Hoedown at the anti-hippie nudist dock

I spent part of four weeks on Saltspring Island this summer. It's pleasant there. Most of the people who move to Saltspring are either very rich, or new age types who walked away from other lives to do something different. Like fix rich peoples' chakras.

Normally I'm intrigued by new age people. I think a lot of them have figured something out: that life actually has meaning. This is refreshing.

But when you get to Saltspring Island, life has lots and lots and lots of meaning. Everyone you meet has so much... time to tell you about it. They've all found the answer. Your soul is their cottage industry.

But Saltspring has another very special and kind of person: the anti-hippie. No, they're not gun-toting rednecks, but dark, scary white trash hippies that live in the woods and hate everyone.

We met some before our swim, one afternoon at the nudist lake. The dirty hippies were drunk and stoned, reeling like sailors, stark naked on the dock. They had long hair and sinewy, tanned bodies and faces all twisted up with hate and hard living.

The dirty hippies were cussin', fightin' and spreading hate like nobody's business.

It sounded like this: "Hey, man, I just want peace and love, you know. But he's here spreading bad vibes. And man he... HEY YOU SCUMBAG M*****F***** you get away from my dog!"

Next came naked hippie wrestling on the dock, the tattooed one versus the tall lanky one with the dangling... oh... nevermind.

All I can guess is, a place like Saltspring dredges up it's own special brand of counterculture to juxtapose all that sickly sweetness and light. In a way, they were their own special brand of homegrown punk.