Wild Child: Growing Up in the Counterculture

by Chelsea Cain

Tofu casseroles, communes, clothing-optional kindergarten, antiwar protests - these are just a few of the hallmarks of a counterculture childhood. What became of kids who had been denied meat, exposed to free love, and given nouns for names? In Wild Child, daughters of the hippie generation speak about the legacy of their childhoods. The writers present a rearview mirror to contemporary culture; with an eye on the past they remind us that there is more than one path through the present. Contributors include Lisa Michaels (Split) and Ariel Gore (Hip Mama).

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Memoir, Essays, Feminism, Womens, Counter Culture

213 pages, Paperback

First published October 26, 1999

About the author

Chelsea Cain is the New York Times bestselling author of the Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell thrillers Heartsick, Sweetheart, Evil at Heart, The Night Season, Kill You Twice, and Let Me Go. Her next book One Kick (August, 2014) will be the first in her Kick Lannigan thriller series. Her book Heartsick was named one of the best 100 thrillers ever written by NPR, and Heartsick and Sweetheart were named among Stephen King's Top Ten Books of the Year. Her books have been featured on HBO's True Blood and on ABC's Castle. Cain lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and daughter.

Reviews

[Nina Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bittersweet, honest, and sometimes painful accounts of what life was like being raised in the hippie communes of the 60's and 70's. I'm glad I wasn't! One thing that stands out despite the questionable lifestyle these children were exposed to is the affection with which most of the essays are written. They are able to laugh (at some of it) and lovingly poke fun at their off beat parents, knowing that their life as adults had to take a better direction. As one of them put it, when you've already lived as a nonconformist, that leaves no direction to go but toward conformity. These little girls grew into educated, talented young women. Some casually mention therapy, to which I'm not surprised. I give them credit for sharing their stories, both funny and sad. I really enjoyed the essays.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short essays by women whose parents were hippies in the groovy days of free love and moving back to the land or onto the commune. Liked the book but found many of the stories bittersweet and a couple downright painful. Some of the parents, in their enthusiam for tuning out, turning on and grooving to their own beat, abdicated their responsibilities as adults and parents. Getting high, making groat muffins and exploring love with many partners wasn't always compatible with raising children safely. I don't just mean having balanced meals, clean underwear and a bedtime when I talk about safety. Some of these parents didn't protect their children from predators. Many of the authors loved the counterculture and the freedom of their childhood, others were damaged by it.
All in all a fascinating look into a childhoods so diametrically opposed to my own. I am a contemporary of many of these women, but our childhoods could not have been more different. I salute them for their beautifully told stories.

[Jyoti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great anthology for any woman who was a child of the '60's/70's counterculture. I have always felt that I was extremely lucky, yet equally cursed, to have such 'out-there' parents growing up. I felt like such an outsider, but now appreciate more the perspective on life growing up outside the norm gave me. This anthology articulated those same tensions. Reflective, introspective, funny, touching and with a certain sense of pride at being brought up by hippies, these narratives helped me feel more connected with others who had a similar upbringing to me, and helped me see where the compassion, rebellion and restlessness that continues to keep me living outside the norm comes from.

My mother-in-law picked up this book while staying with my hubby and I and I think it helped her understand me a bit better too!!

[Laurel-Rain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing captures the spirit of a social movement more than stories told in the voices of those who were there. And in these essays from "girlhoods in the counterculture," we can visualize what it was like and hear the songs and the beat of this unique subculture.

With a foreword by Moon Zappa and essays from various daughters of the "hippie" movement, such as Chelsea Cain, Rain Grimes, Diane B. Sigman, River Light, and others...we can almost experience their lives along with them.

In the case of Chelsea Cain, she had the opportunity to revisit that time period by attending an event touted as one of the last bastions of sixties-style counterculture years later: the Rainbow Gathering. What she discovered, of course, is that you can't really go back.

