(27) Mid Ten Hippie Shops

The Enchanted Planet

I was surprised to find that my hometown of Murfreesboro had a thriving ‘hippie shop,’ but there it was, “The Enchanted Planet.” We walked in to scope it out for potential sales. The pleasant aroma of sandalwood incense filled the air, and the Grateful Dead jammed out on Terrapin Station. There were hand-blown glass pipes, an assortment of paraphernalia, and some jewelry. It seemed the one thing they needed was exactly what we had to offer! 

A lovely young lady that had greeted us and asked if she could help with anything. We wondered if she was the owner. She said she was not, but she could get him for us. We looked around for a bit, and the owner emerged from the back of the shop. After greetings and pleasantries, we went into our well-rehearsed, although very flexible, sales pitch. We told our basic story of traveling and landing in the most colorful Guatemala. We recounted how we carefully selected our stock and tested every item for quality. Before it was all over, the owner had become a new friend and customer. We gave him a good deal on some merchandise, and he paid cash. Everybody was happy!

Stone Mountain

We figured that we could also check out the famous head shop in Nashville, Stone Mountain. They had been clients of Donna’s back in her bookkeeping days. I had visited Stone Mountain many times, even before knowing her. The store had once been on the ground floor of the building. Now we found they had moved to a first-floor walk-up. Black-light posters adorned the small violet-lit stairwell, and I recognized many of the classics. “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” “Make love, not war.” A Jimi Hendrix poster, psychedelic mushrooms, and vibrant Moire patterns exploded off the walls. I could hear Jefferson Airplane blasting as we climbed the stairs. 

As we entered the smallish room, I realized that they had all the Guatemalan items we could sell and more. The room was so crowded with items for sale we could barely move through the store. I suppose all of the stock from their previously more prominent location had to fit in somewhere. We saw one of the brothers that owned the shop. He seemed pretty preoccupied, if not in some panic. We decided this would not work out for sales and went to lunch instead.

Lunch at a favorite Restaurant

We had a favorite restaurant that we liked to eat at, actually several favorites, but today we chose the Calypso Café. We had a table we always seemed to sit. Our table was under a painting of a stuccoed house village on the sea. We always said that we would like to visit this place, and now perhaps someday, we would. We ordered the black bean salad with a side of black bean dip and extra nacho chips. It was too much, but we still managed to finish it all. While watching the other people and sipping on our third refills of fruit tea, we planned our next moves. 

Maybe it was time to move on and return to the road. Rich in Spirit had planted a seed. A thought. Perhaps it was time to look into going to the European Rainbow gathering.