Sunday, June 28, 2009

40 Year Summer Anniversary

Aloha!
Welcome to. . .
Waikiki?click on photos to enlarge


Can't believe I saved it all these years.


(Disclaimer: I was under age though somewhat emancipated)


"There is a way to look at the past. Don't hide from it. It will not catch you if you don't repeat it."
Pearl Bailey



Hawaiian Skies over me
today


“An inordinate passion for pleasure is the secret of remaining young.”
Oscar Wilde


First Filament BURSTING OUT




“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.”
Sophia Loren


Yes, that's a hotel room safe on the curb.
Make up your own caption ;-)

It seems to be a Summer of Anniversaries.


Fifty Years of Hawaii Statehood.
40 years since the Stonewall Uprising
Today.




Forty years since Woodstock.






40 ****ing years?!!!!!!!!!!!


I should post this in August but
40 ****ing Years?!

I remember selling macrame` belts to boutiques for my ticket money.
I remember the BUZZ that THIS was gonna be a "gathering of the tribes" and a do NOT miss event!




Arriving at the site late on Thursday night it was too dark to see much.
We slept on the ground.





But Friday morning was a bursting, bustling SEA of cars and humanity.









I'd never seen so many people in one place(OK, maybe Grand Central Station)
but certainly never so many freaks!




(Only Time magazine, and news people, and the 'out of it' called us hippies)






Bob Segar struck a chord that still resonates down the corridor of years:
"Always seem outnumbered, don't dare make a stand,
Same old cliches: 'Is that a woman or a man?"


It took real courage to let your freak flag fly.







But this was freak utopia.
The few cops looked surrendered and happy and just kept the cars safely flowing even as random people (like me) hitched rides on hoods and trunks along the slow moving line of cars. Joints were smoked freely under the open sky, even sincerely offered to cops who declined smiling. Some people were topless, others muddy, and/or nude. Everyone looked HAPPY!


The cops acted like real peace officers. Locals told the press: "They're good kids." The cops treated us like citizens (instead of prey) for once. What else could they do, but still.
It was a peaceful metropolis under the sky, no fights, no attitude, just unbelieving bliss.





The radios in the cars reported that the New York State Thruway was closed!




"We closed the highway, man!"




"Maybe they got us all together in one place to bomb us."







It looked like the end of the world as we knew it and it felt fine indeed!






The disorientation and sensory overload of being amidst so many folks in quasi-disaster conditions made me feel high,
plus we hadn't brought food in expectation of buying it.
But fences were flat, services overwhelmed and not set up.
We sucked on those English flavored cigarette papers popular back then.
Rizzla?





Campers shared food. We got by somehow.
I still have my ticket because no one needed one. Free show, Man!
Free was a big concept then: bartering,
Whole Earth Catalogue self-sufficiency, communes....
A shop in West Philly at the time was called "The Free People's Store" which had a " free shelf" to challenge the whole idea of consumerism. Those folks were interesting and later morphed into Urban Outfitters, right Richard?





I can still see that ocean of people, and "feel" that ride on the snaking line of cars as the cops directed traffic good-naturedly.





I remember meeting people from all over the country.





I remember seeing my first Hawaii License plate. (Hawaii!)





I remember the music way way WAY over the sea of people,
and the helicoptered bands landing.





I remember me and my friends being overwhelmed by the throng and leaving on Saturday...but I never tell that part.....




31 comments:

  1. Great post today; oral history.

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  2. What a great post, Cloudia! The years do slip by. My eldest child turns 30 this year. Really...

    Isn't it fun finding such treasures?

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  3. Thanks for letting us share your memories, Cloudia. I thoroughly enjoyed your firsthand account of what really happened at Woodstock. I was underage and nowhere near emancipated and 3000 miles away. So I missed all the fun.

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  4. Aloha, Cloudia.

    Tell me you're working on another novel.

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  5. 40years,my how time flies when you are having fun.I enjoyed the video.Thanks.

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  6. What a great memory. Makes me wish I hadn't missed it. Love Bob Seger.

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  7. Congratulations.
    Good, I love you any posts.

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  8. Cool story! The cops were enjoying the second-hand smoke, ya know. I like the idea of another novel...pick up where the first one left off, eh? DrumMajor

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  9. I wasn't into drugs, sex, and rock n roll so Woodstock wasn't for me. My neighbor in NYC showed me his slides of the event, though. Interesting.

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  10. I was underage then too, but the following year was my first trip to Hawaii and how I loved that!

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  11. I know I am a little late Cloudia, but if I came to Hawaii, could we do a little woodstock out there, complete with the mud and naked bodies? I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

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  12. Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end . . .

    I was already out of the country and missed Woodstock but was lucky to see the dawning of the age while at Ann Arbor.
    Good onya for making your way to Woodstock. Frame that ticket!
    Peace V

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  13. hawaii seems so interesting for me my cousin is currently working and residing there and i have heard so many good things abiut the island
    its nice to be here in your blog
    have a great day and happy blogging

    TOP FIVE
    BREAKING THE BOUNDARIES
    SONG TO REMEMBER
    TV MARATHON
    POSITIVE THINKER
    SUPER BLOG

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  14. what a great personal history post! What an amazing thing to participate in.

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  15. Wonderful to read this. I didn't go, but the music is all "my generation"!!

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  16. Great post Cloudia. You went to Woodstock???? WOW!!!

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  17. Time goes by so very fast. I was 14, and living in Oregon, everyone was talking about Woodstock. But, you were there!

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  18. I'm glad to see Stonewall getting some attention, those Woodstock Tickets will get more and more valuable. And honest of you to admit leaving early, the comfort factor and the crowds would have gotten to me within the day-I'm no hero!

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  19. Hi Cloudia girl! Trying to get my life back together, and just when I do, it goes another direction! All is well, just crazy. Like Woodstock. Only, I don't like crowds. Being short and all, I can't see where I'm going. I missed Woodstock by a few years - I was nine. Cool that you were there.

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  20. ALOHA, Cloudiaz and thanks for visiting my blog while I was in America.

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  21. Damn, I was only 1 1/2. So you couldn't make it till Monday morning to see Hendrix then huh?

    Wil Harrison.com

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  22. I remember seeing Bob Seegar playing the high school dances round here before he got a record deal.

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  23. Thanks friends!
    Your visits & comments just blow me away!!

    Aloha

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  24. you were there + remember it? ;->

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  25. Far out, Cloudia! Wonderful reading as I was truly an emancipated minor living in Pocatello, Idaho when I heard about Woodstock. I woulda' been to afraid to go probably. . .so I have been a 'hippie on the inside' all these years. Thanks for sharing!
    p.s. Have you read T.C. Boyle's Drop City?

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  26. That must have been amazing. I am glad you have this memento. What is possible when we all get together to celebrate our souls.

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  27. I don't think I knew anything about Woodstock until way after it was over.

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  28. Woodstock was too far away for me to go PLUS I was a tad too young anyways! But the spirit of that time I carried within me!
    It took many years before I was comfortable enjoying being myself instead of being lost in trying to please too many people.

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