But you didn't have to paint provocative slogans on your car. If your hair was too long, there were places all over the rural South where you didn't want to have a breakdown, or stop for gas, or even buy a pack of smokes. In some places, if your car was from the wrong county (the first digit of the Florida licence plate identified where the owner resided), you could find it vandalized if you left it unattended for too long.

Those people haven't gone anywhere, they're still there. Some of them even have long hair themselves, now, and listen to rock and roll. They've just expanded the categories of people they love to hate.