Customer Reviews

Scrapbook of a Taos Hippie: Tribal Tales from the Heart of a Cultural Revolution

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About half way through this book, I got the bright idea of listing all the people mentioned in it that I knew personally, had met, or knew of. When the number reached 50, I stopped counting. It's easier to count the people in it that I DON'T know - on the fingers of one hand. Three of my oldest and dearest friends are featured here, one pictured on the cover. So I can't be unbiased and objective about these "tribal tales from the heart of a cultural revolution." I've lived them and loved them, so for me, it's a manifesto.

It enters you into a movie of life in those days around Taos. A rainbow of different voices speak. And the voiceover of the narrator is sure and true. Most delightful to me was remembering things I'd all but forgotten - like the Oriental Blue Streaks (a band), Da Nahazli (a hip school), Old Martinez Hall (a place, and the summer solstice at New Buffalo (a happening). Here in these pages, I've found people and places I haven't thought about for a long time - Feather, Preacher, Pabla, Teddy the Juggler, Hotsy Totsy, the Stragecoach Hot Springs, the General Store, peyote meetings on the mesa, Little Joe and Henry Gomez. It all comes back in color and glory and story and song, and it's food for the heart.

"I was always on the hunt for a mythological explanation of the world," says Keltz. "We were reverting to an old form - tribalism - but in a very new way. We would not be a tribe because of lineage, race, language, or tradition. We were a rainbow of people becoming a tribe because we had a collective belief in an alternative to materialism, greed, military power and an unpopular war fought using our brothers, schoolmates and boyfriends."

Not that there weren't some down times, hard times, foolish mistakes and even dangerous blunders. The author makes that clear. We were feeling our way, making it up as we went along. It was colored funny and fun and scary and serious. We knew that the only way to change the world was to change ourselves first. And we did that. None of us who lived through those times are the same people today.

I did catch some inaccuracies - but those are all in the memories of individual voices here. None of them are egregious errors or deliberate slights or misrepresentations as those often found in other chronicles of this time. Somebody said, "If you remember the '60s, you weren't there."

When you're living the life from day to day, it can seem ordinary. You chop wood and haul water, you cook oatmeal for the kids, you gather watercress and rose hips by the rio, but when you step into the world of this book, and the author does her magic for you, the patina of years transforms it into a whole round thing - like a soap bubble in the sun.

I learned a lot about what I'd missed - the hippie New Mexico oracle, "Fountain of Light" and the hippie-made Bicentennial silver and gold concha belt that was worth many thousands (but priceless really) and destined for the Bicentennial 1978 exhibit at the Smithsonian - but was stolen. I slept through all that but sure am glad to know about it now.

There's no index in this, so you can't look up any nouns, but after reading the whole thing, I think I understand why Iris didn't do an index. The story, the saga, is greater than its individual parts and greater than the sum of its parts.

Says Keltz, "We were the critical mass that could change the direction of our capitalistic society" and, "...we were unafraid of our inconsistencies, a people who embraced paradox as the slippery road to a glorious future."

Friends who have this scrapbook have told me that they skipped around, reading only about themselves and their friends, but I recommend doing as the White King advises. "Begin at the beginning; go right on until you come to the end; then stop." That way, you know what to go back to and look at again - photos, drawings, dialogue - whatever. Even if you don't know a single person, place or idea in this book, I believe the work stands on its own merits as a valuable historical chronicle. Sounds like marbles rolling, doesn't it? Rolling through this scrapbook, this album, this experience. Splendid stuff.

pamhan99@aol.com

As a veteran of communal life in the 60's, I truly appreciate the authenticity--and pure fun--of Iris Keltz's book. The photos, articles, memoirs, and hippie artwork take you right to the spirit of the times. What a great trip!!

My heart soared when I saw the cover of this book. Yes, I was drawn to communal life in Taos back in the late sixties and early seventies. I lived with the Family. I still dream of going home to the Family. Yes, this book is true and accurate - as much as a memory can be. There is always more, like the night the Indians turned the hot springs cold. This book is wonderful archive of this time and place. Thanks Iris for helping me remember a time when belonging was more important than haveing.

