Mark75

I was 12 and driving through New York State with my family and a miracle was happening at Yasgur's farm. 400,000 people were spending a long weekend having nothing but "fun and music". I was a little too young, just a little, to be there.

It did, however, define my generation.

Music, Love, Peace... Drugs.

I am watching the VH1 Roc Doc - Woodstock, Then and Now. Goose bumps, tears... Though not at Woodstock, I went to every Rock Festival I could after that.... Wore the album out, watched the movie, wore tie dyed shirts.... The music, my God... It's ingrained in my nervous system, it is part of who I am.

So much good... My passion for music, political awareness... Some bad... My passion for drugs. As I grow through my recovery... Try to hold on to the good, reconcile the bad... How could an event that ultimately had a central role in very bad things that happened in my life 40 years later, also make so much of it special...

A Paradox. One that I am beginning to assimilate. So light a candle and listen to Richie Havens sing... Freedom.



Mark

MycoolFitz

Thanks for bringing up the subject I had tickets but got called into work on an emergency. Oh well, I would have gotten so stoned I'd either OD'd or gotten run over by a tractor.

NewBeginning010

Groovy Man

Dee74

I love the music and the movie...like Cubile, it's so ingrained in me....

not sure I would have like to stuck there for 3 days tho...'specially as I was just 2 at the time LOL

D

Believe808

I was 15 too young but my sister went.

tallcactus

Another WOW moment. I'm rocking...
Was not there, but @ the time by brother was and was lost. He died when I was 16 years old in Germany, while in the Military. He was one of my best friends. I have only a few pic's of him and some letters. Did you know that he met Janis Joplin?
Yes, music is what is keeping me sane, along with laughter. I'm finding myself getting out more and talking with people (These last 2-3 weeks.) and not self- isolating.
That is a big trigger for me, (loney) that is when I WOULD DRINK!
Still somber since the end of July after my sh%$#y relaspe.
Can not, will not, that is my mantra for today...
Wolfchild, I'm learning this I think from you...., Why do I have to beat myself up?

Hevyn

So, raise your candles high....

I was a bit older, but no way would my parents have let me go. I feel just like you do about it, Cubile. Thanks for the memory. I'm glad we made it through the 60's to be here on this journey together.

sfgirl

Listening To Woodstock, 40 Years Removed : NPR

Woodstock: We Went, We Saw, We Left : NPR

The 'Young Men With Capital' Who Started Woodstock : NPR

MycoolFitz

Dang, I was 22 and in my prime and primed. Did hitch hike across the country heading fot the Haight and the "Summer of Love" but I got jailed in Tucumcari NM for vagrancy and missed that too. I tried to head out later and got jailed for possession. Born under a bad sign :-) I don't remember but bits and pieces but it seemed fun in retrospect. Guess I never grew up still got a pony tail. Well I'm clean and sober now and haven't been arrested since my DUI about 3 years ago.
"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop."--The King, Alice in Wonderland

Lenina

Vh1 had a good special on Woodstock tonight. I didn't go, I wasn't old enough and my parents wouldn't have allowed it! I knew friends who did go, all the way from Southern California! We were truly "The Woodstock Generation."

Love,

Lenina

NEOMARXIST

I am only 23 but a HUGE Jimi Hendrix fan. His performance at the closing of the Festival is Legendary and without doubt his best playing IMO. Where he goes into Purple Haze is just TOOOOO good!!!!! Villanova Junction - Man that's just beautiful.

Peace, Love and Happiness - yer happiness. xxx

Missymae737

Not that I want to mention my age here, but I was a sweet sixteen year old girl, growing into a groovy, hippie, seventeen year old...I had left my middle class home in Tiverton RI, to join the ranks of my rocking, peace loving friends, and that's where I experienced pot smoking, a few acid trips, and started my decent into alcoholism...There are many good memories of this era.

Through the next two decades I believe what saved me from an early death, is the fact that I worked full time and hard, raised two sons', and started searching in the halls of AA my answers to WHY I could not drink normally...

Thank you for this thread.

least

I was living in NYC during Woodstock summer and was invited to go but didn't. I was, and still am, afraid of huge crowds. I kind of wish I'd gone but oh well, at least I can watch the movie and still listen to the music of Woodstock.

Mark75

Thanx for all these great responses...

How did those of you who are part of the Woodstock Generation and then at sometime later in your lives were forced to deal with the conundrum of a spirit of love, peace, happiness, music, hell, a way of life... and the tragedy of addiction or alcoholism... which became a part of that way of life...

If you identify with that culture, that era, lifestyle... how did you develop new identities sans chemicals without surrendering everything else. This is a central issue in my recovery.

How many artists of that era died?... I can think of two right off hand who were at Woodstock.... Janis and Jimi.... they might still be with us if it weren't for drugs and alcohol....

Lenina

Jerry Garcia. I believe he was 53 went he died through complications of diabetes and alcohol. His death for me was like the end of an era. Rest in Peace, Jerry!

I wasn't too much into the drugs of the time. I tried a few things here and there.

I was more into the political side. Anti-war, give peace a chance sort of thing. I still support community involvement in the social issues of poverty. I believe volunteer work at the local level is so important.

Love,

Lenina

tommyk

I'm glad for everyone that lived through it.

Society just wasn't fully aware of the dangers of using/drinking back then.

Great music, good times though, for a lot of folks.

I love your new avatar.

mikefreak

I was watching it on the news- I was 11. The reporter said that people " as far away as New Mexico" were there ( that always stuck with me for some reason).
On a lark I bought " WOODSTOCK: Directors cut" about three weeks ago, & it is excellent. The way they can "clean up" old videos is truly amazing. "Going home " by Alvin Lee & Tens Years After is my favorite, & " Saturday in the Park" by Jefferson airplane was pretty awesome. Even Canned Heat was great-the scene where the kid jumps on stage & bums a cigarette off of the singer while the band was playing was what ( to me, anyway), Woodstock was all about.
The bad side? The performers who would be dead from booze/drugs in little over a year- Janis joplin, Hendrix, "blind owl" Wilson from Canned Heat. Sly Stone went downhill quick after this. hard to beleive that once apond a time drug/alcohol abuse was considered cool. Like the person said who started this thread," remember the good, never forget the bad" ( or something like that!) PEACE

windysan

don't eat the brown acid

MycoolFitz

I don't know, age alone changes one. I'm a little more settled now and stable, not the risk taker I once was, but I'm still pony-tailed, ear ringed, etc. Still listen to the music, just don't include drugs and alcohol and that's all right. Instead of acid and scrooms I'm a buddhist and meditate and its a pretty groovy trip. I'm just where I need to be when I need to be and its all far out in its on right. Life is so good I'm living it 2 inches off the ground, just not chemically high.

Getting high was not the same thing as being free. According to Ram Dass tim Leery's bud, "Once you get the message you have to hang up the phone.” There' something called sadhana, one’s own spiritual work, that requires diligence, commitment, honesty, and responsibility. Sadhana requires working with our minds, our own hearts, our thoughts, feelings, relationships, emotions, and physical selves. All of the stuff of daily life could be, as Ram Dass put it, “grist for the mill” of awakening.”

Namaste

CAPTAINZING2000

I was only 13 an 1/2 at the time. Had to wait for the movie to come out a year or so later. in 74 or 75 Canned Heat played at our Jr. college. They're the only group besides the Who from Woodstock, I ever got to see play live. I keep thinking, I'd like to go see CSN play some day with Young hopefully.