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 ...
It was a concert. Nobody ever expected it to attract that many people. Nobody else went to concerts before?
Memories. I thought it would never end. Every night the TV news showed this destruction you describe. The cops were called “pigs”. And in movie theatres if a cop was shown on screen, the audience would yell out: pigs pigs pigs. It was horrible.
probably only the Everly Brothers.
i suspect the acts that performed at Woodstock were not the OP cup of tea.
Back when most children were actually raised by a married husband wife couple.
Maybe you werent watching much TV in ‘69. I was 10 and the CONSTANT public service messages about the Hong Kong flu had me wishing I could catch the damn thing and finally die already.
I forgot about the “pigs.” Good memory.
Rules for Radicals hadn’t been published yet.
That’s a really good point. Alinsky brought them out of the streets and into regular politics. They went from tearing up the 1968 Democrat convention to running the next one, and removing the president that kicked their ass.
So do I.
In 1968, the GI, or Greatest, Generation was running everything. We were only 23 years away from V-J Day and the veterans had lived through the Depression, fought Germany and Japan to victory, and faced a nuclear-armed and belligerent Communist bloc after that war. Such people regarded the Hong Kong flu as trivial. Additionally, there were still millions around who remembered the Spanish Flu of 1918. Too many Americans, even conservatives, are wimps.
That’s easy. Late 60’s music was much better!
I had the Hong Kong flu OMG thought I was going to die really sick for 2 weeks another week to feel halfway human again, I have NEVER had another flu or cold since then, NEVER had a flu shot either I often wonder if my system built up an immunity after that virus!! I have owned and worked in restaurants my entire life and NEVER got sick again really wired!! Yes this was a very bad virus YET the country went on as normal of course we didn’t have a 24 hour news propaganda source scaring the hell out of people with daily death counts, daily case counts, constant hysteria day after day so there’s that!!
Thank you very much for posting this.
TalBlack wrote: “Maybe you werent watching much TV in ‘69. I was 10 and the CONSTANT public service messages about the Hong Kong flu had me wishing I could catch the damn thing and finally die already.”
Very possible. I was in my last year of Aerospace Engineering. I was supporting myself with a part time job at a grocery store. Any spare time after homework, I was chasing coeds. There wasn’t a lot of time for watching TV.
The moral of this might be to drink beer, chase coeds, and don’t worry so much.
Some of the comparisons are apples and oranges. Keep in mind the population was smaller then. 70% of America was infected by the Flu, the death rate may have been as high as 200,000 people. Adjust the deaths in the US then for today and what is that?
Adjust the total infections and death rate worldwide then for today and what is that?
Whatever Vaccine was invented came pretty late to help as the it was pretty much over with. Today’s Flu vaccines are only partially helpful, depending on what strain of the Flu they think will be dominant in a given flu season.
I was born in ‘69. Hell of a time to be born. America had some of the most magnificent things happen and some of her worst.
Boomer here. Sex, not so much, but I would have done it if I could have I suppose, back then.
Drugs, no never did. Not even pot.
Rock and roll? Hell YES!
Good observation. I’m from the Marshall Tucker wing of boomers, myself. All Coors. No drugs. Had a blast. My kids appreciated me not trying to hide it.
Boomer here. Summer of 69 I was entering my senior year of high school. No sex. Went steady. No drugs. You could drink legal at 18. So drinking was no big deal. Discos, dancing, rock &roll. Protests at lef wing colleves affected my college choice. Viet Nam on TV. Dont remember any Hong Kong flu.
The music was amazing. A lot of our generation has sanitized the events, films, etc...so it falls to us to set things straight. We are the elders and teachers now. Seems crazy.
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