Tags
1960s, Alice in Wonderland, American Dream, Bethel, Garden of Eden, Grace Slick, Max Yasgur., old hippies, retro news reports, Town of Bethel, Utopia, utopian hope, Woodstock, Woodstock Anniversary, Woodstock icons, Yasgur's Farm
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I’m a farmer, I don’t know how to speak to twenty people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But I think you people have proven something to the world — not only to the Town of Bethel, or Sullivan County or New York State; you’ve proven something to the world. This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place. We have had no idea that there would be this size group, and because of that you’ve had quite a few inconveniences as far as water, food, and so forth. Your producers have done a mammoth job to see that you’re taken care of… they’d enjoy a vote of thanks. But above that, the important thing that you’ve proven to the world is that a half a million kids — and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you are — a half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and I God Bless You for it! Max Yazgur addressing the crowd at Woodstock on August 17, 1969 |
I didn’t make it to Yasgur’s farm this week, but I did watch the CNN news documentary on the 1960s.
It wasn’t the same . . . of course. You can’t go back and revisit that era in history and ever expect to capture what it really was. You had to have lived it yourself–just as I’m certain the 45th Anniversary Woodstock Celebration can’t hold a torch to what happened in upstate New York in the summer of 1969.
Nothing can touch that . . . no music, no gathering, no collective consensus of hope.
Never again.
For about a week in the middle of August, the idea of utopia became reality for a half a million people who made their way to an old dairy farm in Bethel, New York. The premise was to simply share a few days of music, freedom and love. No one anticipated the magnitude of the event, the impact it would have on society or the profound imprint it would leave on all those who participated. It was astounding–a mind-blowing spectacle that words cannot do justice.
I wasn’t there, so I can only imagine.
As I watched the CNN documentary it all seemed so surreal. The monotone news anchors, the black and white images, the shaky camera work trying to capture and make sense out of a Movement that appeared to be spinning out of control. How do you describe the mixed emotions or the fear of a shaking so powerful it totally disrupted the status quo?
A new fire was burning and no one knew how to contain it. Beneath the surface was a clashing of cultures and an electrifying energy that drove an entire generation further and further from its roots into a mesmerizing idealistic trance–a utopian dream world.
And yet, as wild or dreamy as it seemed, it did have its glory moments. It ignited a passion for life and a revival of hope that die-hard hippies still cling to and new generations embrace. It created a paradigm shift with changes that remain for good and for bad. Remnants of those positive vibes and humanitarian ideals still remain.
What was once extreme is now mainstream.
The CNN documentary featured a seemingly conservative and almost matronly-looking woman who spoke eloquently and shared an inside view of Woodstock and the ideals of that generation. Who could she be? Probably some historian–a university professor, I falsely assumed. Her white hair was neatly tied back and her eyes lit up as she recalled those days gone by. And then, her name suddenly appeared at the lower edge of the TV screen.
GRACE SLICK. Say what?
I’m not sure what happened to the wild woman clad in leather and spike-heeled boots who once strutted across the stages of America wailing out haunting rock songs and permeating the drug culture with her eerie adventures of Alice in Wonderland.
Seeing her today made me question what has happened to all of those Woodstock-era icons who didn’t die young. Where are they today? Did they ever do anything to keep their utopian dream alive or was it just one short trip to the Garden? Was it really the end and not the beginning of something new and revolutionary, something sacred and unrepeatable.
Throughout history man has tried and failed to create heaven on earth or to get back to the Garden but these efforts have failed repeatedly because we are imperfect beings living in a fallen and imperfect world.
And still, our hope is not lost in these efforts but strengthened in the promise of a new world and an after-life that is far more amazing than anything we could imagine or create on our own.
Keep hoping. Faith is believing in what we do not see—yet.