bummer,” so they make sure to “pass some smoke.”
He additionally always invites that “establishment-girl” who nevertheless totally “lights his fire.” She has yet to attend a meeting.
Dr. Grace Leary, director of Peace Studies, was a student when the first flower-painted Volkswagen’s arrived on campus.
“Ah, August of ’68. That was a very special time for me… for us,” she recalled. “We would just sit with the van back doors open blasting ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ all afternoon. Every now and then we would rouse ourselves to viciously make out with whomever was sitting closest by. The Marietta community was totally dumbfounded by us. When they started organizing a militia, we decided it was time to split.”
According to Grace, the pioneering hippies sought refuge in rural Washington County for a month before the college assured the city that they would keep an eye on the “anti-war communist filth.”
“Since then, the hippie community has been a mainstay on campus. They’ve really contributed to Marietta’s image as an arts-oriented institution that embraces abstract thinking,” Grace said.
“When you think Marietta-you think liberal arts, with an emphasis on the art. And that’s thanks to the hippies.”
At press time, Marietta’s hippies were preparing to stare for at least four hours at that totally trippy, ridiculously far-out mural behind the stage in the Gathering Place.
