Token Hippy Who?
The Masked Tokenhippygirl – picture taken in Belize. I live in lovely Portland, Oregon, and have been enjoying this adventure called life since 1965. Thus far it’s been beautiful, strange, terrible, amazing, heartbreaking, awe inspiring, and full of love. Honestly, I’m just trying to pay attention, appreciate as much of it as I can… and live fully.
What’s with the whole Token Hippy Girl thing? The story goes… I was working in the Southern part of Oregon for a couple of years and, for those who don’t know, the southern part of the state is pretty conservative. There I was, a very liberal birkenstock and beret wearing girl, living and working amongst a much more conservative set. We always got along great, because you know, to each their own as to politics and way of life, but I definitely didn’t fit the mold down there. One day while my boss and I were chatting he paused for a moment and then said, with a little twinkle in his eye, “you know… every office has to have at least one token hippy girl and you are ours”. It made us both smile. I loved it and was also sort of proud of it. It sparked a whole thing for me and gave me a nickname that would stick with me to this day, several years later.
The Title For The Blog: Way back when, moons ago when I was setting up my first blog, I had to think of a name for it. During this process it occurred to me that I think about everything, a lot. Sometimes I think so long and so hard it seems as though I’m having two or three sides of a conversation all inside my own head. Debating, mulling over, looking at all sides, etc. Then it came to me…. what’s going on in my head is like what sometimes happens in a think tank. People sitting around, thinking, talking about “stuff”, and thinking some more. LOL I had my name. The conclusion to this… Tam’s Think Tank is a basic reference to my ability to sit quietly for hours being entertained solely by what’s going on inside my own head.
My Other Haunts: image – ination – Posting a new photo every day for a year starting January 1, 2008. Until then… posting a photo a day from my favorites album in flickr. Meaning photos I’ve taken and liked. Flickr Photos:![Tokenhippygirl - View my 'Favorites' set on Flickriver](http://www.flickriver.com/badge/user/set-72157607081788173/recent/shuffle/medium-horiz/ffffff/333333/28149100@N00.jpg" border="0" alt="Tokenhippygirl - View my 'The Hub' set on Flickriver" title="Tokenhippygirl - View my 'The Hub' set on Flickriver"/></a>){kind=icon}
Interests: Karen, laughing, books, spotting shapes in clouds, music, film, poetry, writing, photography, theater, being silly, art, fly fishing, ideas, travel, reading, hanging around my house, and being with the people I love.
Movies I’ll Watch Again and Again: Anything by Hitchcock… especially I Confess, The Trouble with Harry, Suspicion, and Rebecca. Otherwise… Dune, The Usual Suspects, The Princess Bride, Dark City, old sci-fi, Before Sunrise, Playing by Heart, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Ladyhawke, Legends of the Fall, Holiday, Capote, The Children’s Hour, the Matrix trilogy, the first three Star Wars movies, Jackie Brown, State and Main
Some Of The Music I Love: Vertical Horizon, Collective Soul, The Stones, BTO, Maroon 5, Dishwalla, Dar Williams, Indigo Girls, America, Michael Buble, Crosby Stills and Nash, Ray Lamontagne, David Gray, Amos Lee, Marc Broussard, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Melissa Etheridge, Antigone Rising, Michael Tolcher, The Guess Who, Sarah McLachlan, Benny Goodman, Mozart, Cheryl Wheeler, Bobby Blue Bland, Elton John, Billy Joel, Matt Wertz, Aretha Franklin, Vivaldi, Gomez, Brett Dennon
Pages I Keep Turning: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Elephant Vanishes, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dry, the Thomas Covenant series, Tao Te Ching, poetry of e.e. cummings and Pablo Neruda, the Harry Potter series, early Stephen King, Brave New World, The Jungle, Running With Scissors
I like the site! You are pretty cool, I want to grow up to be like you some day!
Love ya!
