It was the largest gathering of its kind, closing down the New York thruway. It was the touchpoint of a generation. It was the best we could be.
There was a war going on, there was social foment in the streets, there was racial inequality. And, there was the music. Back then, it always came back to the music.
It was relevant, important, the rhythm of our hearts, souls.
We all couldn't make it to Woodstock, of course, although if today you asked the surviving hippies if they were there, you'd probably get an answer that would have pegged attendance at the festival at more than 3 million.
Woodstock was news. Big news.
Mainstream media was curious about the hippies back then, but they were not terribly objective in their reporting when it came to the dope-smoking counterculture. They couldn't see beyond their myopic focus, looking for everything wrong with the young people of that time instead
