part 1

...after getting to Woodstock Friday morning, we walked to the field which was only a couple miles further on. I had the idea to tape the event with a small tape recorder and caught the opening acts when I realized there was no way to catch the entire event so I tried conserving the few tapes i had brought. A high point was Bert Sommer's version of "America" on Friday night when a light plane dropped out of the sky and buzzed the field. As the roar faded off into the night, Bert's voice came over the stage and hillside and the lyrics "they've all come to look for America" took on a completely different impact as I looked around at the campfires and people who, like myself at 20 years old, were getting an upclose view of a New American Dream. Of course, some nice, pink encapsulated mescaline had some impact on my interpretation of the events unfolding and the tape, of which I had not made a copy, was lost years later but is still out there somewhere. ..quality was poor but it nailed the first day's activity and if anyone reading this has it, take care of it...it's an original.

part 2

...so, it's now Saturday and I spent the night back in the trunk of my buddy George's Ford Falcon, which was remarkably roomy. We made our way back to the field on the muddy paths and ran into a couple guys who had put in their time for the past few days but were pulling up stakes and attempting to head out. They tossed us a tin of tuna and a bottle of Bali-Hai saying that if we were staying we would need it. We shared a joint and they were gone...George, who also was called Bear, and I stayed for the activities on Saturday which, for some reason, I don't remember much about while I continued to record whatever I could. Bear's sandals broke in the early afternoon and his feet swelled up and he couldn'twalk much anymore so with mixed feelings we packed up and started to find a way out. The only road open was Rte 17 South to Penn. and then East along the Delaware River and somehow back to Conn. George's feet became walkable in a few days and I recovered from a liver infection due to bad water that weekend but the real kicker came about 2 years later. I was driving E on 84 in Conn just out of Danbury when I saw I hitcher. He looked like he could use a lift and I had nothing in particular to do so I pulled over. He got in and as we started talking, I kept feeling that we had met before. When our conversation turned to Woodstock and he said that he had been there too, I asked him if he left on Sat. morning. when he said yes and asked why. I asked him if when he split, did he give away a tin of tuna fish and a bottle of wine to a couple of other people. He again said he did but why did I ask. I told him that he gave that tuna fish and Bali-Hai to me on that Sat. morning in the mud and rain of Woodstock. This of course caused him to spark up something for the road and I ended up driving him all the way to his destination with more stories of Woodstock being told all the way....those kind of odds are the strings that keep the Legend alive......k