Why American life went on as normal during the killer pandemic of 1969

NY Post ^ | May 16 2020 | Eric Spitznagel

[knighthawk]

Patti Mulhearn Lydon, 68, doesn’t have rose-colored memories of attending Woodstock in August 1969. The rock festival, which took place over four days in Bethel, NY, mostly reminds her of being covered in mud and daydreaming about a hot shower.

She was a 17-year-old high-school student from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, when she made the trek to Max Yasgur’s farm with her boyfriend Rod. For three nights, she shared an outdoor bedroom with 300,000 other rock fans from around the country, most of whom were probably not washing their hands for the length of “Happy Birthday” — or at all.

“There was no food or water, but one of our guys cut an apple into twenty-seven slices and we all shared it,” she said. At some point, a garden hose from one of the farm’s neighbors was passed around and strangers used it as a communal source for bathing and drinking, she said.

[a fool in paradise]

They had to deal with a half a million stinking unwashed hippies.

At least Sha Sha Na stood up there and said “Get A Job”

[OrioleFan]

Oh, we got a break to watch the moon landing.

[a fool in paradise]

To be sure , Democrats were in power when the flu hit America in 1968.

[dfwgator]

“Is she right? ‘Cause I know that’s the *popular* version of what went on there. “

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9DO26O6dIg

[TheConservativeBanker]

Don't forget "Alone Together" and "Safer At Home". They have the sound of all the meaningless trigger phrases in Brave New World. However, very few today have read it or 1984.

[TexasGator]

“The baby boomers are hellish liars and hypocrites “

Get over it.

[HotHunt]

Hey, I didn't attend Woodstock or do drugs. I wasn't in some drug-induced haze. I was in college finishing my business degree and getting ready to go on active duty in the Air Force.

And yet I don't remember one peep out of the media or politicians about some pandemic that killed a 100,000 people in this country. I was a non-issue.

That's why this corona virus is different. The politicians and the media have an agenda and have caused mass hysteria in this country over a virus bug that is not unlike other bugs in the past that come and go every couple or few years.

People die. Mostly older people. Many people recover and move on with their lives. Saying we have to make everyone safe is some "safe space" idea that our lives carry no risks. Living always carries risks. But to destroy our booming economy is not the trade off.

This is the politicians and the media trying to take one last effort at removing or destroying Trump because they know they can't defeat him in the election.

[Luke21]

It is correct, but hardly noble. The boomers were moralizers. Look at the filth that is apparent in the pictures. It was a fest of sex, drugs, and pestilence. I never even heard until this week that any kind of health problems or pandemic existed. Nobody talked about that. Nor did the news.

Woodstock is not something most of us would understand or have wanted to take part in. Groups of people were having sex in the mud after dropping acid. People were acting like beasts.

[Luke21]

Think Bill Clinton. Very representative as the first boomer president. By the way, I’m a boomer.

[foreverfree]

Wow, Woodstock Nation is getting up there, and so are the non hippie 17yos of the summer of ‘69. :^). Me, I turned 8 the month of Woodstock and only remember the moon landing and day camp in Delaware and vacationing at the DE beaches.

[Wuli]

People expected, as we do now, that for the most part, we will get through the “pandemic” whether governments do or not not close most businesses down. So what’s the difference? The difference you can compare, between 1969 and now, is what was then and what will be the state of our economy, the economy that living depends on, after we get through this, and to what extent will our so called solutions have contributed to that economy.

[Luke21]

I don’t think the hippies were ruling the south because they looked cross eyed at anybody with long hair. Best typified by this Charlie Daniels song from 1973.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJrRwTTqm0o

[rktman]

LOL! No problemo.

[rktman]

Well it rained at Woodstock you know. It was really really tough. LOL!

[PIF]

The 1967 Monterey Pop Festival was far better, fun and just amazing - everything the hype about Woodstock claimed. Read about Woodstock on TTY machine overseas - missed nothing, felt sorry for those that went.

[PIF]

The best of us went to Vietnam. The worst of us went to Woodstock and spit on us when we came home.

[SoCal Pubbie]

I am a baby boomer.

I was eleven at the time of Woodstock, and wouldn’t turn twelve until late in the fall. I’ve never done LSD, cocaine, meth, or other hard drug and I’ve smoked pot on just three occasions, the last time about forty-two years ago. Unlike Bill, I did inhale but didn’t get high I guess because I had already been drinking.

I’ve been a Republican since I’ve been eligible to vote. I’m no saint, but I’m no tyrant either. I can’t recall advocating that other generations not be allowed to have fun. In fact, I’ve opposed the nanny state and it’s rules that prohibit fun for all in the futile quest for absolute safety.

I never mocked those older than me nor coined phrases like “Okay old timer.” I know history began before the time that I can remember, and that despite all the changes in the world human nature hasn’t really changed all that much over thousands of years.

I guess there’s just no app for that.

[PIF]

So what’s the difference?

````
The USA was still the land of the free then. Not any more

[gattaca]

bump for later

[SkyDancer]

Didn’t have hysterical media on the internet.