Ode To Woodstock

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As an older Boomer now with a bit more perspective under my belt and a better knowledge of history I can well imagine what our parents were thinking and feeling...I would never send my kids off to something like this. But our parents' generation--not as micro-managing as we are.

The music festival at Woodstock would have been completely off the radar for those men and women who survived Normandy and Hiroshima, who fought back tyranny. For us, it made perfect sense. One big perfect, innocent valentine to life, and we'll not see it's like again.

Comments

  1. OwenAugust 10, 2009 at 4:46 AM

    Hi Distracted, missed that one by a few years, unfortunately, what a trip it must have been... perhaps one small part of it lived on in the scene around Grateful Dead concerts, the villages the sprang up in every parking lot outside the shows... one in particular up in Oxford Plains, Maine one summer where at least a hundred thousand people turned up had a Woodstockish feeling in the air... but I think you are right, nothing will ever be even remotely like Woodstock was... did you get there ???

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eleonora BaldwinAugust 10, 2009 at 5:23 AM

    I imagine the smell those days in those musical meadows to be an intoxicating mixture of hemp, marijuana and freedom.

    You're so right, nothing will ever top Woodstock. Ever again. Were you there, then?

    Peace,
    Lola xx

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  3. NanceAugust 10, 2009 at 7:54 AM

    I was born in 1959, but my students constantly ask me if I went to Woodstock. Duh. Even when I tell them how old I am. And no, I never lie.

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  4. Sarah AnneAugust 10, 2009 at 10:42 AM

    Did people really do that?

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  5. aimsAugust 10, 2009 at 12:42 PM

    I was 14 and 1 year away from leaving home. A very straightlaced kid having been raised by strict Baptist. I was never much into the drug scene - more into the alcohol - so would have given it a miss even if I had been a few years older.

    But I remember how everyone reacted to it! And over the years how we've all marveled at it.

    No - it will never happen again - like so many of the good things that the world needs.

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  6. UnknownAugust 10, 2009 at 1:45 PM

    OK,
    if my memory serves me....
    Country Joe and the Fish...?
    Music was incredible...as I heard from an album..
    But it seemed to degenerate with rain, bad acid (not that I would know personally) and hangovers...people do strange things sometimes..
    as with most of the things that occured in my youth, Woodstock is an event remembered thru rose-colored glasses...
    No, I didn't attend, too young, but an ex husband did....

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  7. smartzAugust 10, 2009 at 2:59 PM

    I was a very young single mom with two boys who would have given almost anything to have been there. I think I spent the next 10 years trying to find a substitute. Fortunately, I finally grew up, bought a VCR of Woodstock, and enjoyed entertaining my grown sons with stories about the "good old days."

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  8. GailAugust 10, 2009 at 4:57 PM

    A historical event, indeed. The music, awesome.

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  9. UnknownAugust 10, 2009 at 6:31 PM

    No, I didn't go to Woodstock. I was 13 yrs old and not quite so adventurous. I have fond memories of it from afar and the mythology surrounding it. Fabulous music though.

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  10. LydiaAugust 11, 2009 at 1:20 AM

    Thanks for finding this marvelous video. "20/20" had a good report on Sunday night that featured information about some key background people who made it work, with some footage that was new to me.
    Our local paper ran a big spread last week about Woodstock, saying that the age group in attendance are now 55 youngest, 70 oldest. One of the reasons we're hearing so much about the 40th anniversary is because the 70-year-olds aren't sure they'll be around to commemorate the 50th anniversary.

    Wish I'd gone. I graduated from high school a few months before Woodstock. When the movie came out later I asked my boyfriend why the hell we didn't go to Woodstock. It just confounded me.....

    ReplyDelete
  11. RasChocAugust 11, 2009 at 8:11 AM

    OMG! They are definitely having a ball, but SERIOUSLY, i am glad we are out of that phase... right?

    ReplyDelete

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