Me, either. If 1/10th of the Boomers who swear they went to Woodstock had actually gone there, those fields would not have have held them by half.
That sounds like a math problem and it isn’t. I wasn’t there (I was 10 but even if I’d been 20, I wouldn’t have gone because I was in church), but Martin Scorsese was and here is his perspective.
16 responses so far ↓
thekickable // July 5, 2009 at 1:54 pm |
Did you know they’re making a movie about Woodstock? I saw the preview the other day. It looks pretty awesome.
Jac // July 5, 2009 at 4:31 pm |
I was just a wee lass at the time, too. However, I do remember seeing: “WOODSTOCK” written on my uncle’s desk blotter back then. I don’t know if he went, but it was less than an hour’s drive away. It’s hard to believe it’s been 40 years since then.
Jack Hale // July 5, 2009 at 11:02 pm |
I was old enough, but I don’t think I was there. On the other hand, one never knows.
datingjesus // July 6, 2009 at 6:16 am |
This seems to be the prevailing concern, that we went there and forgot. Or we were so chemically altered that we don’t remember going. I know someone who actually DID go. She took jammies and a six-pack of Tab. She used, I believe, neither.
Garrett Krewson // July 6, 2009 at 12:11 am |
Nice piece Susan.
My brother Dave and I were just talking about the same thing this weekend. Our Dad was always so proud that he didn’t let his sons go to the big rock concert at Atlantic City Racetrack in July 1969. He told us, “why don’t you go to this nice little Music & Arts Festival in the Catskills?” He even mailed in the $18 for the tickets & made us a map so we could take the back roads to Monticello NY, from where we lived in Northeast PA. Drove up early on Thursday morning in a pickup truck with 3 friends.
We picked up a wild haired hitcher who was with Hugh Romney’s Hog Farm commune. (Wavy Gravy – a West Hartford native) He showed us the back roads. We drove down through Max Yasgar’s farm roads and camped right next to the Grateful Dead and Merry Pranksters buses by the free stage. 40 years ago… Far Out!
Hundreds of thousands of kids from the cities and suburbs stuck in the mud; most without
tents or food. Hardy the utopia Marty’s film portrayed. Popularized the 60’s counter-culture. The “Peace-Love-Dove” branding, as we referred to it. Sure made some band’s careers; caused personal ruin to others. Janis and Jimi to be sure.
datingjesus // July 6, 2009 at 6:10 am |
Your father bought you the tickets. That is incredible (and funny as all get-out). See, your story of Woodstock includes details that make it seem real to me. I get tired of all the posers saying they were there. Most were not. I hope you’ve told all your friends, but why do you think the concert has been mythologized so much? Because Boomers (I am one) like to mythologize themselves?
Garrett Krewson // July 6, 2009 at 7:12 am
I think that the event was mythologized because out of it came a new deity to believe in, at a time when Vietnam and the Cold War had polarized the American culture with fear and hatred. Mass media was poised to explode and exploit… with only 3 channels of corporate advertiser biased TV and a post-Beatles youth hungry for more.
The counter-culture music represented a new truth, based on values of brotherhood, freedom of expression and love. (sound familiar, Jesus?) It was as much a rallying cry to transform our world with thoughtful care, ie. Earth Day and Organic Farming, as it was a rejection of bankrupt government values.
Unfortunately, as naive children often are, we were seduced by the media and hype – and capitalism carried the day. Again.
Yes, much good came from those shared ideals. It energized our country to once more lead the world in art, theater and music, however, the drug culture and dumbing down of our youth and education system is a sad residual effect.
Oh, and no one ever really looked good in tie-dye.
leftover // July 6, 2009 at 7:21 am |
Hey! Not look good in tie-die?
NOW you tell me.
http://datingjesus.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/what-do-you-think-of-this-statement/
datingjesus // July 6, 2009 at 8:07 am |
Is that you in the back there?
leftover // July 6, 2009 at 8:18 am
I don’t have my new specs yet so it’s difficult to tell.
Does he have “soulful eyes”…or rather eye?
Sherry // July 6, 2009 at 11:25 am |
Ah that I had gone! Does going to a few war protests in DC in the late early 70s count?
datingjesus // July 6, 2009 at 1:52 pm |
In my book, yes. I was still swinging from trees and rereading “Little Women.”
datingjesus // July 6, 2009 at 8:06 am |
And macrame is really kind of ugly, too. There’s always that. I’m on the tail-end of the Boomer generation and I always felt like the little sister crying out in the back seat, “What? What?” while the big brothers drove the car. Would that we had a Woodstock that stuck.
Cynical Susan // July 6, 2009 at 9:20 am |
And we pre-boomer older sisters were looking behind us going “what? What? No, it’s THIS way, where are you GOING?”
datingjesus // July 6, 2009 at 9:38 am |
And a Cro-Magnon brow? Yes.
datingjesus // July 6, 2009 at 9:39 am |
We both should have just wrestled the wheel away.