I'm the same age, similar situation. We are probably on the cusp -- not really "belonging" to either generation.
The whole hippie thing -- with it's drug experimentation, sloppy clothing and the rest -- it never appealed to me. I just didn't see the point of acting like a drug-addled bum. I never understood utopianism and fanaticism -- be it religious or political. I never understood the people who got all enthusiastic about Mao or Castro -- I just could not imagine how anyone could believe in a dictator. I think my first political thought was that all dictators are pretty much the same and anyone who believes in them is a fool.
My skeptical frame of mind often got me into some types of trouble even as it helped me avoid other types of trouble.
My parents were of the WWII generation. I think one of the first political discussions they had with me was about how stupid the West was to have appeased Hitler for all those years. Fear of appeasement formed my view of the Soviet Union.
In 1976 two important things happened -- I saw Ronald Reagan give a speech, and I also read Hayak's "Road to Serfdom." By the way, I was one of the lucky people who shook Ronald Reagan's hand as he passed by the crowd. I was happy when I could finally vote for him in 1980. In a way it seems like yesterday, and in a way it seems like a long time ago.
When my generation did it, they weren't 'hippies,' they were 'burnouts'--stupid morons who started smoking pot at 13 and didn't quit until they were 30 or more, only to find they were still 13 mentally. Blech. Fooking maroons.
God is not kind to those who flush their youths down a toilet.
My politics were formed when I was 13 and first read Lucy Dawidowitz's "The War Against The Jews." I'm not Jewish, but I picked up the theme instantly: whenever you declare one piece of the population to be less then human, you are declaring open season upon them, and they die in large numbers.
The year was 1973.
Of course, we really haven't come to terms with the lesson yet.