“People are my bag,” summed up a Desert Sun School counsellor’s lifestyle in a 1972 Town Crier. He is shown sporting longish hair and talking with a long-haired student petting an equally long-haired dog.

And throughout the 1970s, the youth of that era and the older generation are in stark contrast to each other as the TC obviously is reflecting the macrame, hippy scene embracing the Hill while covering the litany of traditional pancake breakfasts, and club barbecues and rummage sales.

I’ve heard the stories over the years of Timothy Leary’s LSD events in Idyllwild and Garner Valley, and how some Idyllwilders clashed heavily with the hippy movement here. But all that happened decades ago, mirroring the happenings the rest of the country experienced. And now Idyllwild reflects the lifestyles of people throughout the country — from conservative to liberal lifestyles,  but mostly our community is pretty solid and law-abiding, even for some of the “hippies” still sprinkled here and there.

Then Floyd Landis, the infamous Tour de France winner of 2006, bought a home in Pine Cove in 2007. He lost the home to the bank and it was sold in early 2012.

But apparently, while none of us were watching, Idyllwild returned to the 1970s during those five years, according to the Oct. 8, 2013, Wall Street Journal. Or maybe according to Landis, it’s not clear.

Thanks to Walter Parks and Don Giger for letting me know about this in the story about Lance Armstrong and Landis’ notorious doping.

I’ll say no more, just read:

“Since [Landis’] troubles began, he had broken up with his wife and moved to a small cabin in Idyllwild, a remote town in the mountains of Southern California whose residents included hippies, gun-toting survivalists and people living on the fringes of society.”

Becky Clark, Editor