Posted on 08/16/2004 1:17:29 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
But all this obscures the real significance of Woodstock: it was when the "counter-culture" became the mainstream culture in this country. By the time I was in high school in 1974, rock music was on TV commercials, and a large fraction of the young smoked the drugs.
We are still working through the cultural fall-out from Woodstock: drug addiction, sexually-transmitted diseases, and broken families.
Probably none since liberal hippies are full of shit and keep it in.
ping
And Americans are still emotionally bleeding from Kerry and his anti-war actions.
And we are to believe that these people had jobs?
And jobs doing what? (Keep in mind that there very few McDonalds in those days)
"...John Kerry was at Woodstock over Christmas 1968..."
No he wasn't. He was orbiting the moon with Borman, Lovell, and Anders on Apollo 8 Christmas, 1968.
Or was he in North Korea, rescuing the Pueblo crew?
Both would be as big a lie as the Cambodia lie he's telling these days.
I was one of the 500,000 ...just turned 17 years old in the summer of 1969 ...my friend Ralph and I hitch-hiked from Andover , CT ( eastern CT near UConn ) all the way to the festival . We went for the music ( mainly The Who ; Jimi Hendrix ; CCR ...) . We made it to New Paltz , NY the first day . With no place to stay , we inquired at a bus station where , fortunately , a young sympathizer was working . He made a phone call to his buddy , and the next thing we knew we were spending the night in a huge house which belonged to a Prof at the local college . The Prof and his family were 80% moved out of the place so they offered it to us , two total strangers , for the night ! We had the whole place to ourselves . The next morning the dude from the bus station showeed up and offered to drive us all the way to the festival ( never made it due to huge traffic jams ) . These folks I am positive were libs , especially the Prof with whom we spoke on the phone . They treated us like long lost friends , and we were very grateful indeed .
Nobody expected 500000 people to show up
at Woodstock , least of all us . We were totally unprepared food-wise ( we brought some nuts and raisins ! ) and it was trek and a half through 1000s of people to the over-crowded food stalls . Well , total strangers sitting near us shared what little food they had with us . Probably voted for Clinton years later .
Hitching back from Woodstock , we were picked up by a Navy recruiter in Danbury , CT or thereabouts and the guy threatened to beat the shit out of us because our hair was too long ( Coincidentally , my long haired buddy Ralph ended up joining the Navy a couple of years later ) . It was a helluva ride let me tell ya . We were hassled by clean cut travelling salesmen and other red neck types during our trip .
Don't be too quick to paint all hippies or their long ago
sympathizers as a--holes ! A--holes exist in all directions - left , center and right . Right ?
" And how many port-a-potties were there? "
Not enough ! I believe only 50000 tickets were sold , but 10 times that many people ended up at the festival !
" about four weeks after woodstock I heard Crosby Stills et al in Calif. they "
I wasn't into CSN at the time . They were very " nervous " at Woodstock , as it was their first gig . They were OK ...nothing great . Their first two albums were excellent , though . Definitely a much stronger in the studio than live .
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Well said. I graduated in '69, Woodstock happened five weeks later. Throughout HS there was very minimal (I do mean very) drug use. In the school year that began September '69 (the class of '70) there was an explosion of reefer and ludes. The school went from near zero problem to kids passing out over the course of one summer...the Woodstock Summer.
We lived two hours away at the time. A lot of kids went and wore it like a badge. Even more lied about having gone. We thought they were all a-holes.
A little bit of an overstatement. It was only a 3-day concert. Not many people "starve" if they don't eat for 3 days.
Especially when Neil Young was there to keep them in line.
This is a good article. Thanks for the ping.
The music of that day was fantastic! I still
listen to CSNY, Hendrix, Steppenwolf, et al.
But, the rest of that era was pure garbage.
The folks who generally populated Woodstock
remind me of the ELF/ALF/PETA crowd now.
Disco did, still does, and always will, suck. ;o)
"Do I want my children to relive that? No, but today they can do even worse and it's not being a "freak" or a part of something uncommon.....it is the culture now....and yes that is damning as well."
That is VERY true, wardaddy. And, it IS damning.
You obviously know a lot more about Phish than I do or care to. However, having spoken with several concert-goers, it's still about the drugs and the "no arrest" policy at their weekend-long jam sessions.
Although Max Yasgur was paid $75,000, the damage done to his property was probably far greater. Any know anything about that?
What did one Phish fan say to the other after the drugs wore off?
Man, this band sucks.
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