On the Road to Woodstock -part five

I sat there in my stoned stupor and slowly came back to reality. I looked around at the mass of people and the place was becoming more and more crowded. Then I saw the craziest thing I'd ever seen. There was this naked guy with long hair covered in mud running around through the crowd. As I looked closer, I noticed he had a small animal skull tied around his neck. As crowded as it was, people were making room quite quickly for him to dance around in the crowd.

"Look at that guy," John said to me and motioned with his head towards the naked guy. "Ain't that some strange shit," John stated.

"Sure is," I agreed. We watched him for a while until he disappeared into the multitudes.

I had my brother's camera around my neck, so I took it out and took a picture. I don't know why didn't take a picture of the naked guy. It was just so strange I just didn't think of it, I guess. The stage was so far away I didn't see any sense in taking any more pictures, so I put the camera back in its case and let it hang down by my side. The announcer came back on stage. "Listen up. People are having bad trips on yellow acid. If you get any yellow acid, don't take it. Don't take any yellow acid." And then he went backstage.

I heard the sound of a helicopter, and I looked up into the sky. And there it was coming in to make a landing somewhere behind the stage. The announcer came back. "We apologize for the choppity-choppity, but the roads are blocked, and it's the only way we can get the bands in." He made a motion with his hand like an airplane coming in to land. "We should have some music for your real soon. Are you ready for some music?" The crowd cheered. I thought it was about time.

The sun was starting to get hot, and I pulled the sleeves up on my shirt. Some guys on the stage was starting to set up some equipment, and after what seemed like a long time the announcer came back on stage. "We have some good music for you. Quill will be out shortly and then Keef Hartley...." He rambled on for a while longer talking about the Hog Farm was where one could get medical attention. I had heard of the Hog Farm. It was this big commune out West somewhere.

The first band came out and began to play. They sounded like shit.

"You want to stick around?" John asked me.

Apparently he felt like I did. "No, let's go."

We both stood up, which felt pretty good on my legs. John said to the girl, "We're gonna get going."

"Have a good time," she said. She smiled and gave us the peace sign. The black haired guy gave us the peace sign, too.

"Peace," he said. That was the only thing he had said to us the whole time.

John and I made our way through the crowd back to the path that led alongside the hill. I looked at my watch. It was getting to be noon and getting hot as hell. The sun was fierce. I felt it burning into my skin "This weather is crazy," I said to John. "Cold as hell at night and hot as hell in the day."

"Yeah," he said. "Let's go get a Coke."

"Okay," I said. That sounded pretty good.

We walked back up the hill, and found the concession stands again. John didn't have enough tickets for a Coke, and he talked me into getting him one with my tickets. I didn't mind too much. As I said, John was my idol. As a kid, when my family would visit his, I would always go to his room, and he would play the latest Beatles album for me and tell me all about them. John was a Beatlemaniac, and I became a big Beatles fan, too.

We got in line in the concession stand, and waited in line for a good 10 or 15 minutes. Finally, we get to the front, and I got two Cokes with the last my tickets. I think I had one or two left, which were not enough to buy anything.

There was no place to sit down, so John and I found a relatively dry spot to sit down in the grassy area where we had gone to take a leak earlier. The sun was beating down heavy now, but I wasn't sweating much, which surprised me. My Coke tasted good. It was watery, but it was wet.

"I see what you mean about all the people," I said to John.

"Yeah," he said, "I thought the demonstration at the monument was a lot of people. Compared to this that wasn't shit."

"Remember when you me and Chris got stuck in that tear gas?" I asked him.

"Oh man, yeah, that was terrible."

"And we were almost to 12th Street. Can you imagine being in the middle of that shit?"

"I feel sorry for those fuckers." John shook his head as in disbelief.

"Yeah, remember on the news that night? Those people down by the monument... there was just clouds of that shit." I looked John. He was looking down. "And the little bit we got made my eyes and nose burn like hell," I said to him. "I thought I was going to die."

"It was a bitch, all right." He looked at me.


"I hope nothing like that happens here."

"Nah, I don't think so. There ain't no cops for one thing," he pointed out. " I haven't seen one policeman the whole time we've been here. People smoking dope right out in the open... some wild shit." John stood up. I stood up, with him. "Let's go down to the stage," he said.

"Okay," I said.

We made our way back down the path to the stage. About 100 feet from the stage on either side were these huge scaffoldings with big speakers on them facing out towards the crowd. Down by the stage itself was this real high wooden fence that you couldn't see over unless you were 20 feet back or so, and this
left a nice wide walkway across the front of the crowd.

John and I walked across to the other side and out away from the stage area. About 100 feet down there was a trailer set up that seemed to serve as the base for the first aid center. There didn't seem to be too many people around, so I guess the acid problem was under control.

Just then I heard a guitar and its sound was unmistakable. "John," I yelled. He had walked down 15 or 20 feet ahead of me. He turned around. "Santana is playing," I called to him.

John came hustling back, and we both hurried to where the stage was. We found a place a little bit up the hill and off to the side where it wasn't so crowded. The view wasn't that good, but we couldn't be picky. We sat down and listened to a great performance by a band that I really liked. This was cool.