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Vermont is a magnet for hippies of every ilk—oldsters who actually came as hippies decades ago and never left, as well as those who want to recapture a lifestyle they recall fondly but never actually lived. At least one source ranked Vermont "the state with the most hippies." Its conclusion?—“Basically, Vermont is not only a massive hippie retirement community for the original hippies, but it’s also a haven for the next generation of flower children.”
Source: http://blog.estately.com/2014/05/is-your-state-a-land-of-hippies-or-is-it-full-of-squares/
Conducted by Estately, a Seattle-based real estate website, the 2014 ranking looked at the number of communes per capita in each state (Vermont came in first), the number of food coops (first again) as well as other factors and asked the question—“Is your state a land of hippies or is it full of squares?” For Vermont it was an easy question to answer. Vermont was far and away number one with a score more than 50 percent lower than the second ranked state (a lower score means more hippies.) Maine and New Hampshire were second and third.
Not surprisingly, Mississippi and Louisiana were last and second to last—described by the authors as “hippie hells.” The hippie lifestyle does not make it in most of the Deep South.
A similar conclusion was reached by Susan Green writing in the Burlington Free Press, whose article “Vermont Remains a Hippie Epicenter,” July 24, 2015 and available online at: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/vermont/2015/07/24/vermont-remains-hippie-epicenter/30564907/
Not everyone in Vermont is or was a hippie. Many of the older newcomers led perfectly ordinary lives in the suburbs of large cities. When younger, while some of their colleagues ran off to Vermont, or elsewhere, to join a commune or become a ski bum, they toiled through grad school and life as accountants, lawyers, teachers or other less-than-radical endeavors. But many never forgot the yearning to do something a little off-beat. For most of their lives they did what they had to, and were supposed to. But, later in life they moved to Vermont to recapture some of weirdness they remember from their youth. It is a unique attribute of the state.
That kindred spirit is captured in a popular tee shirt and bumper sticker that features the outline of the Vermont’s shape with the words “Keep Vermont Weird.” The iconic, trademarked brand is the property of Keep Vermont Weird LLC, which markets it to those both inside and outside the state. It perfectly sums up the draw of the nation’s “hippiest” state. Items available directly from the company at: https://twitter.com/keepvtweird?lang=en
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