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By the time I got to Woodstock


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I made a journey on a whim today....got in the car with the family and drove just under two hours to Bethel, NY and the site of the 1969 Woodstock Concert. I had been there before, but the kids weren't, so, what the heck...I still feel the history when I drive around up there...it is truly a different lifestyle...lot's of old hippies and new yuppies (or something like that). Lot's of summer camps. Mentions of the concert and Max Yasgur are still evident. It was a nice trip and a fun ride. :guitar:

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  • 1 year later...

Ron, what a great trip to take your kids on. I want to head up there sometime. I was a little young for Woodstock, but think it was something truly amazing. It can never be recaptured, even witht the anniversary concerts, not the same. And the drugs and free love were part of the times and the atmosphere of the concert. Growing up as a teen in the 70's I got to experience some of the whole drug free love thing and wouldn't change it for the world. Yes it cause many problems for people health wise but what a great carefree time.

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Speaking of bending the Space/Time contiuum, Hawaii had it's own version of Woodstock about the same time. This was the Diamond Head Crater Festival, which took place every January 1st until the mid-1970's. All one had to do to see mainland and local acts on several stages was to buy a $5(?) ticket at the crater entrance or hike over the rim. The latter was an easy but dust dry hike for the reasonably fit. Back then, most of the crater floor was taken up with a main Rock stage a Folk and Hawaiian stage, with various concession stands, port-a-johns, and the occasional dope dealer. Santana, War, and numerous known, unknown, soon-to-be known performers helped ring in the new year. This was a sunrise to night festival for Druids, Rastas, and ordinary folk who hadn't gotten too bombed for New Year's Eve. A pricey, limited attendance version was held not too long ago, and what's left of War taped their set for future release. Significance? The 1970's in Hawaii saw the Hawaiian Music Renaissance, where The Sunday Manoa morphed into The Peter Moon Band and The Brothers Cazimero. Keola & Kapono Beamer, Andy Bumatai, The Makaha Sons of Niihau, Gabby Pahinui, were just a few local legends that welcomed the new year. As a photographer, I did take some Kodachromes and monochromes of those times, which now have a dreamlike quality--dust, fungus, fading will do that. :guitar:

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Growing up as a teen in the 70's I got to experience some of the whole drug free love thing and wouldn't change it for the world. Yes it cause many problems for people health wise but what a great carefree time.

Jane....they were some great times back in the seventies, huh?

I read an article recently about the use of marijuana among folks 50 and older is on a very quick rise. Now tell me, did anyone think it would be any different? Those hippies and burnouts from the sixties and seventies grew up, got jobs but still enjoy the weed! I think many of us are still waiting for one of them to get into the White House....then the laws should surely change.

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I read an article recently about the use of marijuana among folks 50 and older is on a very quick rise. Now tell me, did anyone think it would be any different? Those hippies and burnouts from the sixties and seventies grew up, got jobs but still enjoy the weed! I think many of us are still waiting for one of them to get into the White House....then the laws should surely change.

I don´t know if the bankers and politicians still smoke pot (Clinton didn´t even inhale... ) but I know so many people over 50 who are writers, artists, psychologists, journalists, etc. who lead a normal life, raise their kids, pay their taxes, give parties in their homes, listen to music and still smoke pot... I´m one of them, and I live in a country where it´s legal, which made it easier for me.

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  • 10 months later...

I've been meaning to go up one day (I'm a local New Yorker...)... I think it'd be well cool to see all the old hippies and whatnot and talk to them. Not so fond of the "new yuppies" but I'm such a die-hard fan of the era... how everything was. :)

I completely agree with you on this. =/ I hate that I missed the Summer Of Love and Woodstock and such.

...in other words, they need to hurry up and invent time travel D:<

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It'd be even greater to loop time travel. Example:

Think of the greatest time you ever had, go back in time while looping it into auto-reverse.

But even then, you'd become bored, eventually.

Frightening to think; your greatest dream will become boredom, once it's accomplished, because of infinity . . . no matter how great your dream, it will turn into something you'll not think twice about.

For ever and, ever . . .

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  • 2 weeks later...

Come to think of it, when one considers all the illness and death caused by drugs and sexually-transmitted disease, maybe all that permissive society/hippie idealism wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

It certainly beats the materialistic, pessimistic and self-aborbed attitudes/behaviours of today.

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