On August 15, 1969 - Something Special Happened. (Non-Valkyrie Related)

[carolinarider09]

I meant to post this yesterday.     

The Woodstock Music Festival began on August 15, 1969, as half a million people waited on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, for the three-day music festival to start. Billed as “An Aquarian Experience: 3 Days of Peace and Music,” the epic event would later be known simply as Woodstock and become synonymous with the counterculture movement of the 1960s.

https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/woodstock

The only objection I have to the paragraph above is notion of “counterculture”.  It was peaceful, as I understand it and everyone sort of supported others as needed.  No, I was not there.

One Woodstock song from YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf0Dm-OaTNk&list=PLNtWJ2sAQ7iIY-YRqkaGsPl3trMdZvkNm

[John Schmidt]

I remember it well but didn't attend since I was a working dad at the time. That gathering at Woodstock got a fair amount of press at the time, I've often wondered what the news would have been like had present day means of coverage been available back then. I was 31 and my youngest of four daughters was about to turn one yr. old. She now is about to turn 56, causing me to stop and take a stroll down memory lane. What has happened to me and the rest of the family in 55 years makes me wonder how I made it through all of it. Needless to say...it wasn't on my own power, I would have failed miserably.

[Jess from VA]

I was just getting home from HS football practice one day when my next door neighbor's two (older) sons got home from the Woodstock event in one of the brother's VW minibus (on the island of Grosse Ile MI, downriver Detroit).  They were muddy and tired and looked pretty beat up (staggering up the long sidewalk).  I was too young for them to ever hang out with.  I asked where they had been and they told me, and I knew about Woodstock, and said "cool beans."     Later, I got the whole story.

Their dad was my family's MD for many years.

I went to a few big rock concerts in my youth, but nothing on that scale.  For music, I preferred indoor venues without the rain, mud, heat and poor sound systems.   

[carolinarider09]

The comments above, about when and where got me to thinking.  

I made post because, in recent years, I have come to see the event as something that shows we can all work together.  There were some issues there but......

The date was just a date until I saw the two comments above.  And I started to think.....where was I?

July 18 -24 1969 I was in Kenosha Wisconsin proposing to my wife to be.  (Also the Apollo 11 Moon Landing happened)

August 16, 1969 I was probably somewhere off the coast of Florida on the USS Wasp (CVS-18) as she conducted flight training exercises.  I forget the aircraft type but they were jets.

Some good memories......

Edited to add a picture from July 1969 from a "Park" in Kenosha Wisconsin.  Yes it's a picture of a picture.



On my wife-to-be's left hand is the engagement ring.  On my left arm is the Zodiac Seawolf watch I purchased while onboard the USS Wasp. 

[Jess from VA]

On my left arm is the Zodiac Seawolf watch I purchased while on board the USS Wasp.

I bought a Foolex (fake Rolex) when stationed overseas (a fraction of the cost of a real one).  A real Rolex stainless case and crystal top, but all Seiko works (I was later told).  It served me well for many years (but I abused it too much).  When the crystal needed replaced (along with the battery) the jeweler told me the real crystal mineral top cover was very expensive, so I replaced it with a simple plastic one.

It just so happens I have this watch out to get a new battery and plastic top cover (again).  (That's why I was thinking about it Jim.)   

[old2soon]

      I'd been out of The Navy bout a year and a half and was working. I'd be married for the 1st time iin about 4 months or so. And I'd heard about Woodstock and sorta wishful wondered WHAT it would have been like to attend. And I was only 25 then! Yesterday-lotsa rain-I was over on youtube music listening to the Mamas and Papas. Mama Cass Elliot had such a Crystal Clear Voice. NOT Woodstock but yet another meander down Memory Lane!  RIDE SAFE.

