Hi Patty -- I graduated in 1966, went to college for two years in Greenwich Village where there were "Bob Dylan sightings" on every corner, as he was still playing down there those days. I visited Warhols balloon factory.

I am one of those who managed to get through it all relatively unscathed. I think there was some men using women for sex, and my understanding is that it got really bad in some places such as the Village and Haight Ashbury, when lost children from all over the country started pouring into these hippie meccas looking for love in all the wrong places and being exploited by pimps and drug dealers.

I also used men for sex, and I enjoyed a lot of it. I was date raped twice, but there wasn't a name for it back then, so I thought of it as simply an unpleasant drunken experience for a couple of decades, until Time magazine reframed those experiences for me. I'm kinda glad I didn't know what it was for a long time.

I was, for some reason, a pretty smart gal, and I was able to spot phonies and keep myself out of trouble. I don't want to make out like this was all sex and good times -- there was always loneliness, wishing I had a special someone, plus lean years sexually, as I was fairly selective even when I was drunk and high.

I'm so sorry that you are carrying a burden from those years so long ago, and I hope you find a way to let it go and heal.

Hugs and hugs and hugs and hugs.