What are some factors indicating that a former hippie has sold out and no longer upholds his or her previous ideals?

I would not agree with that. Many of us tried prostitution which was a relatively easy dollar. And we could still be free to live our lives mostly as we wanted.  However only a few of us did well as it.  Not that we even wanted to.  At age 20 I had absolutely no stomach for it. 

  I'm not sure it was your stomach you should have been using. I'm jes' sayin'. 

~

I meant that being with smelly, dirty, greasy, seedy men I got sick to my stomach. Not while I was with them but after.  That really happened.  I was homeless and these girls I knew who did it pretty regularly thought they were doing me a favor by sending them to me.  After maybe five times I got sick and wanted no more of it.  I was 20 and just learning about life. After several weeks this older man who had bought pretzels from me took me in and I didn't mind having sex with him because at least he was clean and had hot running water. Interestingly many years later when he died he willed me a couple of thousand dollars but it took his executors or commissioners a few years to find me. 

  I was only joking about the stomach; I knew what you meant. 

:)

I think its good to laugh about things if we can.  But joking can also deride and make light of something or someone.  I don't think hippies were idealistic. Perhaps those you knew were.  But I see it instead as a lifestyle choice. Which I know now was going on in the later 1950s. So that people could better pursue what they were individually interested in they got together to live more inexpensively.  Having people living together each of whom was interested in different things became an alternative to living with your parents or your spouse and just working a steady job five of six days a week.  They supported and encouraged one another and soon attracted hangers-on who found that lifestyle interesting or congenial.  So people single or married opened up their homes to others because they enjoyed having people around and being family head.  And those who joined them could see themselves as different from the "straight" people in that they were doing more of what they wanted and it was a lot more interesting and enjoyable.  Some people had ideals yes but was not anything they could not have had being "straight" but rather it was just more congenial the way they were living. And many of us, if we had any ideals at all they were very vague and mostly we made the choice to live as we did just because we felt more comfortable with that then not measuring to what was expected of us where we came from.  Things like drugs and sex - well that was more a function of our lifestyle but some "straight" people were engaging in all manner of that in the 1960s but were just more discreet and less obvious about it.  Yes we all said things like "peace and love" and "make love not war" but those were just vague greetings and we were not peace activists or "love" activists or really any kind of activists though we may have occasionally gone to this or that demonstration but rather that was a personal choice and part of fellowship. We may have thought OK the world would be a better place if everyone lived as we did but again that was very vague and those of us who were more hangers-on were young and very naïve and we just wanted to feel part of something and have a good time and be ourselves. 

  "We've come a long way, baby."

~

I saw a VW Microbus on I90 coming back from Maine a few weeks ago.

  That was me. 

~

Is that CP with you?

  Of course!  CarbonProduct was my number one old lady back in the day. 

~ This post was edited by Randy D at August 26, 2018 2:26 PM MDT

Holy crap. The one on the left looks like my oldest sister.(Really) She was a hippie.

  Er, um, that's Carbie, dude, and that's our daughter holding onto my leg. Wait, this means that I'm, well, no, it means that you and I are . . . never mind. 

~ This post was edited by Randy D at August 26, 2018 4:55 PM MDT

Which one?

  I know, right?

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HA...it's you.

It's the only photo I have of you and me together. This post was edited by Jane S at August 27, 2018 1:14 AM MDT

I always liked that dress. I hope Randy doesn't see this. (Jealous.)

 "Jealous"?  Dude, don't you remember that it was share-and-share-alike back then?
 
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