The Ghost Of Pat Past

When was the last time you saw your long ago self in contemporary form?

A few months ago waiting for a train to NYC, I noticed a man about my age struggling to use a credit card  with the ticket kiosk. After he thanked me for helping him get his ticket, I took a much closer look at him.

His gray hair was shoulder length; his jeans had holes in both knees and a tattered backpack carried his stuff; he wore a tie-dyed shirt. Except for the Grateful Dead logo on that shirt, he was Pat, circa 1969. I've since thought of this brief encounter many times. Each time I do, unable to fully process my feelings, I seem to come up with new questions. Decided it was time to put the ghost of Pat past away by posting some of the most recent ones and then scratch this expanding entry from my blog log for good.  

How much does peer pressure influence how I look now vs. how I looked then? Aside from peer pressure, what have been the other factors driving me to conform to contemporary standards? If not for meeting my wife in 1978, how closely would I today resemble this man? How much did her moderating influence help me to be successful in the ensuing years? How am I defining success?