Baby Boomers and California
In the late 1960s the baby-boom generation reached draft age, and many risked arrest to oppose the war in Vietnam. There were numerous demonstrations and strikes, most famously on the prestigious Berkeley campus of the University of California, across the bay from San Francisco. In 1965, race riots erupted in Watts, in the South-Central area of Los Angeles. The hippie riots on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles were also immortalized by the Buffalo Springfield in “For What It’s Worth.” (1966). Some commentators predicted revolution. Then the federal government promised to withdraw from the Vietnam War, which at last happened in 1974. The radical political movements, having achieved a large part of their aim, lost members and funding.
California still was a land of free spirits, open hearts, easy-going living. Popular music of the period bore titles such as “California Girls”, “California Dreamin’”, “San Francisco”, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” and “Hotel California”. These reflected the Californian promise of easy living in a paradisiacal climate.
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