[Oss]

Being how it was so close I know quite a few folks who went.   All said it was peaceful and not as wet after the first day as seems to be the legend.  Only 1 person I know who stayed to the very end

There was a second woodstock at 25 yrs but not the same of course  

Finding one's car seemed to be the universal funny story as some parked many miles away

I was too young to go in fact only found out after the fact

[Jersey mike]

I was 4 but I do remember all the guff about the summer of love. My parents were NOT pop or rock music fans and I heard a lot of hippie freaks comments.

[RP#62]

One of my high school buddies went.  Later, when the movie came out, he went to see it and they wouldn't let him in because he was under age.

-RP

[Bigwolf]

I missed it!  I was 21, Working 3rd shift at Lynchburg Foundry, Taking pre-engineering classes in college, running around in my hot rod truck, and, in my spare time, trying to find easy young women.  It was over before I heard about it.

[Jess from VA]

One of my high school buddies went.  Later, when the movie came out, he went to see it and they wouldn't let him in because he was under age.

-RP

That is hilarious.   

[cookiedough]

I was right about then being conceived in mom's womb.  ooohhhh, the thought....

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

I was 12 then, and knew about it.

If I'd been a few years older I would have probably hitchhiked there. So it's probably a good thing I was 12.

It's hard to imagine hitchhiking anywhere now, but I used to do so occasionally back then.

First time was to a free concert at a neighboring city, Terre Haute, IN. REO was one of the bands, I  think that would have been 1971 or 72.

[carolinarider09]

I was 12 then, and knew about it.

If I'd been a few years older I would have probably hitchhiked there. So it's probably a good thing I was 12.

It's hard to imagine hitchhiking anywhere now, but I used to do so occasionally back then.

First time was to a free concert at a neighboring city, Terre Haute, IN. REO was one of the bands, I  think that would have been 1971 or 72.

Regarding hitchhiking........  I think I have told this story before so, please forgive me for being repetitious, but there is a reason. 

As noted above; Hitchhiking:   At Clemson you had to be a Junior and with a certain grade level to have a car on campus.  So, when I was going there I use to hitchhike from Clemson to Greenville to see my girlfriend friend (oh, interesting thing about her (her name was Ann Siegler) she contacted me about six months ago, after her husband pass away).   

No big deal.  On my last days in Clemson, I made friends with a lad my age from Long Island, NY.  So, on the last day of school, my Junior year (I was not going back to school) he suggested we go to New York to visit his girlfriend.  I don't know why he really invited me to go maybe he did not want to go alone.

We could not afford to drive so we hitchhiked.  We went to Columbia, SC and stood on Two Notch Rd and put our thumbs out.  It was the fifth of sixth car that came by that stopped.  It had several Army people inside and they asked where we were going and we said, New York City.  They said so were they and invited us to ride along. 

Coming back home was another story but still no issues expect we did meet Big Bad Leroy Brown and it took three days instead of just one. 

Still, I would not do it today unless there was no other options.   Far different world. 

But the experience lives with me as you can see.  When in New York I was on my own (except for a place to sleep).  Rode the subway, never a care.   Walked down the streets at night, never a care.   Just a young lad almost 21 (in a few months).   It was, as you will note, an experience that I shall never, ever forget. 

[DIGGER]

The movie " Taking Woodstock" was an excellent movie about how woodstock came about.  I have watched it several times.  It starts in the period of time before Woodstock was even conceived and goes all the way thru to the end of the Woodstock experience.   

[carolinarider09]

The movie " Taking Woodstock" was an excellent movie about how woodstock came about.  I have watched it several times.  It starts in the period of time before Woodstock was even conceived and goes all the way thru to the end of the Woodstock experience.   

I will see if I can find it.  Thanks. 

I occasionally watch the video/songs on Youtube based on the event.  I always find them interesting for th time as I remember it. 

[BudMan]

I had just graduated and was working as a lifeguard for the city of Memphis.  I only heard about Woodstock when I arrived at Mississippi State the following month. Had I known about it, I probably would not have gone anyway. Not my kind of thing, then or now.

[Willow]

I was just completed my first year as a United States Marine.  I was not at all tempted to attend.