"Where the Hippies are"

If it’s the holidays it must mean my annual shopping trip to Yellow Springs.

I used come here more frequently when I first moved from California, but now maybe just once or twice a year.

Yellow Springs is known in the Dayton area as the place “where the hippies are”, which annoys me whenever I hear people say that..

The hippies no-doubt were in Yellow Springs. In 1970.

We’re in 2007.

Hello?

Yellow Springs is akin to certain northern California communities, like Nevada City, Bolinas, Tomales, Booneville, Guerneville, Mendocino, perhaps Calistoga, perhaps even Davis, that were once locales for the 1960s counterculture, but have beyond that, in some cases becoming somewhat upscale enclaves for whom David Brooks calls “bourgouis bohemians” (AKA The BoBos).

But Yellow Springs is (was?) a college town, too, the college being the famous (albeit small) Antioch, which drew a student body and (I’m guessing) faculty hip to whatever countercultural scene was current, so the “alternative” aspect of the community was always being refreshed and updated.

I guess folks in the rest of the Dayton area have no context for all this, thus it is all “hippie” to them.



Yellow Springs also draws on newcomers to the area from more progressive and open-minded parts of the USA, who go into culture shock at first encounter with Southwest Ohio and look to Yellow Springs as an oasis of sorts.

I was one of those newcomers. I came very close to moving to Yellow Springs. In fact the ‘Springs was my first choice as a place to live. For various reasons I ended up in Washington Township, which means the “Springs became very out-of-the-way for me. As time wore on I visited to Yellow Springs less and less


Though I drew comparisons with certain country towns in Northern California Yellow Springs also reminds me of Louisville. If one can imagine an urban neighborhood infused with the spirit of Yellow Springs one would have the Louisville neighborhoods of Clifton, Crescent Hill, and the various neighborhoods collectively known as The Highlands (though Louisville is a bit more politically avant-garde, and Yellow Springs is more new-agey).

Yellow Springs’ cultural aura makes extends beyond the village, particularly in the local music scene. Some of my favorite music acts (The Professors, Dawn Cooksey, The Corndaddies) are or were based in Yellow Springs, and there is of course WYSO 91.3 FM, which helps make life in the Dayton region bearable. The bar/restaurant Peach's Grill is turning out to be one of the better live music venues in the area, giving Canal Street Tavern a good run for the money in the bands it books

One can also talk about The Winds and the Little Art, particularly The Winds, which operates at California levels of gastronomic innovation and quality

Given the recent issues with Antioch one wonders if Yellow Springs will retain its character. I think it will, as long as there is a trickle of in-migrants to the Dayton region from outside of Ohio who appreciate what the community has to offer and relocate there.