DOWN TO EARTH

Can you remember Australia's '70s? The Vietnam War and the Cold War, the politics, the flower people, the music, the hopes? Do you recall that Member of Parliament who led Moratorium marches against war, wrote liberation books he struggled to sell, helped bring down a Government? Who gave the hungry press a feast of scandals? And, oh, those naked full-moon "ConFests" with all the Minister's happy hippie mates? Well, this old hippie was there, and those mates were his mates, all living their stories. But stick with your own memories, because this old man's telling probably isn't what happened. The remembering? Yes, it's the remembering that becomes the problem. Some history never becomes history. No-one finally remembers what happened. No-one recorded it. So, this is that record. Before the remembering stops, because already it's nearly half a century ago. A hippie rambling. Almost the missing diary.