'Eddie,' I asked him one day, 'who came before the Hippies?' 'Well, the Beatniks.' 'Right, Jack Kerouac and all that. And before the Beatniks?' 'Hipsters!' he told me, his eyes lighting up at recollections of the old days. 'And before Hipsters, who was there?' He paused for a moment before giving a shrug and replied: 'Black people.'
