On the Road to Woodstock -part nineteen

Country Joe and the Fish finished their performance before the four of us found a place to sit and listen to the music. The intermission between acts gave me some time to enjoy Sherry's company without distraction. I was still tripping strong, and it intensified immensely the mild intimacy I shared with her.

That our bodies touched was exciting in itself, but her holding my hand in her lap gave fruit to fantasies of my feeling her feminine parts. Her head was resting against mine, and the touch of her hair against my skin was soft and sensuous.

She snuggled her head into the crook of my neck, and I tilted my head over so that I could feel her hair against the side of my face. She raised her head up so that our cheeks and foreheads touched together.

I had kissed girls before, but I never felt as close to anyone as I felt towards Sherry at that moment. And we hadn't even kissed.

We snuggled together for what seemed like a long time when the sound of an electrified guitar shattered the silence. It was Alvin Lee of Ten Years After starting in with the first few licks of Good Morning Little Schoolgirl.

As much as I wanted to continue snuggling with Sherry, Alvin Lee's down and dirty guitar playing commanded my attention. I sat up and looked, and the stage looked tiny in the distance, yet in my mind I was right there in front of it. It sounded as if a thousand notes a second were being played on the guitar, but each one was as distinct as if I were playing the guitar myself.

Sherry seemed to be getting into it, too. She pulled the blanket around us more tightly and pushed up against me with her body, and she raised her head up straight and seemed to be paying attention to the music.

"Do you like Ten Years After?" I asked her.

"I've never heard them before," she answered, "but they sound far out."

"I have their album," I said a bit smugly.

"Cool," she said.

They finished doing Little Schoolgirl to a big roar of approval from the crowd, and then they went into another number that I didn't recognize, but the guitar playing was blowing me away. The haze of colors I saw through my eyes seemed to undulate with the beat of the music, and before I realized it I was shaking my head around and pumping Sherry's hand to the sound of the guitar as if I were playing it myself.

Sherry seemed to enjoy my antics for she looked at me with a big smile on her face and began to shake her head in time with mine. I looked at her and grinned and then turned my attention back to the stage.

The band went into a third song that was slower and bluesier, and Sherry and I nodded our heads together to the beat of the music while exchanging smiles with one another. Their fourth and last song was I'm Going Home, a fast blues song that I recognized from their album, and the band went all out doing a thirty-minute version of it, and after it was over I felt almost exhausted from the experience.

"Wow, man," I said, "that was great."

"Yeah," Sherry said. She looked at me and smiled, and she leaned over and put her forehead against mine. We began to snuggle again, and ever so slowly our lips moved closer together until we were kissing each other softly. I turned so that my body was facing hers, and she turned likewise towards me, and we ended up in an embrace lying down on the blanket.

I felt her breasts pressing up against my chest as our kisses turned more passionate, and somehow my leg ended up in between hers, and I felt her push her groin against me. I had long been aroused, and I was pretty sure she could feel me pressing against her. I was super sexually turned on, and the acid made me feel as if my body was becoming one with hers.

We lay there for a long time making out and rubbing against each other's bodies, and it was the closest I had ever come to having a sexual experience with a girl. It was then that I heard the sound of an organ playing the majestic opening of Chest Fever by The Band. It was a song that really turned me on, and when the organ intro segued into the song proper, I had to sit up and listen. It must've been the acid because I never heard the song sound so good. Sherry sat up beside me, and I put my arm around her and pulled her close.

"That's The Band, man," I heard John say. I looked over at he and Linda, and they were sitting up listening to the song intently.

"Yeah, man," I said to John. He had introduced me to The Band when they had come out with her first album, Music From Big Pink. John explained to me how they had been the backup band for Bob Dylan, and how they had gone out on their own. I wasn't too familiar with their music, but when Chest Fever came out on the radio it really hooked me.

The Band went on to play five or six more songs that I didn't recognize that well, but they finished with The Weight, which was another big favorite of mine. I knew a lot of the words to the song, and I sang along with it in my head. After it was over, I felt a warm glow from the experience.

"That was far out," John said.

"Yeah, it sure was," I agreed.

"They were really good," Linda said.

"Yeah, they were," said Sherry.

"I wonder who'll be on next," I said thinking out loud.

"I have no idea," John said.

"I did have a program, but it got lost," Linda said.

"Whoever it is, I'm sure they'll be good," I said.

"I'm sure, too," Sherry agreed.

We all sat there in silence for a little while, and then John said quite out of the blue, "Napa Sonoma..."

I finished our little acid mantra by saying, "Mendocino."

"What was that?" Sherry asked.

"I'm not sure," John said. "Johnny Lee and I memorized it from a wine bottle when we were tripping one time."

"Those are places in California where they grow grapes for wine," Linda said.

"You're pretty smart," John said to her.

"Not really," she said. "I just read a lot."

"She sure does," Sherry said. "She's a bookworm."

"I used to read a lot in third grade," I said, and as soon as I finished saying it I realized how silly it sounded.

"What happened after third grade?" Linda asked me.

"I don't know," I answered. I felt embarrassed.

"I read Playboy," John said and laughed.

"You pervert," Linda said and punched John in the shoulder playfully.

"You don't know the half of it," John said, and he grabbed Linda and pulled her down flat on the blanket. He pulled their blanket over them, and I heard Linda giggle some, and then she was quiet.

I wanted to do the same with Sherry, but I wasn't sure how to initiate it. We still had the blanket around us and still close together, and somehow I summoned up the courage to put my arm around her, and from there things seemed to progress naturally to snuggling and kissing and then laying down together. My tripping was still going strong, and as we held each other and kissed, I fell in love with her, and every touch from her lips, her hands, and her body sent my mind and body reeling.
We lay there and kissed and pressed up against each other for what seemed like a long time, and then the next band began to play.