This is what she shared in her story:

"In 1972, I was a naked flower baby on a farm commune in Iowa. My mother spent that summer sanding sixty years of thick white paint off the kitchen window frames...By fall the four frames were natural wood again and she began another project: sewing my father a green felt Robin Hood shirt (I have pictures of him smiling sheepishly in it). My parents were both on the run: my mother from society's expectations for women at the time, my father from the draft and the war machine. My memories of this period are pure and sweet: love and music, dogs and garden vegetables, sunshine and songs....

She describes occasionally meeting someone named "Summer" or "Star," and after an exchange of words that identify a common "hippie" childhood, knowing right away that there is some basic part of each other, some true thing that connects them.

She goes on to say: "When I first heard about the Gathering, I expected it to be like that—a big family reunion, a living memory—something like those half-remembered evenings listening to the Dead through kitchen speakers on that Iowa farmhouse porch.

"But it wasn't like that at all. Like so many holidays, the celebration itself has evolved into a celebration of a celebration rather than anything specific." She details how many of the people who attended were not part of the core group from that long ago time. They were just there to party.

The other women share similar experiences, but mostly we can see how each woman's unique situation formed her into the person she is today, with the core values born in a unique time in history.

And no matter what each woman's story is, the bonds of that time connect them and inform their lives in the present.

I can relate to some of the stories in "Wild Child: Girlhoods in the Counterculture," especially the ones about people living the "counterculture" lifestyle in suburban homes, rather than on communes, with food coops and organic gardening to show our ideals. Shared values connect us all, despite the surface differences in how these values are expressed.

I enjoyed reading and feeling the beat of a time that is no more, but that will always be a part of me. For me, this was a five star read.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in a very short time, enthralled with all the differing monologues which ultimately spoke of the unifying themes surrounding adult women reared in an environment without boundaries. It's interesting to see how these girls responded. Either they themselves still live today with the inability to exert some sense of control over their lives/choices or there ends up being *too* much restriction and thus stifling any even normal experiences these girls so deserve. I appreciated this book for its lessons and exposure. I also felt at times during reading their stories that the parents weren't just "hippies" so much as they basically neglected their children and used the hippie label to justify some of their actions (MISactions).

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short quick read, I liked this book. What's it like to have hippie parents, to grow up with extreme permissiveness (is that an oxymoron?)? In the pieces in this edited collection, the answer seems to depend on the parents and the child--sometimes it's wonderful to be so free, sometimes it's crippling to have nothing to rebel against. I liked reading the details about what it was really like back then (most of the women contributors are about my age, born in the early 70s): having no running water, being born on the kitchen table, having other kids mock your lunch, knowing words and concepts that most consider inappropriate in a kid, smoking pot with your folks. One note--this is not by Moon Unit Zappa, rather, she wrote the Forward. The editor is Chelsea Cain.

[Starr Phoenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not love this book more, being a hippy kid myself. Talk about reading something that made me feel NORMAL! lol. And if you weren't raised on sprouts and tempeh, read it anyway bc it's funny and interesting and you'll learn something. :)

[Nicolette Froelicher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved Loved Loved Loved Loved this book!!!!!! I will always remember this book the rest of my life. I have always been interested in the 60's 70's life and hippies and communes and that whole culture. I found the further I read how actually my childhood was somewhat relatable even though I was born in the early 80's and grew up in the 90's. I think it has to do with being born to a father who was in his 20's and 30's during the 60's and 70's and a mother who was a teenager and lived most of her 20's in the 70's and they were both kind of free spirited, liberal, artistic people to a point and feminist well my mom was feminist and still is you could say But they were also people of balance. I got to experience part of this culture but with balance and I was disciplined and my parents where not irresponsible when it came to me and how they raised me and all our lives together. I read some parts in this book and it was like wow I knew about this same thing or stuff at a young age too or noticed the same thing going on in my house too growing up. I just loved this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How many times can I say I loved this book LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am actually kind of sad that I am done reading this book.

[Misti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book at random from a shelf on the library, and overall, I wasn't disappointed.

A nice selection of essays from the daughters of women who grew up defying expectations. These girls have been lonely, lost, without boundaries, and the majority of essays have a strong focus on how they wish there had been more boundaries in their lives, or particularly poignant memories. This book provides some nice insight into the unstable foundations of these women's lives. Overall, a lot of interesting and wonderful stories, though a few tend to plod. Since this is more of an anthology, though, you can skip those which don't speak to you.

