I was preparing for my senior year of high school in west texas and spent that summer working two jobs.
I had just graduated from college in San Diego. It was a magical time. I remember being in San Francisco in April, catching the cable cars, flirting with the flower vendors and buying a great yellow hat.
Married, 2 kids, girl 7 years old, boy 3 years old. I had changed "careers" and was working my butt off rehabing houses in Menlo Park and Palo Alto.. Woodstock meant nothing to me, just a bunch of hippies getting stoned. Because my folks still lived in SF I visited them and saw Haight - Ashbury with my own eyes. You could get high just driving through and breathing the air. No magic for me, just work and the daily grind.
posted by sandl
5 months ago
In 68 I was divorced and the mother of 4 boys. I moved from TX to Monterey and Ca. was a bit of magic but also difficult as my family was all military so the war stuff was hard to handle.I loved the music of the time.
Well, first of all, i think your math needs a bit of work, WG - 1969 was 40 (not 30) years ago, wasn't it?
But maybe it *feels* like it was only 30 years ago, & that's OK :-)
In the summer of '69? I had just graduated from boarding school in NH, & was doing some schleppy summer job I don't remember, and living w/ my parents at home in Gardiner, Maine, before going to college in Wash DC that fall.
A classmate of mine called to tell me he had seen the Who perform at Woodstock, and was knocked out! I had always told him they were GREAT, but he didn't get it, until the Woodstock performance.
My parents DEFINITELY prohibited my going to Woodstock!
But my dad had bought me an 8-track cassette player (remember those?) and I think i was the only person in Gardiner Maine listening to Jefferson Airplane / crown of creation / after bathing at baxters!
(does that explain why/how i ended up her? probably not!)
I also had a Thelonius Monk cassette that got a lot of play.
When i went to American University, in DC, in the fall... there was plenty of *love*... and *lots of drugs*! (lots & lots of drugs!!! LSD on a daily basis!)
Saw Little Richard, and Mountain/Leslie West, who tore the place apart w/ his Gibson SG, at A.U. outdoor amphitheater (sic?)
And also Rod Stewart at a really lousy 'hall' in DC - the DC armory - the amps went out at a certain point, and Rod just kept on wailin', and rose above the other noise - Ron Wood was an excellent sideman, covered his ass, and adjusted.
(I guess that's why the Stones took him in.)
And also John Mayall's acoustic band at Constitution Hall.
'Wild and crazy times' - glad i was there!!!!!!!!
If you think it was all happenin' only out west? hey, the east coast was doin' it too!
silver...you are so right...what was I thinking with 30! Actually, it doesn't even feel like it was 30 years ago, more like 20.
It certainly doesn't feel like 40. Last summer I was reflecting on the fact that I watched my first televised tennis from Wimbledon and it was 50 years ago. -- black and white and the camera was located on the sidelines at the net. So you got lots of camera movement back and forth. This was way before tie breaks and sets could go really long. I remember one that was over 30 games (19-17).
I was totally amazed that it was so long ago.
I was engaged to be married, and flying from Pennsylvania to Pensacola, Florida, to see my fiancee three times that year! When you rented a car, you got an actual, full-sized sedan, not some econo-box (VW's were the only econo-boxes back then!). I learned about Florida humidity, Palmetto bugs, thunderstorms, hurricanes -- managed to schedule a trip during Camille! Oh, yes, I remember that year so well!
