My girlfriend of six weeks at that time and I were at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. I have not only been living with the lasting memories of that time, but I have also been living with the same girlfriend-- NOW MY WIFE OF 50 YEARS AS OF December 27, 2019. Ya, I know, met in July married in December!
RIGHT: Timon's cast of HAIR, 1969-70.
Of the thousands of kids who were at Woodstock we were probably the least likely ones to be there. As I remember, one of my cousins asked me if I would like to go to a concert with her and her friends. I immediately said yes based on my past concert experiences. I mean why not. I had been to college weekend concerts at St. Bonaventure U. in Olean NY to see artist like Dionne Warwick and others of the like. And I know my girlfriend had seen The Letterman Group at SUNY Buffalo.
SOOOO with little or no information on hand I asked my girlfriend to go with me. She said yes. We were in the beginning stages of our relationship and we so enjoyed being with each other that we didn't care who or what kind of a concert it was.
As the date of the concert was close, my cousin told me to meet her and her friends in a parking lot of a grocery store on Bailey Avenue in Buffalo at 7:00pm. We were going to drive all night to get to the concert. Because we were to follow them, I don't remember asking where we were going or if I did ask-- I really didn't care.
Well on the night of the meet, as my cousin and her friends drove down from the commune in Canada where they were living, I was picking up my girlfriend at her parent’s house. I can still picture her walking out the back door of the house and as usual she looked great. I said hi and took her little overnight suit case, which I am sure was filled with at least three sets of clothes underwear and make up and put in the trunk of my 1967 ford Galaxy 500 next to my bag and my work belt. At this time, I was working as an Iron Worker.
To jump ahead with the story, we arrived at Bethel early in the morning of the first day of the concert. I didn't even notice that there weren't many if any motels where we were. While we were following one of the vehicles in the group, I saw the one in front of mine veer off the road and into a field. I pulled over and asked the driver if he had lost control of the vehicle. He looked back at me with a puzzled look and said " everything is fine, this is where we are staying, didn't your cousin tell you to bring a tent? "
Well after the shock and anger wore off, we decided to stay and make the best of it. We were parked next to a group of large pine trees and myself being a past Boy Scout combined with my skills at tying rebar, which was part of my job as an Iron Worker I decided to make a lean to from pine branches.
With luggage left in the trunk of the car I grabbed my pliers and reel of tie wire and we began tearing branches off of the pine trees and tying them up with wire.
Well yada yada yada, the lean-to turned out great. The problem was now our hands were loaded with pine sap so we decided to go somewhere to clean up HA!
Like anyone there was worried about being lean.
Well as it turns out by making a right turn instead of a left turn after cleaning up we never got back to the concert and where our great lean-to was.
Our final destination was some motel in New Jersey. Can't remember where and don't care. One might say we were an extension of the Woodstock love fest that weekend.
SO BOTTOM LINE IS WE WERE THERE BUT WE WERN'T!
I HAVE ENJOYED TELLING THIS STORY FOR THE LAST 50 YEARS AND NOW AT AGE 70, I HOPE TO TELL IT FOR THE NEXT 30.