HUTCHENS, Ted (b. 1953) | Oral History

HUTCHENS, Ted (b. 1953)

Profession: Businessman

Oral Histories

Businessman. His experiences while attending the Texas International Pop Festival, Lewisville, Texas, August 30-September 1, 1969. Conflicts with his parents about the counterculture of the 1960s; his youth in Springfield, Missouri; his high school experiences and friends; his attractions to the counterculture; influence of the Beatles and the “British Invasion” on the music of the Sixties; running away from home ten times; his decision to attend the Texas International Pop Festival; activities occurring at the “free stage;” use of drugs and his ‘bad trip’ at the festival; activities of the Hog Farm; skinny-dipping in Lake Dallas; “Wavy Gravy”; his experiences with James (“Herman”) Eckstein after the festival; on the road from Texas to Colorado to California; finding a “crash pad” in San Francisco; his arrest for vagrancy in San Francisco and his return to Springfield, October, 1969; his release from a hospital psychiatric ward and running away to Phoenix; attendance at the Altamont Pop Festival near San Francisco, December 6, 1969; his return to the San Francisco street life; attending concerts at the Fillmore West; his return to Springfield with his brother after being robbed at gunpoint in the summer of 1970; taking and selling drugs in Springfield; contracting Hepatitis C from using needles; his leaving the drug scene and obtaining his high school diploma; his abuse of alcohol and turning to Alcoholics Anonymous.
Date of Interview: November 28, 2003

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