I want to thank you so much for mentioning my Woodstock Squidoo lens on your site.
I was born in the summer of 51, so you and I have many of the same memories growing up and as I read your post it's as though we grew up in the same neighborhood, with the same memories.
I know that kids now-a-days think that it's great living in an electronic age and wonder how we ever got along without cell phones, tivo, iphones and the rest.
What they don't quite understand is that the simpleness of life made everything seem like an adventure. The excitement of having to wait to get home to call your best friend instead of picking up a cell phone made that call more important and more exciting.
I think that was why Woodstock couldn't be recreated even though they tried (twice). We all arrived in upstate NY without hearing about it on the internet through Facebook or blogs. It was person talking to person (it wasn't even advertised on TV or the radio)and it made you feel as though you belonged to special "club".
Those 3 days in August of '69 changed my life for the better. And the feelings and images will be with me forever.
You are very welcome! As I began playing in bands that summer and have for over 30 years, this inspired me to even get together with the same guys I played with then to do some of the tunes from Woodstock. We used to play them and I think a lot of people would like to hear them again. Nice thing about doing that music was that it had a broad spectrum from rock, blues.. to folk. It wasn't just rock music. Thank You!
The summer of '09 will be one to remember as well, I believe. We will remember! Patricia, your Squidoo lense is very impressive, and packed full of useful information -- great job. My only question to you guys would be... with all the love and peace talk of the 60's, why did nothing ever really come out of it. I mean, it didnt stop wars or injustice across the world. The band leaders who were on the hippie train just have a bunch of money now and seem to be quite quiet. Just a thought, correct me if im wrong.
Hi Sean. Thanks for your comment. The 60's generation did lead to the end of the Vietnam War and to the decline of Nixon and in general to a questioning of authority that may have combined with other protests that all led to a feeling of the younger generation of that time, that "The Man" could indeed be not only questioned but forced to change direction. Not that I'm all that brave as the protesters of the 60's were, but I don't see many of the current younger generations doing much protesting in the U.S. during these times. They are however in other countries, as we have seen this week in the UK. Thanks again for your interest. Questioning and challenging is important!
4/07/2009 04:36:00 PM
I am 56 years old, born in 1952, right in the height of the Boomer generation. For me the 1950's are a memory of my early youth of innocence, when I didn't have a care in the world. Summers were for playing baseball, hide n' seek, reading comic books all day, playing army in the woods, building forts, choosing sides, red light - green light, curb ball, flipping cards, sleeping on each other's porches, watching fireworks on the 4th, chasing after the ice cream man, swinging on a tire, swimming at the local city pool, watching scary movies at each other's house, going to the movie theater in our local downtown, going out to eat at Eat n' Park where we sat in our car and they put our food on a tray that hung on the car window, laying on the grass at night staring at the stars, laying on the grass during the day and guessing what shapes the clouds were making, sitting out underneath the street light with all the neighborhood kids just talking and laughing and not causing any trouble, calling "first street light" when the first one went on at dusk even though you didn't win anything for calling it first, riding our bikes for miles sometimes without our parents fearing if we were safe, leaving our house in the morning and not returning until dinner and our parents never worried, ...... I guess I could go on and on with this list.How many things can you remember doing in the 50's when you were young?I kind of got lost off in a tangent of my youth there.... the main point of this article is to let everyone know of the best site I have ever found that will spike you memory into your youth, if you were a teenager when Woodstock happened.I was 17 years old and had just graduated from high school.... oh if we knew how incredibly important that year was when we were there!!! During that first summer after graduating from high school, a guy who graduated with me but only vaguely knew me, called me because someone told him I played the organ. I had taken organ lessons since I was 12 years old, but rock was inspiring me to play that music. He invited me to play in a band he was forming. I went to hear them and that was it! I was hit with a rock that would launch me into a passion that would guide me all throughout my life. During that summer, we all went to see the movie "Woodstock" and it defined us! We were just coming of age and would have never just jumped in a car and went to the event. In fact, we didn't know about it until it was over and became a movie.This link is to the best site about that momentous event that cracked open all that was of those times. Rock and Roll had set the stage for youth to change, but Woodstock and it's players and rebelling against the Vietnam War changed how youth would behave, or not behave, as previous generations thought they should. Enjoy the site and spread the word of it to anyone you know. You may also want to investigate learning all about Squidoo.com as well.Woodstock Music Festival 1969
4 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formHi David,
I want to thank you so much for mentioning my Woodstock Squidoo lens on your site.
I was born in the summer of 51, so you and I have many of the same memories growing up and as I read your post it's as though we grew up in the same neighborhood, with the same memories.
I know that kids now-a-days think that it's great living in an electronic age and wonder how we ever got along without cell phones, tivo, iphones and the rest.
What they don't quite understand is that the simpleness of life made everything seem like an adventure. The excitement of having to wait to get home to call your best friend instead of picking up a cell phone made that call more important and more exciting.
I think that was why Woodstock couldn't be recreated even though they tried (twice). We all arrived in upstate NY without hearing about it on the internet through Facebook or blogs. It was person talking to person (it wasn't even advertised on TV or the radio)and it made you feel as though you belonged to special "club".
Those 3 days in August of '69 changed my life for the better. And the feelings and images will be with me forever.
Again-thank you for helping people to remember.
7/13/2008 10:06:00 AM
You are very welcome! As I began playing in bands that summer and have for over 30 years, this inspired me to even get together with the same guys I played with then to do some of the tunes from Woodstock. We used to play them and I think a lot of people would like to hear them again. Nice thing about doing that music was that it had a broad spectrum from rock, blues.. to folk. It wasn't just rock music. Thank You!
7/13/2008 10:46:00 AM
The summer of '09 will be one to remember as well, I believe. We will remember!
Patricia, your Squidoo lense is very impressive, and packed full of useful information -- great job.
My only question to you guys would be... with all the love and peace talk of the 60's, why did nothing ever really come out of it. I mean, it didnt stop wars or injustice across the world. The band leaders who were on the hippie train just have a bunch of money now and seem to be quite quiet.
Just a thought, correct me if im wrong.
4/07/2009 03:42:00 PM
Hi Sean. Thanks for your comment. The 60's generation did lead to the end of the Vietnam War and to the decline of Nixon and in general to a questioning of authority that may have combined with other protests that all led to a feeling of the younger generation of that time, that "The Man" could indeed be not only questioned but forced to change direction. Not that I'm all that brave as the protesters of the 60's were, but I don't see many of the current younger generations doing much protesting in the U.S. during these times. They are however in other countries, as we have seen this week in the UK.
Thanks again for your interest. Questioning and challenging is important!
4/07/2009 04:36:00 PM