The Impoverished Gentlewoman

A '60s woman lost in the woods.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

It was forty years ago today...

Well, not exactly today but I couldn't let August go by and not talk about that August so many years ago. Woodstock? sure, that was part of it but we all began that summer not knowing anything special was in the works. It was a pretty good summer all in all. I was excited to make plans to escape south Florida for my beloved Provincetown, the Charles Manson murders..no,wait thats not right..forget that part.
So I'm going to P'Town with my old roommate from Gainesville, "Shar"(really Sharon but she thought Shar sounded cool). Shar was a real Southern Belle in a generation that had none of those. She was also an innocent in an era of sex,drugs and rock n' roll. I drove up from Delray Beach to Starke, actually Raiford. Raiford, the state prison..the home of old Sparky. Shar's father was the assistant warden. Their home was on prison grounds. Shar's father made "escape" jokes and he and Shar would cackle like two old witches. But I did survive and we were on our way.
When we were in White Plains,NY we heard about a big concert upstate. When we were at a service station, several freaky types mentioned how mind blowing it was going to be. Shar immediately envisioned herself being sold to a drug crazed biker and all I heard was "Vicki,NO!!!!!!". But when we heard tickets were $18 it was unaffordable. Of course, it wasn't true but they were trying to turn people away. Hey, $18 was alot then!
When we arrived we got a room at a B&B and to Shar's relief, we hung out with a couple of guys who worked at a Chicago Ad agency. They had a cottage with a deck right on the beach so that was nice. It was probably the tamest stay in P'Town but the next summer made up for it...and thats another story.
When we did hear how incredible Woodstock was, there was some regret but everyone I knew who went there said "Oh Vicki you would have hated it!" ..my disdain for the outdoors and the various behaviors exibited were well known (I'm a pretty private person). So there.
Now a mere ten years later-that really upset me! I was imprisoned at Beth Israel Hospital (Well, thats what it felt like) very pregnant with twins who were already past their due date. My length of pregnancy rivaled that of the gestation period of the average elephant. Surely I can make Aug. 15th-the 10th anniversity of Woodstock! But no, it was the day before. A husband of the woman across from me who actually was at Woodstock and his son was born that day did a demented happy dance in front of me until his wife told him to leave me alone.
They've tried to re-do Woodstock several times but it didn't work. You can't re-do something so spontaneous. Things just happen. Really the best things, don't you think?

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