This has puzzled me.

 I was one, a hippie.  Kinda proud of it, actually.  Hung out with the
counter culture, got beat over the head by the cops  at Century City during
the one war protest I attended, went to the Monterey Pop Festival...in my
'57 36hp South African splittie.  Vanagons were not gonna be produced for
another what, 12-15 years when  the Hippie movement was happening.  When the
Vanagon came along, all the hippies already shed their bellbottoms and had
real jobs, families and mortgages..
  I've had children call my '84 a "Hippie Van" a few times
recently...Sheesh!
   I remember when one of my buddies came back from California in his
*almost* brand new Bay window bus...All us "Hippies" kinda laughed at
him....but when it came time to go rock climbing or kayaking, we always took
Harry's bus, not the old beater split window hippie vans...And his would
start at -40 f, so he always got to drive us to work during the cold spells
in Wyoming.
  I guess to an outsider, one VW van is much like another...Come to think of
it, my present van does sort of feel similar to my 57, and I do sometimes
live in it..Maybe it IS a hippie van, still...so, does that make me a
Hippie, still?
  Don Hanson