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Question of the Day | 08/12/2009 11:00 pm

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock music festival. Did you go? If you didn't what did you feel about it?

Liz Smith, Whoopi Goldberg, Mary Wells, Judith Martin, Candice Bergen and Joan Ganz Cooney look back on the summer of ‘69
Liz Smith

Liz Smith | 08/12/2009 11:00 pm

Liz Smith on Woodstock: I Never Had Time to Think Much About Hippies, Dope, Rock 'n' Roll

As I’ve said before, I didn’t experience Woodstock. I was busy clawing my way to the middle of success. I never had time to think much about hippies, dope, rock ‘n’ roll … though I did often think of the sex. I hate mud, dirt, disorder and loud music so Woodstock could never have been my scene. I was entirely too riveted on getting into the Upper Middle Class.
Joan Ganz Cooney

Joan Ganz Cooney | 08/12/2009 11:00 pm

Joan Ganz Cooney Revisits Woodstock

I was beyond the age of most of the Woodstock generation but I remember reading about it and being stunned at how all the people survived amid all that mud and rain and drugs. It seemed disgusting to me, at the time. Now I look back on it as a minor miracle with no violence, great music and 500,000 people stoned and happy.

Mary Wells

Mary Wells | 08/12/2009 11:00 pm

Mary Wells Looks Back at Missing Woodstock

I was working my head off at the time and the idea of spending a druggy night listening to music no matter how great never occurred to me. After, when I saw the pictures, I didn’t feel I had missed a life-changing event. I guess the fact that so many people on drugs in rain and mud peacefully happy with each other was an unforgettable experience so I am a little sorry I missed it.
Judith Martin

Judith Martin | 08/13/2009 8:50 am

Judith Martin on People Who Just Wanted to Get Stoned and Hug

In the 1960s, we had no trouble finding mass events with a binding and uplifting spirit: civil rights demonstrations, antiwar protests, feminist marches. We were not in the mood to be charmed by people who just wanted to get stoned and hug (or whatever) one another.
Candice Bergen

Candice Bergen | 08/13/2009 8:45 am

Candice Bergen: Thrilled to Have Missed the Mud

Oh yuck. I was thrilled to have missed it. What a nightmare. In fact, I have devoted a considerable amount of time imagining how stoned I would have had to be to groove on mud for miles with naked people writhing in it and rain pouring down while somewhere, not really visible, people far away were playing music trying not to get electrocuted. Oh aaarrgh. Spare me.

I did get to go to the much drier precursor, Monterey Pop Festival, which was great. Mamas and Papas. Jimi Hendrix. Janis Joplin. Simon and Garfunkel. I found some tattoo decals and put a clipper ship on my chest. But Woodstock … oy. And Altamont … let me outta here.

Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldberg | 08/13/2009 11:15 am

Whoopi Goldberg on the Woodstock Generation, Then and Now

Well, at the time I don’t think we thought these things were binding, and uplifting. I think the Woodstock generation mostly thought about not conforming to what parents thought of as the norm. We spoke the truth as WE saw it, made up our own minds about what was right and, sorry kids, but we were charmed by people who just wanted to get stoned and hug and whatever else one another. We were then, like now, able to multitask!!!!!!

41 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Annie Bananie

These are the three most pathetic responses to this question that I could ever anticipate.  

 

Zzzzzzzzzzz.

 

Please, bring on a dopie. 

By Annie Bananie on 08/13/2009 1:26 am
phyllis Doyle Pepe
Which three? Why pathetic? Were you one of the ones in the mud? Different strokes for different strokes at different times––I think we call that tolerance? 
By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 08/13/2009 9:10 am
phyllis Doyle Pepe
Correction: Folks for the second strokes
By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 08/13/2009 9:11 am
Annie Bananie

Last night there were three responses (Liz, Joan and Mary); today there are two more.  Point being, if all you ask to reflect on the question are 5 people who were not there and not interested, it seems you asked the wrong people to respond to the post.  I would have liked to have heard from someone — like Kimberly — who actually was there.

 

Why ask 5 people to reflect on the anniversary of Woodstock if none of them went? 

