WOODSTOCK MEMORIES 2

My family had a bungalow since the 50's at Top Hill Bungalows along 55w. The road leading up to Max's farm. I was 11. My mother suffered a mild heart attack the week before and the rest of my family couldn't get upstate. My aunt and other people on the colony watched my brother and I. My brother (17) worked as a volunteer at the site and became friends with Michael lang. I and a friend had free roam and spent most of our time at the concert. We hung out at the Hog Farm, saw Townsend throw his guitar. Watched the mud sliding. Everything. Even followed Wavy Gravy around. I figured he was important and he looked wild. The guy who ran the store on our bungalow colony was gouging the people: $5 for milk, and bread; $10 for cigarettes; selling water (before you had to buy water). SO my friends and I set up a table along the road and gave food away. If anyone who paid us we used the money to buy more stuff. It was great. Does anyone remember? We set up our table in front of Top Hill Bungalows.
Robert Rundbaken

It has been said if you remember being there, then you really weren't there. I was there and have my original 3 day ticket. I arrived 2 days before the concert began and sat in the front of the stage. The true meaning and impact of the event grows greater with the passage of time and my life was forever changed for having been there.
Michael R. Marotto

Yeah, I was there - I still have my original program. I gave away some of the first liquid crystal 'touch me' devices ever made - anybody seen one?
John Griffithe

I WAS THERE! My daughter, Siouxsie, was conceived there! But by whom I will never know! Woodstock was not just a concert, but a way of life, it was a breakthrough where we as a whole community fought to revive peace & love! Not War!!! We were NOT rebellious, just anxious and curious! Most of us were teenagers, but we were very smart and knowledgeable about the politics that were corrupting our world in 1969!!! Woodstock lives in my heart FOREVER! I will never forget the music, the people, the drugs, the mud, the smell (it stunk!), and the peace and togetherness of us all! Jimi Hendrix is (was) a wonderful person to chat with! I drank with him a few times! I was a groupie! So I met alot of famous singers! Including Iron Butterfly, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, ETC! Woodstock was a fun memory and it still lives in our hearts forever! PEACE! and Love your Neighbor man!! P.S. Since I was a traveling hippie, I was also at the famous Monterey Pop Festival in San Fransisco, CA. where all my hippie road dogs still live today! PEACE, ATLANTA
Atlanta Lassiter - Phoenix, AZ

I was conceived at Woodstock 1969, and my father is unkwown. Pretty trippy HuH?? PEACE!! My mother was a major hippie!
Siouxsie Rowbotham - Phoenix, AZ

I was at WOODSTOCK in 1969, I was 27 yrs old at the time and going through the HIPPIE stage of my life. I don't remember alot of it because most of us were very wet, cold, and stoned! I don't think I've ever seen so many people in one place in my life. The music, the people and the things that went on in those three days will always be some of my favorite memories. For those of you that were not born yet, or did not make it to WOODSTOCK, those days can never be repeated. WOODSTOCK was a state of mind, not a place, and only those who were there understand what I'm saying. You can not live in another generations shoe's. I'm glad it was my generation and that I was lucky enough to experience it.
Janice

I still have the four individual day tickets I ordered through the mail. We left northern Kentucky for Woodstock but went to New York City instead because our local disc jockey called in to the station from Woodstock and said that anyone still on the road should turn back because traffic was backed up for miles and we'd never get near the place.
On the way home, we stopped at a rest stop and the aforementioned DJ was there. When we told him we had followed his advice and stayed away, he said we shouldn't have listened to him ...
That same guy runs the radio station ... and I'm still mad at him for causing us to miss such an awesome adventure! Peace
Jan

I was 19 years old, just graduated from high school, dodging the draft, & running wild. Hitchhiked up from my home in Macon, GA with 2 friends! What a trip! Clean & sober for 7 years now thru AA. What a trip!
Thanks----Peace, Love, Sex & Life.
Nat

I was there in '69 (still have my tickets, in fact) and, surprisingly enough, I actually remember most of the weekend (although not necessarily in chronological order). There was a feeling of community, a spirit of cooperation that touched everyone who was there. It may have only existed for a few days, but it lives on in some form in all of us. "If we all share what we've got with the people around us, there's plenty for everyone." Peace. :-)
Chris S.

