Forty years ago today

The year 1969 had a lot going on. You had the bizarro moon landing, the surging NY Mets baseball team who eventually won the world series, Vietnam and the draft lottery and Woodstock. Our neighborhood group on Long Island was graduating from High School that summer and four of us decided to attend this music and arts festival somewhere upstate. I can remember seeing all the posters and newspaper ads for this and figured it would be a great way to see all these performers in one show. It did require camping for a few days and besides sleeping on the beach now and then this was new to me. At 18 it didn't much matter plus I was heading for the military and figured I may want to get used to tent life. (this adventure ultimately influenced my decision to join the navy and avoid tent living)..

Our group of four went up to this town of White Lake, tickets in hand, in one guy's father's brand new Dodge Charger a few days before the concert started. We brought some food but figured we'd just buy food at the concession stands. We got to the site and there were some people arriving. People from all over the country were showing up in all sorts of vehicles. There was plenty of room and we set up camp behind the stage area. As we got closer to showtime the crowd was growing. The campground we selected went from plenty of room to almost no space between tents - just enough room to walk over to the port-o-sans (made famous in the Woodstock movie). This was my first up close and personal look at the hippie nation - painted buses, groups from all over the country, naked swimming and drugs. It was quite a sight and experience.

The shows started that August weekend and I can remember sitting on that hillside and hearing Richie Havens kick off the show. The crowd at this point was really building and by that first night the NY State thruway was closed. I was wondering how our parents were reacting but after all we were part of history. Not eating, but part of history.

The performances were legendary and as I recall the sound (for 1969) was pretty good. We could hear much of the music from our campsite and there was a projection screen so we could see much of it (reversed). We got through the rains and the helicopters dropping food supplies - uncooked pasta and some kind of K-rations. The concession stands were not functional and the crowd had taken down the fences which did make this a free concert - so much for our tickets. We did wonder how the car was - parked on the side of the road or what was once a road.

Having seen most of the acts I think by Sunday with hunger and dried mud as our main motivators we decided to head back. Step one was to find the car which we did. It was in tact and as the music continued we started heading south. I know there was a ton of traffic and I can remember listening to non music radio as we wondered what the world was saying about this event. We didn't stop until we were safely back in our town. I remember wanting to stop somewhere upstate to get some food but we got back to our home town and a familiar diner figuring we'd eat before seeing our families. I remember ordering some food and milk.. I gulped the milk and it was spoiled and I mean LUMPY spoiled. I drank the free water and waited till I got home. At least the guys walking on the moon had Tang!

How does this relate to my Time Killing theme? This August 2009 weekend three of the four of us (maybe all four) will be getting together after forty years. We did the same in 1989 after twenty years which was captured on video tape. We all dressed the part in hippie garb and coincidentally our real estate agent brought a prospective buyer to view our "for-sale home" during the party. To this day, as captured on tape, I think our retro clothing and behavior helped sell that house...That guy thought we were nuts.