#4 "Me and You and a Surfboard named Boo"

In the Summer of ’69, The Woodstock Festival -which was billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music" rocked every American hippy’s worldview. My mama, Annie, was no exception even though she never made it back east to attend. Nearly half a million people (filled with possibilities of disaster, riots, looting and catastrophe) spent three muddy days with music, magic mushrooms and peace on their minds instead.
“Only the Age of Aquarius could be responsible for this kind of shift in mass consciousness,” she thought. Annie was smitten with the astrology sign, Aquarius. She had a dream one night where she saw her future husband who turned out to be...you guessed it! -A charismatic Aquarius.

Even though Annie was filled with regret for missing Woodstock’s historic line-up, she thanked her lucky stars and flung her long sun-streaked hair around when she found out the cute soldier she met that summer was…an Aquarius! That fact alone was confirmation she needed to be convinced he was THE One she saw in her dream. And Annie went after him in hot pursuit. After all, she was young, footloose and fancy free! As things go, just a year later she'd soon realize that being a married, pregnant surfer-hippy was NOT a groovy combo. It was no longer, “Me and you and a surfboard named Boo.”

Soon, Annie would find herself voyaging with her Aquarian husband to a new frontier, far away from her parents, siblings and childhood friends. It might have really been a hoot and holler IF she didn't have a little life growing inside her belly. On the road she and Charlie didn't eat, sometimes for days. Money was as elusive as a candy wrapper blowing in the wind. The people they ran into weren't always very sympathetic. I mean, both my parents were stereo-typed; Many "30 something" and older Americans thought hippies were LOSERS for "turning on, tuning in and dropping out."

I guess following a pied piper personality (ruled by the planet Uranus) really didn't seem to be a big deal at first since Annie's sun sign was in congenial Libra. Compatible enough. Airy. And Venus was her ruling planet. If only mama had a magic mirror that could have foretold her future. It might have prepared her better for what was in store. -Whoever said following your dreams always culminated in a grand finale of "Happily Ever After?"
Yeah, it was going to take a whole lot of Venus Vibes to stay in love with a real Uranus.

Mama didn't really show her pregnancy. It wasn't obvious. But I was in there, no doubt. Annie had recently turned 21 years old and her nesting instincts were kicking into overdrive while living so far away from the only security she had ever known. The strangers at the Canadian hippy commune were friendly enough but they had their own problems to worry about. This was not the place she wanted to have her baby. When Charlie ran to her that day she came back from Vancouver and grabbed her in his arms, she was relieved to hear he wanted to go back to America.
-Even if the journey meant facing a long and winding road.