Posted on 05/16/2020 9:05:10 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I was a little busy for a few years in that time frame.
People were tougher, believed in God, and understood that socialists were enemies of the American way of life.
More like also thought a bit more about being paranoid, it seems.
That’s when America was still America but the seeds of our current ruination were being planted.
When you are in a drug induced haze, your worries are nil.
I have some vivid memories of 69, it was my first tour in Vietnam. Had water and some C-Rations. Took showers in the rain. Nice to get the clothes off that were stiff with dried sweat and mud. I heard through the grapevine that they had a good time going on at Woodstock. My former girlfriend went to it. I talked to her after my first tour and she said it was miserable there. You can imagine what I told her. Twenty-seven days later I was back in the high humidity.
Good article. Among many reasons, there was no 24 hour TV and social media news void that required constant feeding to spread constant fear.
“That generation approached viruses with calm, rationality and intelligence,” he said. “We left disease mitigation to medical professionals, individuals and families, rather than politics, politicians and government.”
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Um, today the medical professionals (with lifelong political ties) are issuing edicts to hunker down through the spring and summer for possibly a year or longer. Where is the rational thought intelligence in that?
Many people who attended Woodstock including performers thought it was a pretty awful time. It wasn’t until weeks later and after the movie etc. that it became this “wonderful” thing. Someone was dosing the bands with LSD without their consent or knowledge. Paychecks were a washout for many (only the who and grateful dead we’re paid upfront with late night drafted cashier’s checks).
It was considered a disaster, truly a disaster area with national guard assistance to bail them out.
That is what I am seeing.
Drugs also lead to paranoia.
Wookstock made me think of Bill and Hillary! It was where the Libralism was born in the Dem Party. We paid for that years later.
I don’t remember the media whipping up hysterical panic. I also don’t remember the dems attempting to politicize it either. At that time the media and the dems were run by men, not hysterical and feminized men and hysterical women.
Thank you for your busyness on our behalf!
Here is what I observed in 1969. They were taking school administrations hostage. burning buildings, clashing with police, doing drugs, living in communes, and dodging the draft.
Men burned their draft cards. Women burned their bras. Men’s hair was long. Women’s skirts were short.
Middle class norms started to include wife swapping, typified by a movie called “Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice.” Country songs were about drinking, cheating, and divorce.
The crime rate was through the roof, typified by Charles Manson. The best of us went to Vietnam. The worst of us went to Woodstock.
The baby boomers are hellish liars and hypocrites because they have hidden most of what they did from their kids and the world. They demanded “sex drugs, and rock and roll,” later denying it, and became petty societal tyrants, generally insisting that no other generations be able to experiment or have any fun.
They had to deal with a pandemic and the brown acid.
Me too. Basic training.
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