By Annie Bananie on 08/13/2009 9:24 am
phyllis Doyle Pepe
Those five women gave their thoughts, impressions, and opinions on Woodstock. Even though they did not attend, they have given us their take on it. Then the thread is open to everyone like you, like me, and like Kimberly who actually was. As I said, different viewpoints; always a good thing, I would think.
By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 08/13/2009 12:38 pm
Annie Bananie
(Not sure if my first response took) — last night there were three interviewees - Liz, Mary and Joan.  None of them had been to Woodstock.  Why would you ask three non-attendees to reflect on the anniversary and importance of the event?  Seems you would want to mix it up a bit, that’s all.  I am fine with their positions, they just seem the wrong people to ask a question about the importance of the Woodstock anniversary.
By Annie Bananie on 08/13/2009 9:31 am
Carrie On
I’m afraid I don’t have a more lurid memory of Woodstock, either; I was twenty-seven at the time but living in London, going to art school. I heard about it, of course, through the haze of transatlantic communication, but I don’t remember wishing I had been there.  I was busy being philosophical about every brushstroke I put on my paintings and pretending to be a Very Serious Artist.  Besides, I had just experienced the beginning of my ongoing aversion to large crowds:  I went to a free concert in a London park, where John Sebastian (of the Lovin’ Spoonful) was playing.  We were all packed together standing up, but then Sebastian decided to get all mellow and told us all to sit down—well, that takes up more room than standing, right?  I sort of had to pee and started to panic, since I could barely move.  Somehow I pushed my way out of the crowd eventually, but that was it for me.
By Carrie On on 08/13/2009 3:08 am
Bethany Christian
I was 22 and married to a Palms Springs policeman in 1969.  I was not into the hippie drugs, sex, and rock and roll at that time.  However, after my divorce the following year is a whole different story.
By Bethany Christian on 08/13/2009 5:58 am
Eldebbo C

I was only three at the time, so I didn’t even know what was going on. I have, however, mentioned to my husband that if I had been a teenager or young adult at the time, I would have liked to have gone. The experience to me would have shaped the whole rest of my life.

No, I’m not a druggie, or even a stoner, but when I was young, I was into the rock and roll, and I guess I have always had a passion for the hippie style.

By Eldebbo C on 08/13/2009 7:41 am
Kimberly Edwin

I went to Woodstock 1969 with my parents and two little brothers (my two little sisters missed out). I was 13. We couldn’t know it then, but my family was on the fast track to ruin. My mom was an alcoholic who had embraced hippie culture, and my uptight stepdad was experimenting with serious hallucinogenics. The night  at the motel room before heading out to the farm we must have rolled 50 joints, singing, "roll up..rollup for the mystery tour".

Our rental Montego Bay station waggon became mired in the mud and crawled down the road for about 10 hours until we reached the Woodstock Festival parking lot. We had tons of food packed in a cooler and water. We entered the venue and sat down on plastic and cardboard. We were on the left hand side of the ampitheatre facing the stage. My parents promptly proceeded to smoke themselves straight. Rain ensued. My little brothers got lost going to the outhouse. Happified hippies echoed our mom’s calls: ‘Geoffrey! Tony!’   They came back just fine. They also imitated my frequent pleas, "Pass the joint mom!"

It was a real adventure and probably the last time we did anything positive as a family. We left the next morning. They had tickets for all three nights but it was getting crazy. My parents had come for a grass-hazed Newport Folk Festival and gotten Naked Lunch instead. Amazingly, no one had broken into our car. We gave away plenty of PB&Js as we exited the Festival.  Good times, poignant memories.

By Kimberly Edwin on 08/13/2009 8:22 am
Chrome Toe
Kimberly…. i have yet to read that book "running with scissors". but for some reason your post made me think of it lol! you should write a memoir. your post was great.
By Chrome Toe on 08/13/2009 8:33 am
phyllis Doyle Pepe
Wow! Kimberly––now there’s a story! Whatever happened to your family "After Woodstock"? How did you fare?
By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 08/13/2009 9:21 am
EKA -
Great memory, and you survived… not only the festival, but life.
By EKA - on 08/13/2009 12:16 pm
Laura Ward

Kimberly, this was a great and funny post! It also shows the spirit of Woodstock that others helped to find your lost little brothers.

However, in the end, hopefully you are like some children that ended up the opposite of your parent’s example.

By Laura Ward on 08/13/2009 12:57 pm
Peg O my heart

I did not attend ~ lived on the West Coast and had no money to travel.  I was 17, had just left home for the first time, living in Hollywood (my hometown).  The events of that summer were just a little hard to wrap one’s mind around: first, Man Walked on the Moon in July - Amazing! Aug. 10 ~ Manson murders in Hollywood = evil and hate.  Aug. 16 ~ Woodstock = Peace and Music.   Humankind at it’s best and worst in a month’s span.  

 

By Peg O my heart on 08/13/2009 8:43 am