She was at Woodstock!

So I'm at the Red Cross to donate platelets, which I do regularly, and while the technician is sticking needles in both of my arms somehow the topic of Woodstock came up in the conversation - and it turns out she was there!  Not just there, but part of the experience.

She was 15 and lived in a mill town in southern Maine; her parents never would have let her go to a rock concert in New York, except she was going with her cousin who it turns out is none other that Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish fame.  Of course he was performing at Woodstock so going to see him was a big deal to her.

They headed to Woodstock in a limousine but the highway was too congested with concert-goers to get all the way there, so a helicopter was dispatched to pick them up and deliver them to the venue - Country Joe and his kin were definitely VIPs and were treated as such.  Once there she had complete access to the backstage area and got to meet all of the groups that performed - truly a once in a lifetime experience for a 15 year old girl from Milltown, Maine!  I'm pretty sure her parents would not have let her go if they knew the substances that would be readily available and the activities that were going on all around her.

I know a few people who were at Woodstock, or say they were, but Jan (that's her name) is the only one who was part of the "inside" group of performers who made it all happen, and who made it an event that even those of us who were not there will never forget. Here's Country Joe and the fish to show you why:

And here;s the song that everyone remembers - it still seems relevant today:

I was in the Army in Germany in 1969 - but Jan was at Woodstock.  I'm glad she shared the story with me, and I wish I could have been there, too.