at Alice's Restaurant..
I freely admit to being a child from the Age of Aquarius.. The Woodstock Generation.. Lot's of friends and aquaintances proceeded to Max Yasgur's Farm in Bethel, N.Y. in the summer of 1969, and I was scheduled to go, but true to hippie tradition, I just didn't have the bread, man... besides, I had turned 20 years old, and was getting just a bit long in the tooth for it.
Am I sorry I missed the infamous concert?? Not really. I always liked sleeping in comfort, and would not have really gotten off on rolling around in the mud, but then again, it was one of those "rites of passage".
Woodstock '69
Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, 'Tell where are you going?'
This he told me
Said, 'Im going down to Yasgur's Farm,
Gonna join in a rock and roll band......
Following the old saw that everything old is new again, I thought some readers of my age group might get a kick out of an old baby boomer hippie link..
I will say that the late sixties were a great time to reach physical and sexual maturity... well, maturity may be a bit of a stretch, but it was a great time to be young, and I wouldn't trade My Generation for any other.. New ideas were taking over from the old guard, and we all took it oh so seriously! Truth be told, I never completely outgrew those times, and still harbor thoughts of how correct we actually were!
"When comes the time to leave this world someday, what you get to keep is what you gave away."
Now, I never wore flowers in my hair, and not all the folks I knew were gentle people, but I recall "The Summer of Love" like it was yesterday, and I still enjoy Scott McKenzie's old tune. More than a few young ladies of the day, though, did wear flowers in their hair, and painted flowers on their faces... Those were Strange Days for many of us.. some people I knew never survived it, but I guess that happens to every generation.
So, I hope everyone enjoyed our little trip down memory lane into the heady days of the late 1960's.. In a way, I wish I were back there, and then common sense kicks back in and I'm glad I'm not.. Neither my body nor mind could relive the abuse!
And by the bye... I headlined Arlo Guthrie, but I was never truly a fan... I think much more of him now than I did in 1969.. although my mind at that time was clouded by the sweet aromas of perfume and flowers..
Let your imaginations run free for an instant while pondering this post and the links..I hope it takes you back to a magical time..
Enjoy the weekend...
Bill, awesome post!
ReplyDeleteNow I won't get any work done this weekend ;-) Think I'll get wild and crazy, maybe drop a couple tabs... of Vitamin E with my prune juice.
Thanks for the laugh, Michael...
ReplyDeleteTo show how much those times have never left me, I didn't post about past "indescretions" due to "paranoia" that "the man" still be around and reading my blog...
The more things change, the more they remain the same...
I was a little young for Woodstock but when I was in high school there was a big concert, called Summer Jam, held at the racetrack in Watkins Glen. We decided not to go because we didn't want to deal with the crowd, which turned out to be the biggest rock concert (in terms of attendance) ever held. We were at my friend's cottage about halfway up the east side of Seneca Lake (about 20 miles north of Watkins) and we could see, directly across the lake from us, the huge traffic jam heading to Summer Jam. We were glad we decided to hang out at the lake buttin' off instead of doing it in traffic. :)
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