I too was a hitchhiker-1969 and I was supposed to be in college but an anti war demo shut down the school and someone said- let's go to SAN Francisco- I was there!!
What I did to my poor momma
Don't know how we survived- people wqere different in lots of ways- except for Charlie Manson types
I always seemed to get picked up by Southern mommas who made me feel bad about my momma
I never did get back to college-I'm not sure I regret it