EmilyD

I was there. I had just graduated from high school in 1969, lived in MA and a friend asked if anyone wanted to take off to NY to a "folk festival". We packed overnight bags and five of us jumped into a van and drove to upstate NY ... but my friend was told by his friend who lived near Bethel that we should drive north instead of south of the town because there "might" be traffic problems. We parked our van in the driveway of a farmer about 2 miles north of the site of the concert...the farmer said you kids take care and come back here if you need help.

We hiked south towards the site of the concert - about a mile or two - and stopped.....amazed.....at the wall, or sea, or wh**ever your brain labels 500,000 people gathered together. My mind is still trying to wrap around what I saw that day. Half a million people sitting, standing, milling around and waiting peacefully for something to happen....and then Richie Havens took the stage.....the rest is a blur. My 18-year-old friends and I were overwhelmed and we decided that on Saturday morning we would leave when it started to rain. Turns out it was just a short shower unlike the rain that fell on Sunday, but we were much younger than most of the attendees, and felt vulnerable. We hiked back to the van and sat mesmerized by what we just saw...there's no way to describe how it looked unless you were there. I've been at concerts that have thousands of folks...but I will never forget what half a million people gathered together without any conflicts or hatred looked like.

This is going to sound strange, but Trump's rally's reminds me of the feeling I had when I was at Woodstock. People look so happy at his rally's and no violence. He loves America, like Jimmy Hendrix did when he closed out Woodstock with his rendition of the National Anthem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwIymq0iTsw

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

In 1969 i was only 5 yrs old and still lived in then Soviet Union....But i have heard of Woodsuck..I also heard that many people got pregnant there too...Is that true???

RT friend Loc: Kangaroo valley NSW Australia

Hope Trump has a better legacy than the hippy scene, we were all ushered in chewed up and spat out, some of us are still kicking, probably not for long while the stage is managed for the tenth time round, Trump's clearly out of step with the youth.

The connection I make to Hendrix and Trump's band wagon is that they both share a liking for Sleeping, Dreaming.

What's Trump offerring the kids MAGA, the kids can't make it work, change that slogan immediately, her's what it should be, John Lennon and The Plastic Ono Band, !!!! Imagine, I always h**ed that song, totally unreal man.

EmilyD

That could be true, I'm sure. There was a lot of "freedom" going on. I was only there for the first night - we left to go back home on Saturday morning at about 10:00 am because we were so overwhelmed by the size of the crowd and it started to rain. It's not often you are part of a crowd of half a million people. (Think of it - most concerts are around a thousand people - this was five hundred thousand people!) It was daunting. The music was secondary, but I do remember Richie Havens singing "Freedom" over and over again. But there were a lot of families and children there. It was very peaceful and everyone helped everyone else out when there was a problem. The farmer (Max Yasgur) who loaned the land for the event even got up at the end (I wasn't there but heard about it) and said he was amazed that so many people could gather together for five days and "behave themselves" without many problems astonished him.

EmilyD

That's too bad that you did not see what was really going on in Manchester. Joe Biden held his own "rally" that only 30 people attended at the same time Trump held his rally. Sorry to tell you that is a sign of what is coming down the pike....Trump!

Tug484

He played the National Anthem better than anybody.

fullspinzoo

Great story, Emily. Woodstock, I would never have believed it...you wild thing....back then anyway. And look how you turned out. Great story, great lady.

America 1 Loc: South Miami

Great, just have to add a negative spin.
That is "totally unreal."

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

In a way, I envy your memories from attending Woodstock. However, I arrived back home from 'Nam on August 16th, 1969, and did not give much thought to what I had vaguely heard about a gathering in upstate New York. I was so damn relieved and glad to be home, I wasn't looking for excitement...so, Woodstock didn't register as significant at the time. Also, understand that my thoughts were often on the circumstances facing those I had left behind.

Though, in retrospect, I understand your desire to be involved in that unique historical event.

RT friend Loc: Kangaroo valley NSW Australia

I never supported Biden.

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

I have to ask; if Trump loves America so much........................why didn't he love America BEFORE he ran for President? This is just a couple of examples out of 100's, but I'm sure you'll recall that the first MAGA stuff was made in China and the Keystone pipeline used pipes made with Russian steel.

Look at some stuff about Trump before the Trump P**********l TV show went on air.

EmilyD

Thank you so much for your service in 'Nam - I know it must have been very traumatic for you. You can't unsee some things for the rest of your life.

RT friend Loc: Kangaroo valley NSW Australia

Thanks for the reply, giving me an opportunity to describe what I really have deep feelings about, such a complicated mixture of p***e and remorse is an intellectual challenge that could only be described by someone who rose to every occasion in a dignified manner and created a namesake that will always ring down through the generations of Australians, someone so well provisioned with charisma and p***e that he made the Country pause and take note when his life ended with his die site, _ the end of a rope.

Mind you die like a man his mother said, and Ned Kelly replied, such is life.

Woodstock was a CIA Narc operating undercover, we dev**e our lives to it, Jimmy Hendrix himself had a vague military history that really doesn't make sense if everyone was playing by the rules, I often wondered about Art Linkletter's daughter who went out the window, because I did that myself once, luckily I was grabbed, the guy who didn't grab her was involved in a similar incident later on, so I've heard, the victims were probably thrown like we were thrown under the bus by the culture created at Woodstock, - looking back.

Same as Ned Kelly who was subliminally inspired by emotions that worked our best for the Country and Federation but was a real bad scene for him, Woodstock was bad for the performing artists most of then pumped up by the CIA as a diversion from the real anti war movement, most had rotten short lives.

Even-so it's still the same, Woodstock worked out as a permanent cultural addition to Western expression, Ned Kelly and the Eureka Stockade created the Australian Union of Colonies and a constituent assembly..

On the face of it a difficult metaphor to figure out, but what they both had in common, is that both created something better than what they left behind, one by a lot and the other by not much, sometimes we move forward by leaps and bounds and sometimes by nano increments but in this case the metaphor I make has bants and hearts in common.

America 1 Loc: South Miami

Whole lotta lovin going on.

Lt. Rob Polans ret.

I was there too, but hadn't thought of Trump and Woodstock in the same vein. You are right though. Woodstock II was nothing like the first, I played there at 3 or 4 in the morning. Even though they were told not to, people were climbing up the towers. Now that is sheer lunacy. They had EMTs, but not crews to handle electrocution.