WOODSTOCK MEMORIES

We've had several great entries in our guest book that warrant a page of their own. Therefore, we have extracted some of the best for an exciting page of Woodstock memories...these include memoirs of the original concert and some of the reunions. If you have any stories to add, e-mail us below. And check back often for new stories. Now, sit back and enjoy memories of Woodstock as told by those who lived them.

Here's a copy of a letter I found when I visited the Woodstock site in 1990. It was neatly folded at the base of the Monument. It read:
"We found this place in '89. What a year. We were only looking for a party; we had no idea what we were in for. We got a taste of what the gathering was all about and it changed something inside us. Never believe them when they tell you that the spirit of Woodstock is dead. It is alive and well, and living everywhere. Yeah, maybe some bastards brought violence here, and somebody got lost in a bottle, but when August rolls around, look to these fields and you'll see ten thousand little fires burning through the alfalfa. Fires burning in the hearts and minds coming together. The children of the stars come here to drink from the wisdom that grows here, grows from the gathering of souls.
Woodstock is no longer a place, but let this place be sacred, for it is where it all came together for so many people. Treat this place with respect, because the flowers and the trees remember, they breathe the life of the dream that is WOODSTOCK. I wasn't even born until '73, but I'm old enough to recognize truth when I see it. It has nothing to do with the drugs, or the music, or even Bethel, N.Y. It has to do with the people and their way of thinking, their way of loving and believing. There is nothing more real than that. TDW (Peace Sign) Always -LMA-"
Written on the outside were the words, "Lest We Forget".
The author was right about the aura of the site. It doesn't feel like you are just standing in a field. It gives you a feeling of awe, wonderment, and peace all at the same time. Quite a rush!
Terry Maness

I was there-on stage! I was one of those Columbia University students who wound up at the right place at the right time-as original keyboard player for SHA NA NA! We played late Sunday night, or actually Monday morning. They kept bumping us; we were dressed in our rolled-up T-shirts, and it was COLD in them mountains at night! I remember huddling in the back of a big panel truck behind the stage trying to keep warm and listening to the groups that were supposed to have gone on AFTER us! We finally got on next-to-last- just before Jimi! Guess I ought to frame my Performer's Pass, huh... I left Sha Na Na when I graduated from Columbia in 1970. They are still going strong, however- look up Sha Na Na in "Yahoo" for their new web site!
Joe Witkin

I was there. I most remember waking up in the morning to Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane) saying "good morning, its a new day..." and launching into song as the sun came up. I remember bumping into friends, which seemed so cosmic in all those thousands of people to actually run into someone you knew. It is an experience I cherish. A turning point in my life, and I enjoy telling my kids about it! I know it was a wonderful spiritual and musical experience that will never be duplicated. Peace, Love and Music...
Diana Thompson Vincelli

Woodstock was a time of social changes in human freedom and expression..we learned not to be ashamed of our bodies in the nude, we smoked grass to expand our horizons with the music, we spent time with our kids our pets..it was very much focused on a new standard for families...the music of the late 60's that appeared in Woodstock 69 was some of the best around, very expressive of its thoughts and messages..indeed an experiment..but one that worked! That festival set the standard for peace, music, people and expression and showed to the world that all was not just violence and hatred...it was LIFE!!
Juan C.Morales

Hi everyone, I was at Woodstock and I'm still alive! I flew out from San Francisco with my 6-month old daughter, Tuesday Jones. My husband, Ron Jones, had been traveling with the festival route that left San Francisco. It all perpetuated around music bookings. Ron had been working on the road crew for several of the music groups and selling hippie candles our friends at The House of the Seventh Angel had made in Nevada City in the California foothills (a group from the Haight who had a candle factory/retreat). The booth cost us $200, which was a lot of money those days, considering the candles were only $1.00/set - nice drippy ones with the smell of pachoulie, raspberry, frangipani and musk. But Ron was industrious and sold t-shirts and other assundy items as well. His main interest was protesting the Vietnam War. He was an outspoken revolutionary figure and wrote several articles for underground newspapers and hung around with the underground news writers and Black Panthers that ultimately were responsible for "ending the war" in Vietnam. It wasn't the politicians who stopped that war - it was "THE PEOPLE." WE did it! We stood up to the government and risked imprisonment in the name of justice and freedom (just as the revolutionaries and students in Tieniman Square, Beijing did). And the time may come soon when we will be faced with standing up the this oppressive govenment as it continues on its path of ignorance the distruction. For you who have been inspired by the Woodstock Festival, continue looking at the real reason it took place and remember that YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE when you stand up for your rights! WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER! Imbed it in your brainwaves. And the next time it is proposed, go to your nearest politician and find out what you can do to stop it!If Woodstock did anything for me, it gave me STRENGTH to state my beliefs.
Susan Harnisch-Jones

