American Studies- A 60s Repeat?

After the 1960s, people thought peace signs and tie-dye were a thing of the past but today they are more popular than ever. However, these two things are usually no longer a representation of the hippie culture they were once associated with. In the 60s, the hippie movement was composed of mostly white young people fifteen to twenty-five years old. At the peak of the Vietnam War, hippies were described as the ones who wanted “peace, love, and personal freedom.” By June 1966, 15,000 hippies had migrated to the well-known San Francisco neighborhood, Haight-Ashbury.

The given definition of a hippie is “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.” So, why all of the tie-dye and peace signs you might ask? Hippies wanted to stand out. They wanted to be noticed so people would consider what they were proposing. Tie-dye first became popular out west, which happens so be where the hippie subculture began. Eventually, it was well-known around the world as being picked up by hippies because of its stand-out bright colors and interesting designs. Peace signs became a common symbol in the hippie culture to remind people of what they really were all about, peace. In the 60s, when you saw someone walking down the street in a tie-dye t-shirt or sporting a peace sign, it was always just assumed that that person was a hippie, a good assumption during that time period.

Of course, everything comes to an end as did what people liked to call the “hippie movement of the 60s.” There was a long time period where tie-dye and peace signs really were a thing of the past. But like all so called fads, these two things are back and very popular. But they no longer represent the hippie subculture. Now when you walk down the street, many young people are wearing tie-dye sweat shirts and peace sign necklaces but it would never enter someone’s mind to consider them a hippie. Today, these items are not really given a meaning. They just returned as a very popular fad that will eventually go out and return many times. It is remained to be seen if they will ever again represent something as large as the hippie subculture of the 60s.


Word Count: 392

English- Jon and Kate

I don’t really watch a lot of reality TV but I did use to watch the show Jon and Kate Plus Eight. I always thought it was kind of funny how Kate treated Jon. I also enjoyed watching all of the chaos that went on in their house with having eight kids and all. After a while, I got bored of the show and I stopped watching it for a while. And then all of this drama started with Jon cheating on Kate and then the separation and I started watching the show again because everyone was talking about it. Whenever I went anywhere, all the magazines had pictures of Kate with the children and Jon out partying with much younger girls. But of course, when Jon told his side of the story, he just talked about how Kate is crazy, obsessed with money, and always out promoting books and stuff so she never spends time with her children. I kept up with the story for a while, and then I just didn’t care anymore because Jon and Kate each have their own story and no one will ever know for sure whose story is right. I think they now could be regretting trying to raise their kids on national television.

English- Pit Bulls

Pit Bulls were just recently banned in Baltimore City and they have been banned for many years in PG County. This is because some people train them to fight and be aggressive. And this causes lots of people to fear pit bulls. However, not all pit bulls should be classified as aggressive and dangerous. I have had my pit bull, Rage, for the past seven years and she is scared of everything and isn't the slightest bit aggressive. She came with the name, kind of as a joke because she is so sweet. She is scared of plastic bags and thunder and pretty much anything else that you can think of. But, people will always assume that she is dangerous just because many pit bulls are.

American Studies- My Literacy Narrative

Arbeit Macht Frei. These three words are the first thing I noticed when I was walking towards Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp in Poland two years ago. This German phrase translated into English means “Work Will Set You Free”. These three words can be seen above the gates in most concentration camps from World War II. I was visiting Poland with some members of my team for an acrobatic gymnastics competition, but we also did a lot of sightseeing while we were there. We had to have translators for the trip because we spoke no Polish at all. Our translators were two high school seniors who had been taking English in school and were doing this as a project. We learned how to say some basic words in Polish like hello, thank you, and toilet. We noticed though, that a lot of people in the town that we were staying in didn’t speak English but understood it a little. Our translators told us that most kids take English in school, sort of like here where most kids take Spanish. We also found that we would try to say something in Polish, and even if we didn’t even get it close, they would still usually know what we were talking about. I actually found it a lot of fun to go out places and have to work to try to get the people to understand what we were trying to say.

Since this was an international competition, there were many other people there from other European countries as well. The South African team was staying in the same hotel as us so we did a lot of things together. One day we went to see the botanical gardens with them. It was a very long bus ride so we had a lot of time to talk. At one point, one of the girls said that she liked our accents. We all found this interesting because we never really think of ourselves as having accents. We just thought that they had accents, but when you think about it from their prospective, we’re the ones that talk differently.

Something else that I found very cool was how you could have so many people from so many different countries, but certain things are the same everywhere. For example, my friend and I went to say something to a girl from Germany. Instead of using words, I just gave her a thumbs-up and she just knew what I was trying to say to her. She just nodded and pointed back to us and gave us a thumbs-up too. We don’t speak each other’s languages but we can still congratulate each other.

Overall, Poland was a huge learning experience for me! One important thing I learned is that it doesn’t matter if you speak the language. There are many different ways of communicating and you can always get your point across. Czesc! (Bye!)

Word Count: 484 words

Who Am I

My name is Jenny Herzfeld and I am a freshman at UMBC. I am the youngest of 4 kids. I have two older sisters, Karin and Becky. Karin just recently graduated from UMBC. I also have an older brother named Danny who lives in California and plays in a band called The Lyrics Game. I do a sport called acrobatic gymnastics which is basically like cheerleading, dance and gymnastics, all in one. It's a lot of fun to watch though most people have never heard of it. In 2007 I went to Poland for a competition and it was so much fun because it was my first time going to Europe.