I bought this book to understand where my mum is coming from when she speaks, acts and walks five dogs down the road. I picked it up in Taos New Mexico on a pilgramage there. It is a wonderful book with lots of different views throughout in the form of interviews/essays. The pictures are great and the author even includes old menus and health posters from the time. She tells it like it is and includes the flaws of the movement as well as the beauty that was there. Buy it for the coffee table.

Scrapbook Of A Taos Hippie is a biographical narrative of the some of the agrarian hippies of the 60's who attempted to live the Aquarian Age in Taos. The author's memoirs contain 3 years of colorful experiences. How did the dream play out? In the end, did practicality supersede idealism? What were the chief obstacles? Why was Taos important? You will be left with more questions after you arrive at the author's answers to these. Many black and white photos and topical news sources' stories decorate this album-like book. The author says she wrote it in response to her children's request to tell them about her hippie days. Scrapbook Of A Taos Hippie is more than a nostalgic look at a time and life now past. It captures the bitter poignancy of the day. It will appeal to specialized interests audiences.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

I bought this book to understand and honor the pasts of a few friends of mine who lived at New Buffalo. I was more than rewarded and I recommend to anyone to read it. It paints a vivid beautiful picture of a unique time and place and honors the participants while doing so. As a child of conservative parents in the '70's my life was removed from but parallel to all that Iris Kelz describes. Her words allow a bit of the magic and wisdom from the era to influence me and anyone who picks up the book.

This is a must read for anyone interested in the wonderful spontaneous combustion of the `60's and beyond.
Even for those of us who lived it!
I dropped out of school at 17 and for a brief time in the spring of 1969 I entered the scene in Taos, so some parts of this book were especially interesting to me. Here for the first time I have a better overview of all the different communities along with much background that I didn't know at the time, jarring my memory and bringing it back into focus.
I do wish there was more on the "Family" in Rancho, AKA the "Sound Current Ranch" Tribe who opened the Macrobiotic Restaurant in Taos. Joe Sage ran the show and he also was a driving force to open the free health clinic in town and I was thrilled to find photos of both of these establishments in this book. Also an account by Joe of the shooting affray when certain locals shot at our van and destroyed the just completed hand painted murals painted on the restaurant windows.
Some of Charlie's girls passed through from California and I didn't make the connection to what they told me until after the Tate killings and Manson trial.
No, it wasn't all peace and love, was it? Life is often messy and confusing but well worth the trip and the price of admission!
"Little Joe", Joanne, Tike and her infant son Zohn do I remember most fondly. Where are you all now and where is my time machine parked? We need to write yet another book to fill in more blanks...

Pictures on every page and lots of stories told by key players of what it was like to live in various NM communes. Well written and absolutely fascinating.

I've always been extremely interested in the Aquarian age of the hippies and the idealism of a commune. I feel like I would have fit into the 60s more than modern-day; awesomely this book brought me right into the lives of the people at Taos. Scrapbook of a Taos Hippie was insightful and fun, it's something that you can pick up, flip to a random page, and find something interesting to read. I highly suggest it - for any age.

I was fortunate to have been a part of the Taos Learning Center during it's incubation period. Our family pitched the first tents on the hill and got a first hand view as the community of people came together to form TLC.

We got to participate in the creation of "The Hole" working beside the Ex Con who showed us how to choose and lay the rocks for the footer walls. Rode with Capt. Larry in the ancient truck up the steep mountain to gather the rocks and timber that would make up the Latias and Vigas in the house and growhole.

We helped the "Swiss Indian" take down his giant Tipi and move it from the summer meadow to the Hill". He left it as a gift to the school. It became the focal point of the growing amount of tents, gypsy wagons, busses and smaller tipis that eventually surrounded it and became the "Hill Community"

These are just a couple of stories from that time that would forever have a profound effect on my life and those I traveled with


Iris, THANKS for creating words and photos in a book that I can share with my children and Grandchildren. Peace & Love, The Hawk a TLC Occupant from August thru December 1972,