Inna Gadda d'Avoda

by Jason M. Rubin

Can you picture a time in Avoda's past when campers and staff wore tie-dyed t-shirts, sported long hair, and listened to rock bands with strange names that jammed endlessly in a swirling haze of free-form ecstasy?

Well, sure, that stuff was happening last summer, but I'm talking about the mid-to-late 1960s. That was a pretty far out time period, to use the vernacular of the day. A whole lotta stuff was going on in the country and the world, and if you think Avoda was some kind of untouched oasis for squares, you're wrong. If you weren't there, I think you'll find it very interesting. And if you were there, well, you might just need a reminder.

Perhaps the "high" point of hippiedom in America was 1967, the "summer of love." In New England, all eyes and ears were on the pennant race. It was the year of the "Impossible Dream," and if the Beatles were bigger than G-d (Lennon said it, not me), then Yaz was bigger than…than…well, than G-d, too (bad year for the Big Guy, I guess). The Red Sox wouldn't clinch until the last game of the season, in September, by which time Avodians were already back in school and thinking about next summer. But in the meantime, the world was turning psychedelic, and Avoda was, too.

The hippie culture spawned a number of interesting characters, like Abbie Hoffman and Wavy Gravy. Avoda had some, too. One was a guy named Paul Cohen (current whereabouts unknown). Steven Woolf '67 and Jerry Hill '68 recall that Paul made quite a splash during a camp trip to the Newport Folk Festival (can you dig that?). They're not clear as to whether it was 1966 or 1967, but they do remember that Paul, guitar in hand, sat on the ground and claimed he was Rheinhard Brand, the son of folksinger Oscar Brand (a contemporary of Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly). According to Steven, "At first, there was a small crowd around Paul, mostly Avodians, but soon it grew to include others until he had quite a gathering listening to his musings, guitar strumming, and songs, all convinced they were listening to a folk legend in the making."

Another interesting trip was to the Cape Cod Melody Tent around 1968 to see Hair during its original run. A cool show, sure, but remember: it featured a very controversial nude scene. This clearly wasn't Eisenhower-era Avoda.

A popular night-off destination for staff was Provincetown, which in those days, Jerry says, was quite a hippietown, full of counter-cultural stores and coffeehouses. It was "like a little Haight-Ashbury," he notes. The preferred mode of transportation was one's thumb. Hitchhiking was a very popular way of getting around back then. Many times, staff would stop off in Wellfleet on the way to P-Town to climb the dunes and try racing to the seashore without wiping out.

Of course, it wasn't all fun and games. Jerry remembers the staff gathered in the Library listening to the draft lottery (for the war, not the NBA) on TV or radio in either 1969 or 1970. He distinctly recalls seeing Marvin "The Gazelle" Picon walking back to his bunk - in tears, because he had a low number and was likely going to have to go to Vietnam.

No question, the times they were a-changing and they stayed that way for a while. My first year at Avoda was 1973 and there were still lots of long-haired counselors and dressers full of tie-dyes. It seems like a long time ago but then again, all that stuff is back in style now. Jam bands are all the rage, sideburns are getting longer, and all you can really say looking back is: what a long, strange trip it's been. But after all, it's Avoda, where we were all just "lookin' for fun and feelin' groovy."