VOLKSWAGEN GOLF HIPPIES

Tell them NU’s an apathetic hotbed for young professionals, and you’re likely to get a swift Birkenstock in the balls.

The tapestries on the wall of their living co-operative suggest images of the '60s, but for these less-crunchy hippies, 2000 VW Golfs replace the vans of yore. Where can you find them? Shouting into a megaphone at a NOWAR gathering, or passing out flyers demonizing the corporate monsters at Chipotle. It's owned by McDonald's, you know. While their classmates are chugging Crazy Horse Malt Liquor, their hearts ache for the victims of this insult. With a coffee-table knowledge of environmental and political issues, they'll talk up any cause, be it child workers in Mexico, sweatshops in South Asia, or ducks on the lagoon.

NU’s late-model hippie isn't difficult to spot: He/she never leaves the house without a trusty Nalgene hanging from a backpack ’biner; sometimes even two. North Face rags, one might guess. Please. Patagonia all the way.

When not on the warpath, these Golf hippies can be found running across Deering Field playing Ultimate Frisbee, or sitting on a Crazy Creek and taking in the sun. Or perhaps eating fresh GORP from Whole Foods, or working a part-time job at Uncle Dan’s or Active Endeavors. Musical tastes? Non jam-bands need not apply for a spot in the tape deck. Too jaded by the typical NU bar scene, you’re more likely to spot these folks at A Live One, or maybe, just maybe, a cameo at Nevin's.

The Golf Hippie tries to foster warmth and fuzziness despite all the cold competitiveness that defines Northwestern. Project Wildcat, ASB and SEED are the main vehicles for this, the last outposts of social consciousness on this morally corrupt campus.

They're not overly disdainful of the rest of campus, since most of their time is spent convincing the masses of their views. Still, they operate in a closed, almost cultish circle of friends, beacons of warmth on a campus of indifference.

- Manu Krishnan

At 2/8/03 7:41 AM,

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