During 1967, the now infamous "Summer of Love", I was among the droves of young people who headed to San Francisco, the mecca of hippies and "flower children".

The Haight-Ashbury district was unlike anything I had experienced before or since. Haight Street was a continuous parade of hippies, sailors and "freaks". We would walk the street talking to each other as though we had been friends for years, while hawkers drove by and took pictures.

The shops along Haight Street were filled with psychedelic posters, peace symbols were worn by almost all, and the general consensus was "Make love, not war".

Music was everywhere, the most famous places being The Fillmore and The Avalon Ballroom. Local groups such as "Big Brother and the Holding Company" with Janis Joplin as lead singer, "Country Joe and The Fish", with the "Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag", and The Jefferson Airplane sang the San Francisco sound while strobe lights jumped over the "self-medicated audiences".

I remember a very mellow Christmas Day spent lying on the grass in Golden Gate Park with my "old man", as boyfriends were called in those days, listening to a concert and watching fellow hippies dance and chant. It was a wonderful day, though I must confess, it did not feel much like Christmas.

I also recall when Donovan's song "Mellow Yellow" was popular. People were smoking banana peels in attempts to get high. As far as I can remember, the banana peel message from Donovan was a hoax.

Once day I was sitting on a hill with a breathtaking view of the city, reading what I am sure was a very esoteric book and listening to my radio. The song "When You Go To San Francisco", by Scott Mackenzie, came on and I knew I had reached nirvana, or so it seemed at the time.

I must confess that these memories are glossed over by [more than] thirty years time. However, seeing Janis perform live, sitting on Haight Street and receiving free food, making lots of love and no war - it was all unforgettable. It was a time when I was full of the freedom and ideals of youth.

It was not all wonderful though. I recall meeting people with negative vibes at "freekouts", or parties, and a few mercenaries who took advantage of my trusting ways.

But on the whole, if I had it all to do over, I would be there - with a flower in my hair.