Woodstock's meaning?

Posted at 1:50 PM on August 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Life

Yes, I grew up in the '60s. No, I didn't go to Woodstock.

I had to chuckle when I heard Gary Eichten read this response that someone sent in to Today's Question:

Woodstock to this octogenarian was an orgy in mud hat showed the decadent side of popular culture. It had no meaning to me personally at the time and has no meaning to me personally now. I've always been a bit bemused at all the fuss over it.

...and this one...

A more interesting question might be to ask how and why thousands of aimless and whimsical youth on a weekend holiday have come to symbolize an entire generation of tens of millions?

If I squint my eyes just so, I can read this and it can be 1969 again, and you're all my father talking about Hippies.

A newspaper in that neck of the woods put this video together and, I think, actually captured the meaning of Woodstock. It means when you look back on anything 40 years later, you're bound to feel older.

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Comments (2)

Video is pretty cool.

After the credit start the lady talked about how after 3-4 days she came walking home, and they were very happy she was home and safe, but at the same time where is the car?.

That made me laugh.

Posted by BJ | August 14, 2009 2:41 PM

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Katherine Kersten went off on Woodstock Sunday, obsessing with the mess the hippies left behind and how solid middle aged workers had to clean it all up.

The irony is that if you remember Woodstock, you also remember a time when the air over Los Angeles was reliably brown, and every major city had a smog problem you could literally see and taste.

Cleaning up after your kids throw a party isn't quite the same thing as the massive clean up unregulated industries necessitated. Thank the hippies for cleaning up our air and water, and thank Woodstock for momentarily distracting us from the mess the greatest generation had made of our environment.

Posted by Mark Gisleson | August 17, 2009 11:46 AM

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