Hi, I knew Legson Kayira when he was in college i n Seattle, and we corresponded when he was at Cambridge in London. Do you know if he
has an e-mail address? I would like to get in touch with him by e-mail
I am 65 years old and I guess he is about the same age.
I live in Ashland, Ore. My name is Andrea Schaffer.
My e-mail address is: sivandrea@earthlink.net
Please reply.
Thank You
Tam: photos are just beautiful. 86 here in Atlanta and there is no end in sight to the lingering of summertime here. Thanks for sharing the fall colors of your season’s end. Blessings! Lisa Lynn
PS — Melissa’s The Awakening Rocks! =))))
86 eh? We won’t see 86 again until the end of July. We are in full fall mode here. Leaves falling, rain coming down, gray skies. I have to say though, I love this time of year. And… I agree… Melissa’s new disc is fantastic! Drink some iced tea for me, or do you have sweet tea down there, and enjoy continuing to wear sunglasses and shorts!
Hello,
My name is Julie and I work at Skagit Valley College library. We have lots of information on Legson Kayira. We also have many of his books, clipping of newspaper articles about him and a pen and ink drawing from the Reader’s Digest article. We also have some letters from him. We would love to help anyone doing research on Legson, he is very remarkable! Thank you for your family’s part in helping him and thank you for writing about how he touched your family!
Ah, another Burroughs and Sedaris fan who actually likes good music! Nice blog.
Cheers.
Dish
Just found your site through photo hunt. I thought, hmm, maybe. Then I saw the Indigo Girls and Dar Williams and said, gotta be. She’s one of us! lol
you and i would get along. like your blog.
Portland, OR, one of my fav US Cities. Not only because I used to have family there, but as is.
Among others, one of my first blog posts was from the beautiful Japanese Garden.
http://toraa.blogspot.com/2006/09/long-time-no-seen.html
The lay-out is not the best, but to be one of my first—-
Wow, i think it’s kind of amazing that someone who calls herself a hippy doesn’t love the Grateful Dead … unless you’ve just left them out for whatever reason. The two things always go hand in hand in my mind — hippy and GD. Not criticizing, just an observation.
peace
Zoom… Alas, though I’ve enjoyed a bit o’ the Dead once in awhile, I’ve never gotten into them as much as might be required by my moniker. I’m more of a CSN fan, though technically I’m probably a bit young to even be able to claim that as I was a baby and toddler during their heydayest days. Ah well… such is life. Born a bit too late, and also at just the right time. Quandary? Conundrum? Quite definitely. Let’s examine this… according to Dictionary.com a hippy is…
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) – Cite This Source – Share This
hip·pie /ˈhɪpi/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[hip-ee] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
a person, esp. of the late 1960s, who rejected established institutions and values and sought spontaneity, direct personal relations expressing love, and expanded consciousness, often expressed externally in the wearing of casual, folksy clothing and of beads, headbands, used garments, etc.
Also, hippy.
[Origin: 1950–55, Americanism; hip4 + -ie]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
1968: Hippies
One Year Changed the World Forever: 1968 at History®.
http://www.history.com
hip·pie also hip·py (hĭp’ē) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. hip·pies
A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society, especially one who advocates extreme liberalism in sociopolitical attitudes and lifestyles.
Yep, many who know me would say I fall into, at least partially, one and/or both of these definitions. LOL I think it’s the live and let live liberal attitude brought to you by someone who wears sandals, even in winter, is almost always dressed very casually, has my graying hair in a ponytail often, doesn’t wear makeup, and believes in a universal one, love, beauty, nature, and a person’s right to be as they wish (as long as they aren’t hurting anyone else). My brother likes to refer to me as his bohemian sister. Though I’m not, actually, from Bohemia.