Well, as best I can remember, I was there too! :) A dozen or so of us from Syracuse and the Northeast traveled for the festival. Arriving Friday, we were in total AWE of what was happening. Working our way thru the crowds, after finding a space in a cow pasture to park the van, we attempted to join the line for admission, our tickets in hand. About 50 feet from the gate, we heard "IT'S A FREE CONCERT!!!" That was the start of the most incredible weekend of my life. From there on, it was UPHILL! The music got better, the weather got nastier and the intensity grew. Nothing can re-create the scene! Total Peace, Love and Happiness was the spirit, a spirit I still carry to this day. The memories, although blurred and fuzzy are as specific as yesterday. Most vividly, I remember the Army helicoptors!!! I KNEW we were all gonna die! There we were, 500,000 of the nations "worst" element, on a hillside, ripped to the gills and enjoying life, and along came the army to gun us all down!!
What a RELIEF!!! They were medical supply ships, bring aid for the hungry, the sick and the newborn!! The few minutes of total fear experienced that evening (which seemed like hours) were clammed to relief when I saw the Red Cross symbols on the army birds. Thank God!! (any God will do). Amazing what Purple Mesc will do in triple doses!!! Yep, that was 1969 and I too am still alive. It's March, 1997 now and I still have my original tickets (Never could send 'um in for the refund), the Life Magazine Commemorative Issue and the Sgt. Pepper jeans I wore, slept in, swam in, and loved in for the weekend. On Sunday, with only a handful of oranges left, I made my way from the van back to the hill. I left the campsite with a dozen oranges, one for each of my traveling buddies, but by the time I got back to the hill, I had only 3. What the hell, that's what the weekend was about...Sharing! I never went to the 25th reunion, I just didn't want to be disappointed in any way. Maybe that was a mistake, but again, the weekend in 1969 cannot, will not and won't ever be duplicated. The 1/2 million of us that were there know what I mean, and the rest of you just have to imagine. Thank the music for the imagination, it's the next best thing to being there. I'm sending my contribution in ASAP, expecting nothing in return except a continued memory of the single most important event in the history of modern human existance. Peace be with you...always. And never forget, Love One Another..
Signed: Fred Harris, Woodstock Veteran, St. Augustine, FL.

I remember it all. It's almost dream-like to me now though. As I looked up into Jerry Garcia's face, a tear came to my eyes. It just hit me that all this love and beauty would soon just fade away. Peace was a alive in this N.Y. commune of young people living their dream. When it was all over I stopped and realized that it would never just fade away; WOODSTOCK would live forever in our hearts and as long as people love, the spirit of Woodstock would live forever. Times change, memories fade in the misty haze of what should and should not be, the flower children grow up and become working parts of society, but the music stays forever in our hearts. The DEAD will never die. ~PEACE*LOVE*FREEDOM~
Rain-cloud

Bring me back down the road of memory....where a flip of the hand brought a sign of peace and love. Gentleness ruled, and love abound. We were all filled with love for one another, and nature was the key. Woodstock, music, free and wild , births of children, peace and of unison in number that only a generation of love could provide. Jimi.....Janis.....they were there, and they brought, like so many others, their best. Storms....hunger....nothing stopped us. Great day....great memory....take me back again.
Flowerchild

Here is another story from one of our friends, Bobbi Pabst:
Greetings of Peace!
My best friend Bonnie and I had left NJ to head to Calif in early summer of '69. Once there, we found out about the Woodstock Festival. We hopped back in our VW minivan and hit the road back to NY! We got there early enough in the week to get into the site, and parked the bus on some local guy's property for the weekend, set up a base camp near the HOG FARM, and headed into our future. In the words of our beloved ARLO GUTHRIE, "MAN,ALOTTA FREAKS!" It was BOSS! The world has never been the same and neither have we!
Now you have to remember, we had the war going in NAM (that totally SUCKED), and that friggin Nixon in the White House. We meant business. We wanted things to change. I remember sitting in the field waiting for the bands to start and someone started making peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches and we'd take a bite and pass it on. Food was getting rare. The stands that were set up were such a hassle to get to cause you had to walk over so many people, it was hardly worth trying. When you got up there, the line was killer. Anyway, so we just all shared food! I have many stories of that weekend. I fell in love a thousand times with guys who would walk by and we'd lock eye contact and keep walking. It was constant connecting. Walking by and touching or looking deep at each other's eyes and moving on to the next person to share with as they walked by. There was a purity of the spirit there...a genuine sharing of soul. My life changed there, I quit smoking cigarettes on an acid trip, we paid $5 to a farmer with a tractor to tow our van out of the mud after Woodstock ended, and we made it into the movie! Right after SHA NA NA and before Joe Cocker! We're doing YOGA with Tom Law (I'm the one with the headband on)! THANKS TOM! Bonnie is still my best friend. She and I return to the site everytime I'm back to NY. She and her husband have a farm nearby the site and they go to every reunion. We went to the 25th together and it was so great. Anyone that has the chance to go to the site for a reunion should do it. The 25th was GREAT! I'm looking forward to the 30th! Arlo was at the 25th, Melanie, Richie Havens, and many musicians came to BETHEL from Woodstock '94. Thanks for sharing my memories with me here and feel free to keep THE WOODSTOCK NATION ALIVE! Peace to All,
Love, Bobbi

