I used to be different.

Many years ago I set off in my old VW Beetle from Vancouver Canada with maybe about $500 in my pocket. No bank account. No credit card. No parental support. I arrived in San Fran, the most memorable experience being watching Deep Throat in a sticky floor theater.

And then I set off across middle america, but sadly the heater in my VW stopped working, so every sock in my pack was used for the trip.

I arrived in Toronto with maybe 10 dollars in my pocket, but I don't remember being worried. I checked into a place for homeless people. and I shoveled sidewalks for money which was a government program.

After 4 snowy months I headed home in my trusty VW beetle. The only problem is the beetle broke down in Saskatchewan. Maple Creek Saskatchewan.

I was forced to go into town with my long hippy hair, and I was an object of great interest, and maybe possibly an object of desire by some prairie girls.

My few remaining dollars got me home to Vancouver, and a few weeks later I returned to Maple Creek to get my VW.

During this entire adventure. I never experienced my current fear involving money problems

I used to be different.

When I was a kid I would shovel for $40/house

We made a killing. I would say don't give up hope. I know guys who got into the US by foot through the desert.vthey both now have a house with multiple tenants.
These guys come home with over $1000/week and collect thousands in rent. They live like fat cats, illegally for decades. You can do it to. Gotta work hard, though.
My day starts at 330am, work at 6, out by 2:15.
Dedication. Whatever it takes.
My bmw takes 91 grade

It doesn't have to be different although if one stand the challenges of the lifestyle, then all the power to them. Albeit age and how laws make it harder to live more off the grid, namely in this case be homeless living in a tent, bus, car, etc., these days it's more so of a challenge.

Thankfully I'm back off the grid(minus the net for example) for the most part, and not in a city area, it's easier being younger doing it that's for sure because of it's challenges.

I was homeless in San Fran once. Learned a lot from locals who willingly stuck to that lifestyle beyond the 60s Hippy era. It's true freedom in a sense of the word, while not an easy freedom there's a certain air about it.

a reply to: droid56

The world was different then too. Not every room for rent was a four-star rating on yelp and the prices reflected that. Plus odd jobs were a lot more abundant when people actually used to want to fix the things they owned instead of throwing them out and buying new.

Now everyone is so uptight and everything has to be official.

Although I guess I should say, I was a child of the 80's, so my views of the past come from books and stories. Doesn't mean I don't dream of being able to live in a world like that.

a reply to: droid56

You and I share a very similar story.

I use to be different too... I find comfort in knowing I'm still more different than most.

I was much that way when I was young. In having kids, my need for security grew immensely.
Once they got all grown up and autonomous, the desire for freedom returned.
I've been trying to convince my husband we should sell our big farmhouse and get a small apartment, to be used only as a periodic home base while we explore the world.

I'm still different, and trying to live differently, though being different isn't easy as it was. The system nowadays makes it harder for anyone to live differently.

I wish people followed what Mahatma Gandi said
"Live simply so that others may simply live"

I was different too, but maybe not that different.

I read Jack Kerouac in my youth and Hunter S Thompson and Vonnegut and Ginsberg. Kerouac "persuaded" me to hit the road and I did just that. It was a wild crazy time, I hit the road with my thumb and a backpack. That was the summer of 1970. I lived in a commune for a while, but mostly just bummed around.

As Hunter S said...."Buy the ticket, take the ride" and as somebody once remarked, some people regard their body as a temple, I viewed my as an amusement park.
I continued my wayward lifestyle until 1972, then I was forced to find something to do to make some money. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a trade I ended up loving and doing until I retired at 62, almost 3 years ago.

My only other concession to normalcy was to get married, but we never wanted or had children. I'm a crazy old hippie and he's a Vietnam Vet.

And now I'm back, almost full circle, to being a bum and we're hitting the road all the time, now with a truck and trailer.

I miss those old days...it was a crazy time! but I'm still crazy and I don't feel much different..except if I look in the mirror. WTF! LOL

a reply to: droid56

I've gave away everything I own and walked off a couple times with just what I could fit into a backpack. Growing up my dad always told me stories of all his adventures back in the 60's hitchhiking so I think that played a big role, plus the whole being fed up with society thing.

I've had the most crazy experiences while on the road, almost died more times than I can count, seen the best of human nature in what's supposed to be the worst of society, and seen the worst of human nature in what passes for "good" society these days.

What people don't realize until you actually do it, is that its still possible, even today, and there's a community of thousands of people out there doing it right now.

Rubber tramps, leather tramps, even boat punks, (which is a community of people that live on boats and travel around the world, no money, just working for what they need wherever they stop at the time. They have meet ups every year at different places around the globe.)

What's changed the most is that a lot of people don't have the balls to do that anymore. People have been fed so much bs they're afraid of everything, so they have to have money in their pocket and paid for walls around them to feel safe.

The reality is, once you spend the night outdoors a few times, you realize it isn't the end of the world and you actually don't NEED any of those things you've been taught to need to feel safe.

a reply to: droid56

i used to be different too - i am not sure if i am better or worse now - but yup - deffo different

Now that I'm clean and sober; I'm different.....Happy and not in jail, however

My most wonderful memories where when I lived "On the Road"