The moral of this story… you’ve made me think… maybe I should listen to a bit more of the Dead…
I took a couple friends to The Stanford Theatre to check out North by Northwest and The Trouble with Harry. I hadn’t seen The Trouble with Harry since elementary school, and found myself more impressed with it this time around.
hi,
congrats for a great website! im a bit like you in many ways, sometimes thinking about things , imagining, sense of humor … last night found myself in awe watching a doc, about rhinos at 3 am! or taking pictures of weeds … or calculating how many million watts have been saved tonight due to earth day! a friend of mine in georgia says im her favorite mess ,,, of course i take that as a compliment!
anyway, will try to check your blog now and then. wish i could meet a girl like you around here cause for the most part girls here seem a bit conservative or just plain boring and full of themselves.
hope this spring keeps you happy and active and amused with the little things this life has to offer the alert spirit! – best regards from the 1st state (and the one with the lowest high point in the nation, i think under 300 feet high lol).
- mike -
also want to ask if possible -> what’s the best way to start a blog? any sites you recommend? preferably a free provider not complicated to use? thanks
Dear Token Hippy Girl:
I have a connection to Legson Kayira too.
My father was the young foreign service officer
in Khartoum who helped Legson get a passport
and helped make contacts with Skagit Valley.
In fact, I went looking for him on the internet
several years ago. I did not know if he was alive.
And he was hard to find. Finally, one of his writer
friends from Africa gave me an address. It was
so nice to be able to write him. His story touched
our family too.
Best Wishes,
Greg C
Olney, MD
I am Malawian, and from a younger generation than that of Legson Kayira. I find his story very inspiring. Sad though, that I became aware of him just a few years ago, and his name hardly appears in Malawian history, (probably because of the “exile” and the fact that his books were banned in Malawi).
My friends and I are thinking of doing a short biographical research on Legson, to present the story to the younger generation of Malawians in an accessible way. They need to hear it.
And sure, Legson deserves a place in Malawian history.
I will bugging you for info. Email me, please. I need to talk to you.
I like your blog! Thanks for the comment!
Take Care.
Tam-
I don’t know how much all of these kind people know about you from reading your blog, I’d like to think I know you well. You are, without a doubt, one of the greatest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing for my entire life. I only say one of because you were cut from good stock…. Mom, all of her siblings and their families, Grandma and Grandpa, and even Dad … All great people with hearts bigger than this world. You however are more special to me than all of the above. We have been through alot together you and I… This journey of life has had it’s share of ups and downs and through it all you never once treated me like the pesky tag-along younger brother. Instead, you treated me with love and respect, and with your kind heart, your uncanny ability to find the humor in every day life and your positive, up-beat attitude. you have helped me through some of the hardest times of my life. I love you sister of mine. Don’t you ever forget that …not even for a fraction of a second.
Hey THG, love your blog, just stumbled on it recently. I think you’ll really love our poetic garden we’re cultivating, especially the Pablo Neruda patch: http://www.redpoppy.net/pablo_neruda.php
paz, pan, flores y amor,
mark
I just did an update to my site where I finally named it. Did a google search after and realized I am one of three with the same nickname. Token Hippy
Thought I would pop by and say hello!
I enjoyed poking around your site. I’m originally from Portland (born in the Dalles) but moved far east (outside Boston) many moon ago. I stopped when I saw your picture of the Bridge. At first I thought it must be some rust-belt icon from Pittsburgh or something. Or maybe the memories of my nine year old brain (from 1961) recognized it.
I lived off Interstate Ave in the Northwest section of the city, but my dad worked downtown. And I’ve missed it ever since. Camping with the family, Fly fishing with my dad on the Willamette, visiting my uncle who farmed pigs in the wilds of Prineville. All great memories that draw me ever westward.
All the Best.. and great photos,
Rocket
A lot of very interesting images on your blog. Thank you.
http://digg.com http://babishe.livejournal.com POSTTEXT3@]
http://digg.com
http://prettysonja.livejournal.com
http://wikipedia.org
I do the same thing with the Think Tank reference. I am a better entertainer internally then exteriorly. It’s sometimes shameful, but oh well.