Among the first to arrive, we got to within yards of the fence with the van and the two VW Bugs. From that place we were privileged to float in a sea of musically charged energy, the nature of which can never again take place. A magical mystical tour of the third kind....I never got a chance to use my tickets. I still have them. They are the only physical evidence I have...so it must have been real. Or was it? I still can't say for sure. I'm starting to remember things, a little at a time...
Jeff Ayers

I was there. I ended the weekend walking away while Jimi played on Monday morning. I had lost my friends, ride, clothes, et al. When I got home two days later, I wasn't even wearing my own clothes. Wish I was older and straighter so I could remember more.
Todd Goodman

My friend and I drove in from Rochester. When we got there, we were amazed at the people. We parked miles away and walked. We weren't planners, however, and brought very little food with us. We thought there would be concession stands and restaurants in town! We stayed til 3 a.m. the first night and headed back to our car to sleep. The funniest thing I remember is squatting between two corn stalks (and hanging onto them) to pee! We partied on the way back to the car, stopping at different camps. We stayed half the next day and couldn't take no more. The rain and mud were too much. When I pulled into the driveway, my mother came running out saying "I was wondering if you'd ever come back." She thought it would take a week to get home. It was a fun experience and I still have my tickets.
cecelia

Just got back from Nam in May that year, also got out of service at the same time. Left Boston, Mass in drug haze heading to this music event in upper state NY. Hopped two rides before I got one heading right there. Lost my knapsack fully of my only clothing(left it in the car that got me there and lost the people too). Strange what good drugs can do to you. I remember the rolling thunder storm one of the mid mornings, sitting out side the free concert area and free kitchen, if I remember it was to the left of the stage(facing the stage) and over a small rise.
I was awaken (still high) and facing the direction the storm was coming from, very moving event in my life, being into photos at that time(no I didn't have a camera any more, lost with knapsack). Due to the loss of everything I owned in that knapsack, I stayed at the end for a week to help with cleanup. I got a lot of new, but dirty clothing, bedrolls(2) and a newer and bigger (than I had) knapsack. For years I owned a t-shirt from there.It was blue with the bird on the neck of a guitar being held by a bent arm, done in white. Out in front of the stage (but way up from the stage) was the open market and I really mean open. Anything from food to drugs to beads..anything someone would sell was being sold there. I didn't get to far to the right (facing the stage) of the stage. The place didn't feel right to me for some reason. I think it was an area where they had pot-a-johns setup.
James Capelle

Twenty of us went to Woodstock as northern teenagers and came back apart of a larger community. I will always remember the music and the feeling of peace.
Dick Dupes

I remember it well...a friend Bruce and I drove from Cape Cod right after work on Friday in my Fiat convertible with our pre-purchased tickets in hand for all 3 days.....we were rock fans all the way. When we arrived at a farmer's field with other parked cars, we were so crowded we believed we were close to the site...actually we were so far away the helicopter pad used for ferrying bands was right across the street....we walked for what could have been 7 miles??? (memory goes at my age..or was it the sixties?)..when we got to the store in Bethel, all they had for sale was 2 onions...not our idea for breakfast...The music was great!...
Jim Murray

I was there in '69. I'm one of the few people I know that have pictures to prove it. Just turned 18, just out of high school, just accepted to college, just waiting to get drafted and go to Viet Nam (never went), just went and had a great time.
Don Simmons

I was just tripping around the west coast, being sort of free, when I heard something about a gig back in N.Y. A year later, the movie came out and I realized I was part of something much bigger than myself, and my life changed. I don't think I was ever the same, and have always looked at life a little differently. To bad we can't go back.
Warren Roberts

In my mind, Woodstock was the biggest time I've ever had and most likely will ever have in my life. My girlfriend Lisa (the sweet thing that became my wife) went there and partied all night and day, made love and got stoned. A great time
Jimmy Wage

I'm a Woodstock Veteran - I worked on the Sound Crew - somehow I would love to tell BILL HANLEY & all the crew from Hanley Sound, Billy, Scott, Sam, David, John etc (and Chip Monk) - "you all had an unintentional subliminal hand in the struggle against apartheid - you also started the 'sound and music PA industry' in Africa...see how the Woodstock Philosophy lives on in our President Nelson Mandela - despite the disasters in this country "people are feeding each other..." is this "heaven man!!...?" Not quite!... we're still trying. I am still actively involved (at 53) producing music and festivals in this country - partly due to my Woodstock experience...currently producing a series of re-issue HIDDEN YEARS CD's, Tapes & Records and a book project through my company 3rd Ear Music (est 1969) titled: THE HIDDEN YEARS - If possible I would like to get hold of BILL HANLEY - just to let him know how much this country really owes him. There's no money in it! Just the thought that counts. I also want to contact JOHN BRODIE (he's got my Woodstock negatives) and DAVE FREEZE (I used his camera) - I need to use some of those amazing Woodstock photos that JOHN and I shot for the book and on my CD sleeve....I've been writing & singing for 35 years and have recorded and produced countless records, but this is my very first CD/album. Any chance of helping me here? Much appreciated.
DAVID MARKS Durban. kwaZuluNatal, Rep of South Africa.

