End of Flower Power

By Bert Oldenhuis

This is not an analysis or a dissertation on the rise and fall of the movement known as Flower Power. It is but one of many stories that took place at the end of that memorable era.
It is the last year of the tumultuous sixties when Case, a young officer in the Merchant Marine, signs on as third mate on the S.S. Flower Power, an old rusty freighter on its last legs bound for India. Within a day he realizes that the crew is scraped together from the four corners of the world and that that motley bunch of ruffians is commanded by a chaotic Greek captain whom he nicknamed "Peachfuzz".
During a stopover in Manila the animosities between the crew members vanish as George, an able-bodied seaman, meets the prostitute Carmen and falls for her like a ton of bricks. She is the perfect answer to his troubled soul. He intends to marry her and adopt her little daughter at any cost.
But how is he going to pull this off in just eight hours?
The entire crew conspires to sneak the future bride and her three-year old daughter aboard so that the captain can marry them once they are on the high seas. Peachfuzz however is unaware of the covert operation. He'd just as soon throw the stowaways overboard to avoid any hassle with the authorities.
But Case, who is inadvertently drawn into this conspiracy, has a secret weapon with which he can convince Peachfuzz into performing a marriage on the high seas in the best of maritime traditions.
After chaotic preparations and a hilarious ceremony George and Carmen were joined in marriage by Captain Peachfuzz. It was a wedding to remember and it fused the bitterly divided crew into a solid corps by coming to the rescue of a desperate shipmate.
Was this all part of a predetermined plan or was it pure coincidence that this took place on a ship with the very same name as that of the roaring Flower Power Era? Or was this union of two lovers just one of the last hurrah's of this turbulent decade?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9083195449
• ISBN13: 9789083195445
• Release Date: April 2024
• Publisher: Centraal Boekhuis
• Length: 436 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"