Woodstock

Fifty-six years ago, from August 15-18, 1969, a three day festival celebrating Peace and Music took place at Max Yasgur’s farm in upstate New York. My friend Chuck, all of 19 at the time, drove there with three buddies, and experienced sex, drugs, and great Rock & Roll music at what came to be known as Woodstock.

As most stories do, it all started innocently enough. Chuck, a Massachusetts native, was hanging out at Harvard Square. He went to Strawberries, a local record shop, and while there saw a poster for a three day music festival, and what would become known as Woodstock. “This looks interesting,” Chuck said to himself, and then he thought about it. He drove home and connected with his friends Bob, Billy, and Walt (known as Dike). He told them about the festival and that he was going – who else was in? Everyone was in. Chuck went back to the record shop and bought the tickets. A couple of days later, they piled into Bob’s Chevy SS396 and headed for Woodstock.

 Crossing from Massachusetts (MA) into New York (NY), the first thing they did was find a bar and stop for a drink. At the time, the drinking age in MA was 21, but only 18 in NY. A couple of beers or rum and cokes later, they were back on the road. 

 When they approached the festival, the traffic was terrible. Eventually, they found a hotel on the side of the road and paid the owner to allow them to leave their car there. They started walking to the farm, which was about ten miles away.

 The traffic was still backed up, but occasionally, it moved forward a bit. The four guys would jump on the back of a passing car and ride on the trunk until the traffic stopped again. They would then hop off and continue to walk. One time, Chuck hopped on the back of a car, while the others kept walking. This time, the traffic continued to move and he soon lost track of his friends. In fact, he would not see them again until after Woodstock was over. In Chuck’s words, experiencing Woodstock on his own was the best possible thing that could have happened, although he did not know it at the time.

 Chuck eventually jumped off the car near the festival. Night was coming on and he, along with several others found an abandoned farmhouse to stay in. Chuck spent an enjoyable night with a young lady he met in the farmhouse. They never saw each other again when they became separated in the morning.

 He was hungry that morning and somehow found Wavy Gravy and the food kitchen he and his group were running. After meeting Wavy and having some food, he moved into the bowl of the festival itself. 

 One of the first acts he remembers hearing was John Sebastian, who played at around 3:30 on the second day of the concert (August 16th). One of the reasons he remembers Sebastian was that he was a fan of his and had seen him perform several times before. Interestingly, Sebastian wasn’t originally scheduled to perform, he was only there to watch. With the traffic issues, bands were having a tough time arriving on time and they drafted him to play while waiting for another group.

 Chuck remembers the rains and the mud as well. It was August, so it was warm and at night, people just slept in the mud where they were. 

The Who and Jefferson Airplane were the headliners for day two. Again because of the timing issues, it wasn’t until early in the morning on day three they actually played. By then, Chuck had worked his way through the crowd and was near the stage. He remembers The Who coming on around 5AM and playing for an hour. Laying in the dirt and mud, Chuck drifted off to sleep. He woke up with at start at 8AM – Jefferson Airplane took the stage for a two-hour show. Chuck, a huge Grace Slick fan, says their song “Volunteers” was the song he remembers more than any other music from the festival. Volunteers of course became one of the anthems of the festival, and that time in general. 

 There was a break until about 2PM when Joe Cocker took the stage. After Cocker played, there was another long pause of several hours due to rainstorms. During that time, Chuck linked up with a small group who had some pot. Unfortunately, their rolling papers became wet in the rain. Chuck became their new best friend when he produced a pipe. 😉

 The music eventually started again around 6:30PM with Country Joe and the Fish. Time passed and day three stretched into the morning of day four.

 He Remembers hearing Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young play, although it was around 3AM by the time they took the stage. In the strange way the world works, through mutual friends, Chuck had drinks with Steven Stills one night in ‘92 during the Democratic National Convention. Chuck told him about seeing him play. Stills commented that while with CSN, CSNY, or earlier with Buffalo Springfield, he had never played a venue with a crowd even approaching the size of that at Woodstock.

 Time continued to pass and it was the last morning of the show on day four of what was once a three day festival. By now, Chuck had moved back up to the top of the bowl. Much of the crowd had already left and Chuck was getting ready to do the same. He wanted to hear Hendrix play and stayed around for him. He heard Hendrix and his iconic Star Spangled Banner sometime after 9AM that morning.

It was over. Chuck started the walk back to their car at the hotel and arrived later that day. The others were there, or arrived soon after he did. They all piled into the 396 exhausted and drove home. In the “small world” department, they stopped for gas and at the gas station, they ran into a woman from their hometown who had also been at the festival.

 Bob and Chuck have talked about their great adventure at Woodstock over the years. Bob swears he and Chuck linked up at the festival itself for a while. Chuck has no recollection of that, but allows it “could have happened.” 😉 By the way, if you watch the movie, Woodstock, you can see Chuck briefly, as he is watching people slide down a mudslide.

 When Chuck tells me about the stories from Woodstock, his eyes smile and his face lights up. He remembers 19 and the good times he had. Like most memories from that long ago, there are some incomplete places, along with other memories as clear as a bell. All I know is, I enjoy hearing firsthand about this little piece of American history from someone who was there.

Addendum:

• You’ll note the different times I listed when Chuck saw various people play. Obviously Chuck wasn’t tracking time that closely at Woodstock. I reread a couple of other histories of Woodstock on Wikipedia and other places and was able to track the times with the musical acts and events in Chuck’s story.