I went AWOL from the army when a buddy asked me if I wanted to go to a rock concert in New York. It turned out to be Woodstock. It changed my life and still is.
Jim Henry

My best friend, Ed, and I were a couple of 19 year old musicians from outside of Philly that drove up to the concert with tickets, believe it not. We listened to more great music in that one weekend than most young rockers get to experience in a lifetime. Rock on!
John King

I remember eating chocolate sprinkles on the way, sleeping in the trunk of a car and Jimi Hendrix. I'm one of the owners of the Survival letter.
Carla Stampora-Kuntz

I was there. It was not fun. It was a very rough weekend. Try sitting in piss...no food...wet and dirty...lost...scared of those wicked storms. The movie does not reflect the event at all.
Rick

Our group has been returning each year since 89 to celebrate the anniversary. At the 26th reunion, I got to go up on stage (on the 15th) to recite the poem I wrote to commemorate the anniversary...WHAT A RUSH:

WOODSTOCK TWENTY-SIX

This holy place of the Woodstock Nation
Should be saved for future generations
How can we perserve this shrine
So it's forever yours and mine

So all of those who come hereafter
Can share peace, love, music, laughter
When will the politicians yield
and consecrate this cherished field

Last year, we celebrated twenty-five
Years of the dream we keep alive
And now we mark another year
So raise your voice Let the world hear

I propose this toast, "Let's have a ball
To peace, to love, to rock & roll
To all of us who've passed the test
To the twenty-sixth Freedom Fest"

So let's try to turn back the clock
To find the Spirit of Woodstock
Let us F*** with space and time
Year by year til sixty-nine

In this celebration of peace and love
There are those we should be thinking of
Who gave their lives for you & me
Who only cared that we'd be free

And think of those who didn't fight
Who believed that only peace was right
There was no right, there was no wrong
So lift your glass and join this song

I propose this toast, "Let's have a ball
To peace, to love, to rock & roll
To all of us who've passed the test
To the twenty-sixth Freedom Fest"

I'm sure now that if we try
To raise our voices to the sky
Loud enough for the gods to hear
We'll be back here every year
JOHN C. HILLER aka/ DR LUV

WOODSTOCK TWENTY-SEVEN

Welcome home to Yasgur's farm
We come in peace; we mean no harm
Let's join together and celebrate
This anniversary we commemorate

We come in peace and love today
Since sixty-nine it's been that way
Close your eyes so you can feel
The holy presence in this field

Turn to the person next to you
Give them a hug and when you do
Feel the love that's in their touch
We haven't really changed that much

From sixty-nine to ninety-six
Bethel is the name that fits
This magic and hallowed place
A temple for the human race

This is the twenty-seventh year
That we've been coming here
So take your glass and lift it high
Raise your voice up to the sky

I propose this toast let's have a ball
To peace to love to rock and roll
To all of us who've passed the test
To the twenty-seventh FREEDOM FEST
JOHN C. HILLER aka/ DR LUV

Wow, what a concert! All I have to say is I had a great time at Woodstock '69! It was groovy! I had a really bad trip there though. Thought I saw a dog. Not an ordinary dog though, he talked. Scared the livin' S*%# out of me. I still have my clothes, tickets, and other trash from it. I still can't believe it is all true. Met my husband, best friend, and was reunited with a brother who was put up for adoption years earlier. It was great!!!!!!! Peace*Love*Harmony*And SEX to ALL!!!!!!!
Theresa(Lily of Peace)

Yeah, I was there. A small southern town 20 year old. I just wasn't prepared for this! My friend, Bevin, asked me to go. I didn't know much about it, but the possibility of hearing all those bands sounded great. I'd never been so far away before. It took us twelve hours to get there in Bevin's Mustang. I knew I'd left NC behind when I saw people laying up against the fence shooting up. We walked around some, found out there wasn't any food left to buy, watched a few bands, sat in the rain, debated whether to stay, pulled out about 2 am Saturday and "drove" 24 hrs to get back home.
Tom Turner - Durham, NC USA

I was there... 17 years old and probably the only straight one around. Little did I know that I was taking part in a historical event. Looking back,I don't have that many fond memories because of the mud,rain,drugs,etc..... but, I'm glad I was there anyway.
Anne Marie

This website brings back some truly great memories. The Who performing "Tommy" (ALL of it) at the crack of dawn, followed by Jefferson Airplane's "MorningManiacMusic" were just two of MANY GREAT moments. Monday morning (Aug 18) we rolled the seventy (or so) miles on up to Woodstock where we caught Patrick Sky at the Woodstock Playhouse with a crowd of maybe two or three hundred people. What a contrast! Thanks for this website! Great memories!
Richard Hill

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