Monday, August 10, 2009

by the time I got to Woodstock, I was half a million years old


I had been planning to visit the original Woodstock 69 festival site for about 12 years and just now got around to it. I knew it wasn't going anywhere. So, Patty and Julie and I drove up there on a really beautiful day to check it out. Naturally, I took a boom box and Jimi's Woodstock recording of "Star Spangled Banner" and we let it rock whilst we tried to absorb whatever vibe might be left. Its a beautiful place but there's nothing much "Woodstock" about it anymore. Its more like "let's make some money with a museum stock" with country club looking grassy knolls and all of that. Also, they have signs prohibiting public intoxication, loud music and so forth. Not very Woodstock at all. There was some vibe, but it seemed to be more over the hill from the site where farm fields still exist. Also, Bethel looks as it did in during Woodstock. Ain't much happening.
It was good to go there and let Jimi float over the site again and the area is unremittingly beautiful and in the middle of nowhere - which I like. But the vibe, alas, has pretty much fled and must be provided by the visitor.

3 comments:

  1. What a neat idea for a pilgrimage, especially on the 40th anniversary.

    We are stardust, we are golden, We are billion year old carbon, And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

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  2. least you made it, jimi would appreciate the pilgrimage

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  3. When I reformatted my blog, I lost a few new links, including this one, but now I found it and you are getting linked up!
    I don't know if you saw them, but thay are still posted on my blog page. I finally got a functioning zip drive and posted a few of my Woodstock pics.
    Yeah, you can see an 18 yr old microdot in the midst of the crowd.
    It took 40 years for me to come to terms that I was at Woodstock. The immediate affect was very traumatic to me and involved a few weeks in verious jail facilities in New York State and Toledo, Ohio.
    I also developed an aversion to crowds and most rock music.
    I didn't really connect with rock again until I started to get involved in punk...then I started playing in punk and grunge bands and I had trouble reconciling myself as a ninilistic modern boy with the kid who was at Woodstock... so I never really talked about it.
    This year was my coming out so to speak...
    I was only in jail once since then....

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