We felt like pilgrims this morning, the pits of our bellies afire, as we watched the green trees of up state New York pass us by and the hours turned to minutes before our arrival. For us Woodstock was our Mecca. To us it stood for everything amiable and emulative in our lives.
I have always been told that Woodstock was just a muddy field with lots of people and loud music. If you believe that then you probably don't understand what this blog is about at it's core. Yes, It was a music festival but it was also much much more than that. I can tell you this, not because I was there nor because I existed( I didn't.) I can't say,even, that I know what it was about because I've read some of the books of the times, know the music, and know the history( I do.) I know because It's a feeling inside. Woodstock was a call to make change. It was a way for people to connect by means of a universal tool, music.
I have heard several old hippies, now, griping about how my generation has no idea what it was like then and that they have seen more in their time than we will ever see. They get angry when people our age, who weren't alive then want to learn about Woodstock or the height ashbury. I think this response is lubricious! ( Now I have had much more positive experiences with running into old hippies than bad but I feel that this may clear things up a bit.)
First and foremost we are not hippies. We cannot in the recent- classical sense of the word be hippies. They are part of the baby boom generation and we were clearly born in the 1980's. I have also been given a hard time for my love of the peace sign, as silly as that sounds. People wear symbols quite frequently without faith in them or meaning behind them. When I wear a peace sign it is because I truly, whole heartedly believe in peace and believe that peace can be achieved in the world, a thought that to some seems naive. As for the argument that our generation is somehow inadequate and undeserving in comparison to theirs, I do not think that our worlds can be compared in a side-by- side type of way nor that they should. There are no winners or losers.
The hippie generation set many wheels in motion. The neo-hippie generation does not want to compete but to further the work of those that came before us. There are still people today that want the same kinds of things that hippies once wanted. I wish that those that shake their heads at us would instead realize that we are not a threat to the counter culture and that we do not seek to steal a youth movement or an era that does not belong to us but to find our own way.
The music of your generation simply fuels our generations fire as we have little music today that is played with such wanton passion. The music of the sixties makes us want to enact change and carve out a bit of land and life that does not necessarily coencide with that of our consumerist societies version of what the so called american dream can be.
Going to Woodstock and seeing that not so muddy field,as today was warm and sunny, has been a journey, of mind perhaps more so than body but a journey none the less. We have both taken long mental journeys to discover who we were and what exactly we stood for.
When I was a bit younger I used to cry when I thought about Woodstock and the sixties. I thought that I had been born in the wrong era.That the time for change and the time to be passionate was over. Today I smiled as I spoke to a man who hitchhiked to Woodstock from Boston. I tried to imagine what it would have been like to be surrounded by people all coming for peace, love, and music. I am happy for those who were there and I am grateful for the 60's and all the things that came from them but what I discovered today was that I am happy to be part of the internet generation and I am happy to attempt to be a voice in the crowd of our generation. May we also never forget our intentions to better ourselves and also the world!
We walked into the Bethel Woods museum today, built on the back hills of the muddy fields, expecting to see a few tickets and posters piled in a glass case. What we actually saw was a big beautiful museum that took us the better part of three hours to finish with. The interesting thing about the Woodstock museum is that it is built on experiences more so than on "stuff", though there are a few really cool exhibits such as Wavy Gravy's jump suit. The exhibits illustrate the tensions of the late fifties and early sixties leading up to the summer of love and then go through the different experiences of the festival. The coolest part of the whole museum was a dome-like theater set up in the middle of the museum that has projector screens on the ceilings and walls. There were bean bag chairs on the floor and the screens put together different images to make one feel as if one was under the festival sky and a sort- of time laps performance and personal account made one feel as if one could really be at the Woodstock festival in '69.
After the museum we walked to the sight of the stage and imagined that we were performing in front of the giant field filled with people. And then we sat in the cool grass and imagined Janis Joplin belting out notes melodically as thousands of people were entranced by her voice. It was everything that I had imagined. It was nothing like I could have dreamed.
This place. A place I have romanticized over, mourned and loved for much of my seemingly small life became part of the realm of reality for me today. I instantly fell out and then back in love with the place.
A more perfect wrap up to the first part of our journey has never existed. We sat at the memorial erected in memory of the Woodstock festival. It seemed so fitting that after so many war memorials and cemeteries our first, last stop should be a memorial of a beautiful, peaceful event that has also made it's way into our nations history!
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