alright, true... i relished in the polish heritage in my last post. i do feel that wilno is the most beautiful place, and i know that polish culture keeps that place alive. but the polish people aren't the only 'group' in town.
there also exists a huge population of hippies ('hippehs' if you're polish) in wilno and surrounding area. they come primarily from two sources:
1. american draft dodgers who fled as far up north as their arses would take them during the vietnam war.
2. city kids who read about the hippies and the communes going on up north that decided to throw it all away and live off the land in a seriously natural way.
so this brings me to why i blogged about wilno in the first place and why i've EVER been. eli's family (ie his now divorced parents) belonged to the latter group of hippies who came from Toronto to live different. my mother-in-law said she read an article about the communes in "the globe and mail" and they drove up to find them. long story short, they bought a farm with no insulation or running water and started a life.
if you asked eli, he'd tell you that there exists a feud between the 'polaks' and the 'hippehs', as i'm sure you can imagine, the two ways of life are quite different, both feeling a sense of tie to the land itself as well.
i can listen to eli talk about living up north as a child for hours and hours. some highlights:
1. a man named gary beckett who literally hangs out in a hole he dug in the ground. the local hippie kids would head on over to gary's to 'jam' with him on his home-made or found instruments. i know, right?
2. 'the bus', a place where people LIVED. an actual bus... and 'the bus' was an address, like, "i live in the bus". "oh yea, the bus". when people weren't riding their bikes around the world, they made a homestead on the bus. ever seen "into the wild"? yea, a bus like that.
3. there were rules! like, in one household of a friend of eli's, there was to be NO pot smoking until you were at least 13.
4. eli has seen every single mother of his friends naked because THAT's how people hang out some times.
5. eli attended an 'alternative' school where you practiced self-guided learning (not unlike montessory, which i attended), but you were taught 'crafts' from serious artisans and masters of the craft because they fled their universities and studios to live off the land and pass on their skill. writing, glass blowing, sculpture, print-making... you name it. now THAT'S amazing.
sunday night we attended a wedding party out in the bush of one of eli's best old friends' little brothers. we hiked up to the party spot, complete with a DJ hut (powered by Mac), and bails of hay circled around a fire. they were playing regae and Sam wanted to DANCE. he went into the hut and danced his face off with Margaret, the resident interpretive dance lady. while it's not something i ever would have imagined my child would be doing, i enjoyed watching him have so much fun, dancing with people who felt the music like he did, uninhibited. it was surreal, but i could see the appeal.
things have changed. while morning glory is still a running commune, most of the hippies have moved back to the city, but the truly committed or the ones truly in love with the land stayed behind and found ways to make money.
in fact, i witnessed polaks and hippehs at the same party, talking about the Ohm ceremony as well as the log-house building business. that's the neatest part, really. :)
my baby fits right in!
