My Beloved was at Woodstock

It is impossible to write the final word about Woodstock 1969.

It has become a historic symbol with different meanings to thousands of people."

I was sixteen in 1969. That by itself

Would be the start of an incredible trip

If I had been living on the edge of seventeen.

Instead, I have to admit I was looking for

The one who had a skate key, to go with

My new pair of roller skates

I was so naive, I still believed in fairy-tales

And happily ever after as the ultimate truth

But God knew my heart and He knew

The heart of my Beloved

My Beloved was eighteen in the summer of 1969

Trying to pack as much LIFE as possible into one summer

Before the military claimed his ass

He went to Woodstock, borrowed his mother’s car,

He and a friend had tickets

They never got to use

He says he remembers Canned Heat

As being the first band to play

And says Jefferson Airplane was not there at all

But then, you have to understand,

My Beloved is a Who fan

Do I wish I were different?

Do I wish I were there?

Do I even wish I had been aware of the event?

When it happened, instead of after the fact?

No to all the above, that would make me

Not the person I was in the winter of 1980, in Tucson, AZ,

Where I met My Beloved.

That would mean I may have missed my Trip!

That would mean I may not have chosen that path

That path that led me to My Beloved, my David,

My true best friend, lover, husband, father of our children.

The one to whom I love to distraction

And he loves me, still…

Still crazy after all these years

And who am I to say I would have it any other way?

Besides, unlike His Beloved,

He had no idea who Melanie even was!

Imagine!

No idea who Melanie even was until our winter of 1980!

I can still see his crooked toothed smile

So indulgent of his Boo,

Poor thing, he says, you have no idea, really, do you?

But it was my David who had no idea

He didn't realize

That I was Ok alone

but

He had something I needed.

I thank my God for My Beloved

And for all the bits of Life that he

And I both had to live

Before we could be together.

Woodstock in 1969

Is as much a part of that

As is Title Six Performing Arts Grant

At Shades Valley High School

In the summer of 1969 was a part

of all those bits of life

Together made up a few of the

Billion pieces of Carbon

To a lot of people of my generation Woodstock became the lodestone they all set the rest o their social lives by. Their party speech became forever littered with fragments such as

"Music isn't anything like it used to be, man."

"Man, dude, you remember Woodstock man?"

"That was the best,dude, there hasn't been anything that can compare to that, man,not even close!"

And they say all these things in absolute sincerity, unaware how much they have changed, unaware that the summer of '69 was not the end all of what made them who they are today. I do not man this in any disparaging way, just the opposite; my best friend is the only person I have ever met that was actually at Woodstock!

As you have probably noticed; I was not at Woodstock. The first I knew of the event was upon opening the front door of my parent's house to see the Shelby County Sheriff standing here holding the back of my little brothers' neck! It turned out that Johnny, four years younger than myself and his three ever present cohorts, Brian, Philip and Scott, had decided to go to Yasgur's Farm in upper state New York state to a free concert...you guessed it, Woodstock. Perhaps it was my remark perhaps it was due to the fact neither parent even realized that Johnny was gone that made them so angry. To give the kids a bit of credit, they started out in Altadena Vally, B'ham, Al and made it all the way to the Tennessee line, hitchhiking, without getting themselves or anyone else hurt or worse.

For myself, I stood in the foyer and said "Whats Woodstock?" That remark earned me the "Geez, could you be any more dumb" look I was immune to by this time from my brother and a whispered "I'll tell you later" from my sister, Mary.

Even after I heard, I was not really interested; the rock and roll I was into in 1969 was more folk than rock, Emmy Lou, Linda Ronstadt, Melanie, Jonie Mitchell and Jefferson Airplane. To me, Woodstock was not an even enough match of bands. I was and still am, more apt to listen to a band with a female artist in it than an all male band.

But now that I and My Beloved are way past all that, as well as for the spirit of nostalgia, as well as the fact that it is summer and it is hot and I am in a retrospective frame of mind I will share with you some of the real lie history of that piece of the summer of '69.

This was not a spur of the moment concert, this man Artie Kornfield and three other entrepreneurs of the time were the ones who produced Woodstock. It took over a decade for Artie Kornfield to pay off all the debt incurred from that weekend of peace, sex and rock and roll.

And as one of the sites for THE TRUTH of that weeknd says, it really happened all by itself, out of a rumour! These young,haha, business men started a ball rolling they could not hope to catch. America and it's youth, along with the fear fueled by the Vietnam war, the rebellion felt from a generation of sheltered kids suddendly loose on their new world was all it really took to get this concert up and moving.

How many times, I wonder, did Arti Kornfield think to himself; if only I hadn't made such a big deal out of it with my name behind it! It would have evolved all by itself if only I had let the rumour mill take it over from the beginning of 1969!

But who knows? Perhaps not. There were tickets on sale, first for six dollars a day then for seven. My Beoved thinks he paid twenty-five for the weekend, but then, you know, he was a hippie....a few grey cells have misfired a few times since then! Just kidding, I love you, my David...you know my grey matter is gone totally!

The Woodstock site I researched goes into great detail about the actual creation of the deal mde Mr Yasgur for the rental of his field and use of his lake. Apparently Wodstock was originally to be somewhe else and Yasugur's Farm was second choice. Turns out it was a good choice, eh?

The most interesting part of the research was about the bands and the personalities themselves. Jimi Hendrix' contract said no one could follow him, that's why he was last. But that also meant that there were less than 33,000 people left to hear him play! But watcing that film, the sun coming up, Jimi and the Star Spangeled Banner never fails to make me break out in goosebumps! Funny too, the one song that can move me, patriotically speaking, is a rendition on electric guitar by one of the most talented but self indulged person on this planet at that time. The website I researched stated he was paid $32,000 for that piece of history.

That really does end up saying it all, the end of love and peace and the beginning of the "I want it all and I want it now" crew. But it was  also the beignning of a generaton dedicated, yes, dedicated finally to something beyond themselves. A lethargic generation that wass finally waking to the realization that there can be, if they make it so, something better than themselves.

""We talked of hippies and flowers and rainbows and dope,
Of politics and art and the structure of hope.

Strange nights and days of colours in the air,
Waiting hopelessly for roses by the stair.

As the world showed its affection for those who were faking it,
We got kicked out of school for spreading love and kicked out of home for making it.

This isnt the start of a new era, there isnt even a new plan,
I just hope this one's a little better than the last one.""

 Words and Music by Joni Mitchell
© 1969 by Siquomb Publishing Co.

Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, Tell me, where are you going?
This he told me

Said, I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm,
Gonna join in a rock and roll band.
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free.

We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

Well, then can I roam beside you?
I have come to lose the smog,
And I feel myself a cog in somethin' turning.
And maybe it's the time of year,
Yes and maybe it's the time of man.
And I don't know who I am,
But life is for learning.

We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration.
And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation.  
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are caught in the devils bargain,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.