Are You Hip?

This will be the last of the excerpts from my unpublished children's book, One Strange World.   (At least for awhile.)  Hope you have enjoyed some of the nonsense. I'll close with a page about a hippie who doesn't smoke weed.  I've been preaching that message to my kids for decades now . . . just say "no" to drugs.  Must have worked.  My daughter won't even take an aspirin and my son is a health food junkie and workout nut (he begins lifting at midnight, and sometimes we work out together and have a pile of protein afterwards).  

All you kids out there, listen to your parents!  Don't get into illegal drugs or prescription painkillers or alcohol.  Get into the legal stuff like caffeine and black licorice and the Netti Pot.  You want to clear your head, do it over the sink or vomit in the backyard . . . old school.

My Hippie Friend

I  met a hippie
Along the road.
He carried a backpack.
He walked pigeon-toed.
He said, "Groovy, man!"
"Dig it, baby!" and "Cool!"
And I do believe
He he had dropped out of school.
His hair was long,
His clothes were bright,
His language was hip,
But he was polite.
He didn't smoke grass.
He didn't get high.
He played funky music,
Then he said, "Goodbye."
And when he left,
Away he strode,
And kept on hipping
On down the road.