[Elizabeth Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this quick group of mostly well written essays on growing up female in the counterculture. Since my parents are, well, not the counterculture. I related most to the essay about the fascinating hippie neighbors. Kind of a wish-fulfillment read for me-- what if my parents were hippies-- but also a good reminder that your childhood can screw you up and inspire you pretty much no matter what, that it is always a mixed bag whether dinner is tofu or pot roast.

[Lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Chelsea Cain’s memoir, Dharma Girl, and I ordered this book assuming it was more about her childhood at the commune. She didn’t actually write this, she edited and wrote a piece for the book. It’s a compilation of stories by women who were girls during the counterculture and their experiences. Everyone romanticizes those times, myself included, but some of these stories break your heart with the realization that many parents were so much involved in their own trips and raising their consciousness that they lost all interest in raising their children. Some of them were put into terrible situations due to a lack of supervision. Other stories were pleasant and wonderful to read.
Overall, it’s a great mix of stories and writers.
I’ve read it twice, and it will definitely read it again and again.

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like all collections, this one was a little spotty. On balance I adored it and the way it evoked my childhood, at least in parts. I thought Cain's piece was great, it was my favorite. Her name on the cover is what led me to pick the book up.

I enjoyed seeing how these women, most of 'em born within 10 years of me, felt about their childhoods from the perspective of grown women. I'd like to see a follow-up, as this came out in 1999.

[Barbara Justice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wild Child was a fascinating look at life lived outside the norms of society through the eyes of the women who were raised within the counterculture movement. I've always had a fascination with the counterculture and commune lifestyle, and felt that I was able to learn about it first-hand through this book. The foreword by Moon Zappa was particularly interesting, and set the tone for the rest of the essays in the book.

[Staci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Although I was not raised by hippies or in the counterculture, I could still relate to the girlhoods in this book. It was fun, moving and challenges the idealistic views I have had about that era. It was also cool to see the bios of the contributors in the back of the book and compare them to the childhoods they revealed to the reader.

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely collection of counterculture snapshots. Each writer's story gives a witty, intelligent and even poignant account of the ups and downs of growing up in an alternative, "hippie" environment. I highly recommend this collection to bohemian's and non-bohemians alike!

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oopsie. Had a brain lapse yesterday and wrote a review of Cain's first book under this entry. This is also a favorite (it is, I swear) as it is a great escape read. One copy available on Gutenberg's books.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting and insightful look at the lives of young women who were born and raised in the hippie counterculture. My favorites were the essays by Chelsea Cain and Cecily Schmidt, but all of the stories are thought-provoking, revealing, and in some cases, quite startling.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course, I'm biased. My essay, "Strange and Wonderful," appears in this book about growing up in the '70s.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

My essay, "Strange and Wonderful," appears in this anthology.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutley loved this book! I related to just about every hippie like childhood story. One of my favorites for sure. It was nice to read that I am not alone in my childhood weirdness.

[Kathryn Dysart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful stories. I liked best the ones in which the daughters had come to peace with thir parents best intentions.

[Amanda Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

The introduction by Moon Unit was, to me, among the most compelling pieces.

[Alex Kuhn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I keep coming back to this book. I wish I could read it for the *first* time again

[Julie Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compilation of essays on a topic I find fascinating. All well-written, the pieces reflect a spectrum of ideas about the writers' hippie childhoods. The social experiments of raising children in the counterculture do not show consistent results--all of these girls grew up to be....all different from each other and unique, just like everyone else. I guess I expected there to be more negative responses, but this was a mixed bag. Honest and beautiful essays.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Elizabeth She's story was interesting.

[Zaira · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Gabriella Mastrelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A varied and sentimental anthology.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the essays were very poignant, but there are definitely some misses and pieces that don't contribute much to the discussion. It's a fast read though, and overall worth it.

[Jamie Wenger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Varied and compelling.

[Emily C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining!