About The Book
Memoirs of A Flower Child
by Sterling Elliott Blake
This book tells the true story of a boy who grew up inside the hippie movement and lived its hidden reality. It moves back and forth through time. You see Sterling as a young child facing beatings, neglect, and dangers no child should know. His mother taught him to smoke marijuana at age seven. He lived through fear, violence, and situations that left deep marks.
As a man, he sat beside the body of his oldest son and identified the body of his next. He came within moments of ending his own life before one of his sons pulled him back. This is not a romantic look at the 1960s and 1970s. It shows the other side of peace signs, free love, and flower power, and what it meant for the children who lived inside that world.
What You Will Find Inside
Part One: Early Years
The book begins with Sterling’s childhood in Long Beach, California. It describes daily life with a hippie mother and an angry father, time in the Albert Sitton Home, and the moments that taught him survival at a very young age.
Part Two: Loss and Survival
This section covers the years of growing up, becoming a father, and facing the deaths of both sons. It follows his struggle with grief, anger, and the decision to keep living even when it felt impossible.
03
Part Three: Keeping Going
The final part shows how Sterling built a different life. He earned six college degrees, became a Master in Kung Fu San Soo, worked as a Senior Process Engineer, and held on to his faith. He explains what perseverance looked like for him and why he still tries to do the right thing every day.
Who This Book Is For
This book is for anyone who grew up in a household that the world preferred not to look at. For anyone handed a version of life they did not ask for and had to figure out alone how to carry it. For anyone told what they would become and chose differently. And for anyone who wants to understand what the flower child era looked like for the children left in its wake. Sterling Blake wrote this for all of them.
- Anyone who has survived a childhood defined by instability, loss, or adult failure
- Anyone who has been written off and decided that verdict did not apply
- Readers of honest memoir who want the truth told without revision
- Anyone who knows what it costs to keep going