I was there in '69 (still have my tickets, in fact) and, surprisingly enough, I actually remember most of the weekend (although not necessarily in chronological order). There was a feeling of community, a spirit of cooperation that touched everyone who was there. It may have only existed for a few days, but it lives on in some form in all of us. "If we all share what we've got with the people around us, there's plenty for everyone." Peace. :-)
Chris S.

I can still here the music and people talking louder than anything and that high is still with me!
Brett Nichols - Ned, CO Generica

I was there. Returned from Vietnam July 1968. Dropped out about 9 months after return. Visited a friend, Chuck, in Havre de Grace just prior to festival. Nothing going on and decided to drop in on the festival. What a decision. Can't believe how many years have passed. Now active LDS since 1976.
Stephen Wilson

Woodstock was not a concert. This was a coming together. What the Byrds called a Tribal Gathering. We came together in Bethel. Yes like Bethlehem, this was a meeting of the essence of the thing. The music was just the background music of our lives. We were doing what great men like our High Priest Timothy Leary had led us to do.
"All I'm about is empowering individuals to explore with your friends the great wonders and mysteries of life...Tim Leary.
Hippies were at that time visually, small groups of people. On the coasts the cops knew who they were. They would see a few, think it was a squashable problem, and leave us alone. Estimates were that there were about 150,000 hippies world wide. When 500,000 showed up at one place at one time. Exploring with friends the great wonders and mysteries of life. When they saw sympathetic hippies in the bedrooms of there own homes. They freaked. They sold the look to jocks, and watered the stock.
In hind site many people see Woodstock as a concert. The press tried to defuse our religious experience. They made people think that Hippies were a bunch of drug users. It was not true. That is not what it was all about. Not all true spiritual hippies did or do drugs.
The Woodstock movie glorified the music. This was the same music at a half a dozen similar concerts that summer. How could the music have had anything to do with it. Some people never even found the main stage. Without the hippies those groups would have been nothing. Nixon wiped the term LSD out of the press and movies for decades to come. The DEA attacked the peace loving Dead Heads. Why? Who had they harmed?
There was something much greater that pulled us all together at Woodstock that day in August. Something unformed, only hinted at in Timothy Leary’s original Psychedelic Prayers. Something Spiritual, unnamable, unseeable, metaorganic.
Many people dropped out, stopped wearing and eating decaying animals, began to respect our setting. This is not the responcs of people at a concert. These responses were predicted by Tim before Monterey. Why! What really happened here? How were you effected? How are you being effected now?
Dr. Jan Pitts

I was there in '69 and loved it. The most amazing thing is that I actually met some friends there who had arrived the night before. We had agreed ahead to meet at the main gate. Ha-Ha. What main gate? Anyway, when I got there I just happened to walk into one of the guys, strolling among 400,000 other people. I went back in '94 for the 25th reunion at Yasgur's Farm. It was just as spontaneous as the first one and equally fun and of course it rained. Peace!
Mark Friend

My biggest story on Woodstock is that I was admiring a girl there for days thinking she was so cool. (In the movie, she has on the fringed halter and short skirt that's dancing wildly with Fantuzzi, the guy with the big hair waving his arms around). Anyway, I thought she was the coolest and at one point, she entered into a camp I was at. I offered her one of my Kool cigarettes. She said 'I don't smoke cigarettes'. I thought 'WOW! I won't either to be more cool like her'. I was on acid at the time and it really made an impact! So...that's when I quit smoking!!! On an acid trip at Woodstock!
Bobbi Pabst

On the cover of the album is a photo of a man and woman in a pond, skinny-dipping. He is helping her balance herself while she washes the mud off her feet. She had a bar of Ivory soap (it floated). My face is turned away, but I am that young man.
George Hawk

Having been at the original Festival in '69, has made a tremendous impact on my life. As a result, each year I journey back to the Meadow and try to give back some of what Woodstock has left in me. Due to a misfortune at the '95 anniversary, Richochet lost his voice and asked me to help him with the announcing. To me, this was one of the greatest honors ever bestowed on me. I'm planning on returning every year for the rest of my life to celebrate the festivities. In '94 I decided to bring my son along. He was in awe over what he saw, and vows to come back in '97 with his band to perform there. Looking forward to seeing you at Bethel '97. Yours in Peace. Love and music.
Bob Kristopher

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