Rock festivals aren't what they used to be. I spent Friday night at Harmony Park Music Garden near Geneva. The atmosphere was very relaxed and many people were camping with their families for three days of music. Many of the people that attended the event chose not to walk around the 12-acre park, but drove around on utility vehicles or golf carts. The musical event was called Project for Planet Earth, but I didn't see many people getting in touch with Mother Earth by taking a walk.

My husband Tom helps out at Harmony Park as a bartender and he had borrowed a souped-up golf cart with a dump box and spent the night riding around in the cart when he wasn't working. Just to travel 100 yards, people would drive their golf carts and say a few words to another person and drive off. I mentioned to the owner that it seemed like many of the attendees looked like they belonged to a retirement community, the way they spent all their times driving around on golf carts. When musicians were performing on the stage, drivers of golf carts and their passengers would drive up by the stage and sit in their carts and listen to the music. When a golf cart driver would want to get something to eat or drink, he or she would drive over to a food vendor to purchase refreshments. So much with getting back to nature, it made me wonder 'Do all old hippies ride around in golf carts now?' I'm sure the definition of what a hippie is has changed from what it used to be considered.

When I lived in Ireland in the 1970s, my neighbor, Denny, asked me what I thought of the Happies.

"Who are the Happies?" I asked.

"Ah sure, you must be knowing the Happies, as they originated in America," Denny said.

"No, I don't know the Happies. Why do you ask? How would I know them? Do some of them live around here?" I asked.

"I'm sure ye know who the Happies are," Denny said.

"No, I really have never heard of the Happies," I said.

"Ye know the Happies. The men and women have long hair, they all live together and their children run around naked and they smoke that funny smelling stuff," Denny said.

"Oh, the hippies! Yes I know what hippies are," I said.

"Yes, that's what I have been saying the happies," Denny said.

That was Denny's definition of a hippie or as he called them, the happies.

Tie-dye T-shirts and music by the Grateful Dead are not just for hippies anymore, but Denny's description of hippies fits the stereotype image of hippies in the 1960s and 70s. The music at Harmony Park Music Garden might have a tendency to sound like Grateful Dead music but the talk among the drivers on Friday night was not so much about the music but about each other's golf carts.

How much power a cart had, how large the tires were or what type of covering was on the cart to keep the sun and rain off. I didn't hear or see any mention of getting back to nature by taking a walk on Mother Earth, as the name Festival for Project Earth implied. I know golf carts don't use much gas and I know that they are fun to ride around in, but what is wrong with walking? Tom wants to buy a golf cart and I said I want my kitchen finished first and he argued that my kitchen is sitting in the granary in the form of my new cabinets. I argued back that they are not in my house and until I have my kitchen fixed up he had better not purchase anything major. I think this is one argument that will be continued.

Sheila Donnelly can be reached at 434-2233 or by e-mail at :newsroom@austindailyherald.com