I was one of the 500,000 ...just turned 17 years old in the summer of 1969 ...my friend Ralph and I hitch-hiked from Andover , CT ( eastern CT near UConn ) all the way to the festival . We went for the music ( mainly The Who ; Jimi Hendrix ; CCR ...) . We made it to New Paltz , NY the first day . With no place to stay , we inquired at a bus station where , fortunately , a young sympathizer was working . He made a phone call to his buddy , and the next thing we knew we were spending the night in a huge house which belonged to a Prof at the local college . The Prof and his family were 80% moved out of the place so they offered it to us , two total strangers , for the night ! We had the whole place to ourselves . The next morning the dude from the bus station showeed up and offered to drive us all the way to the festival ( never made it due to huge traffic jams ) . These folks I am positive were libs , especially the Prof with whom we spoke on the phone . They treated us like long lost friends , and we were very grateful indeed .
Nobody expected 500000 people to show up
at Woodstock , least of all us . We were totally unprepared food-wise ( we brought some nuts and raisins ! ) and it was trek and a half through 1000s of people to the over-crowded food stalls . Well , total strangers sitting near us shared what little food they had with us . Probably voted for Clinton years later .
Hitching back from Woodstock , we were picked up by a Navy recruiter in Danbury , CT or thereabouts and the guy threatened to beat the shit out of us because our hair was too long ( Coincidentally , my long haired buddy Ralph ended up joining the Navy a couple of years later ) . It was a helluva ride let me tell ya . We were hassled by clean cut travelling salesmen and other red neck types during our trip .
Don't be too quick to paint all hippies or their long ago
sympathizers as a--holes ! A--holes exist in all directions - left , center and right . Right ?
I was there too. My husband is shocked and saddened by this.
I was 18 and had just graduated from High School.
I voted Democrat the first time I voted. Believe it was for McGovern. Soon thereafter I was thinking about it and realized I was not a Democrat, I was a Republican. Have voted that way ever since. We were kids then, many from my School were in Nam including my cousins in the Marines. We thought it was an adventure to go to Woodstock. I just remember being dirty.