I was born in 1950 and I can tell you, the late 60's was a time like no other. I had just graduated from high school and it seemed everything in the world was revolving around music... so there was no way I was going to miss Woodstock. My sister said she'd pay for my tickets if I gave her and her girlfriend a ride. The three of us left Suffolk County, Long Island, Friday night about midnight. All the radio stations were saying the New York State Thruway was closed because people just parked their cars and started to walk to get to the concert site, but I wasn't planning on walking. We took the last Thruway exit before the Woodstock one and drove west. At one point we came to a northbound road that had police "DO NOT CROSS" signs across it. I moved the signs out of the way and off we went. After a bit we came to a road COMPLETELY filled with people heading west. It was starting to get light out, so we parked. I told my sister and her friend to meet back at the car after the concert was over, and the three of us joined the moving mob of happy faces. I wormed myself down to the right side just in front of the stage.

As far as the concert went, it was truly a religious experience. One breathtaking performance after another. I wasn't into the Who before Woodstock but they were ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. When Sly and the Family Stone came on stage it was like a spaceship landed. There should be a movie of just their set. In fact there should be individual movies of everyone's set. I stayed until the end. Jimi Hendrix. Probably only three hundred people left.

A few weeks later my picture was on the inside cover of the Life Woodstock Special Issue. http://tinyurl.com/lrkmup I'm the third head above the 5 in 445. Twenty years later that same picture was on the cover of the Life Woodstock Twentieth Anniversary issue. In 1999 I went to Woodstock Bethel and met Elliot Landy, the photographer who took the picture. I bought his book Woodstock Vision: The spirit of a generation, and got his autograph.

The real punchline to my Woodstock '69 story is, at the end of the concert the only one waiting at my car was my sister. Her friend never showed up. And I never have seen her since.

See you at Woodstock '09, Dan Sullivan