Woodstock Music Festival - An ExHippie Exhales

I used to joke that that I was at the Woodstock Music Festival rolling in the mud, singing, dancing and avoiding the brown acid. Although that is not true, the colorful images on TV of the crowds, clothes, mud, music, peace and love, are indelibly etched in my mind as if I had actually been there. This Festival is still and will forever be, the world's greatest and most memorable rock and roll concert event.

The images that I remember were from the television and magazine images that I saw of my fellow hippie/baby boomer generation celebrating at this event. There were the half a million kids there, stoned, wet, muddy, and many half-naked, celebrating the rock music and practicing the peace and love that defined my generation. It truly was "the Age of Aquarius".

Everything was "groovy" and "outta sight" and we couldn't wait to climb into my older brother's VW Bus and roll down the highway listening to the music that spoke directly to us.

My story is focused on then and now, 40 years later. My life as it turns out is filled with great ironies. Back then I didn't trust anyone over thirty and now I hardly know anyone under thirty. During Woodstock, we hippies wore our hair long and now we're thankful to still have enough hair left on the side to comb it over the top. We popped acid like they were M&Ms, but the only acid we have now is acid reflux.

We protested for peace and now we sit home just praying for some peace of mind. When we now talk about our "joints", we're only referring to the arthritis in our knees. This baby boomer is going to celebrate Woodstock in a manner appropriate to his aging baby boomer body. Just like the actual location of the Woodstock Festival, I have become mature, respectable, and a lot quieter.