Boldly Committed to Truth Telling in the False Face of Fakery
They are replaying the Woodstock Pop Festival Movie on cable
It is August 16, 2015, I just turned on TV, and they are replaying the Woodstock movie from 1970
It reminded me of the Byron pop festival in Macon Georgia. We went there in July of 1970. I was dating a girl named Beverly at the time who was 17 years old. I was 25. I took her to see the movie Woodstock and bought her the album. I was only back in country for seven months and still in the full-bore "hell bent for leather mode". She helped me through some of those rough times and her innocence gave me some comfort from the demons.
Reggie, Hugh, Clay and I drove down for the day just to see what was going on. Byron, Georgia is a city about 110 miles south of Atlanta on I 75. We had no idea it would be a big crowd. Well I75 was backed up long before the Byron Exit. We were able to finally park our car on the side of the road and walk toward the speedway where the Pop Festival was held. As we got closer the crowds grew bigger and bigger.
We never got to see the music as the venue was packed. There were tons of street vendors up and down the road selling pot and all types of drugs. None of us was into the drug scene and we forgot to take beer. As I recall the county was dry. There were no vendors for alcohol. I think one of the sponsors was either Coke or Pepsi
The Georgia State patrol were all over the place and clearly outnumbered so all they did was just direct traffic and try to keep a clear path for police and ambulance traffic if needed. The crowd was not unruly but definitely into the drug scene.
Cars were lined up from the road all the way to the expressway bumper-to-bumper. Many cars were parked on the side of the road. Many had given out of gas and were just pushed to the side of the road.
Just passed the speedway there was a lake with a long sliding board. Naturally in mid Georgia in July it was hot as hell so many were swimming in the lake. Most of them were naked and clothes were laying on the bank all around the lake. We took pictures of the multiple naked women and men sliding down the sliding board into the lake.
I do not know how many people were at this festival but it was one of the largest festivals held during that year. Estimations of 100K to 200K people were there. The payphones had long lines just like in the movie along where people calling home.
We stayed for quite a few hours and then decided we had seen enough and began to make our way back to the car. We did not get back to Atlanta until late at night.
We each took our 35MM cameras and took multiple slides of the event. After the slides were developed, we put them all in a Kodak Carousel projector. My apartment faced a courtyard with other apartments on the other side. From my balcony, we had a clear view of the side of the apartment next to our building. We decided to project our pictures on the white or cream stucco wall. The distance was perfect and in no time, we had most of the people in the complex sitting on the grass watching the pictures.
Some of the pictures were as close to double R rated as you got in 1970. Many years later when my buddies from the complex and I retired we opened a loan business and one day we were talking about the good old days. 1970 to 2007 -It was thirty-seven years later, but we had a great time talking about that hot day in Georgia. My buddy Reggie said, I think I still have the old slides somewhere at home. We had combined all of the slides (about 100) into a couple of carousels. I do not remember now who actually had possession of the slides but neither of us had downsized our house yet so we had most of the important things from our youth in the basement. Well, that is most of the things that the wife's would let us keep. I do not think they knew what were in the two slide carousels.
Whichever one of us found the slides brought them to the shop and we set up and watched them again. What was once a bit of a scandalous slide show in 1970 seemed tame in 2007. They designated me to keep the slides and I took them home. When I downsized in 2008 and moved into my current house, I had to make some decisions on what to discard. Unfortunately, the slides did not make the cut. I did not even review them to pull out the ones of us guys. So that is my story and I am sticking to it. At the same time, I discarded quite a few of the party slides and pictures I had in the old "Oak Creek box".
Here are a few links about the festival:
Click here if you want some history from Wiki
Click here to read someone else's memories of the event.
Click here for another one
A quote from above link: "Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman - both of whom died within months of the festival - were the best. I'm grateful that I heard them live when they were still around. That I remember at least some of their playing there".
I recently reconnected with Beverly on Facebook quite by accident; her sister married one of my workmates. We exchanged a few short messages and I was glad that she did not hold any hard feelings. I was not the most considerate guy during those days. She is 62 years old now but she will always be my flower child who helped me get back on my wheels. Life has been good to me.
This is a picture of a ticket unused as it was turned into a free concert due to the enormous crowds.
Go Back
It reminded me of the Byron pop festival in Macon Georgia. We went there in July of 1970. I was dating a girl named Beverly at the time who was 17 years old. I was 25. I took her to see the movie Woodstock and bought her the album. I was only back in country for seven months and still in the full-bore "hell bent for leather mode". She helped me through some of those rough times and her innocence gave me some comfort from the demons.
Reggie, Hugh, Clay and I drove down for the day just to see what was going on. Byron, Georgia is a city about 110 miles south of Atlanta on I 75. We had no idea it would be a big crowd. Well I75 was backed up long before the Byron Exit. We were able to finally park our car on the side of the road and walk toward the speedway where the Pop Festival was held. As we got closer the crowds grew bigger and bigger.
We never got to see the music as the venue was packed. There were tons of street vendors up and down the road selling pot and all types of drugs. None of us was into the drug scene and we forgot to take beer. As I recall the county was dry. There were no vendors for alcohol. I think one of the sponsors was either Coke or Pepsi
The Georgia State patrol were all over the place and clearly outnumbered so all they did was just direct traffic and try to keep a clear path for police and ambulance traffic if needed. The crowd was not unruly but definitely into the drug scene.
Cars were lined up from the road all the way to the expressway bumper-to-bumper. Many cars were parked on the side of the road. Many had given out of gas and were just pushed to the side of the road.
Just passed the speedway there was a lake with a long sliding board. Naturally in mid Georgia in July it was hot as hell so many were swimming in the lake. Most of them were naked and clothes were laying on the bank all around the lake. We took pictures of the multiple naked women and men sliding down the sliding board into the lake.
I do not know how many people were at this festival but it was one of the largest festivals held during that year. Estimations of 100K to 200K people were there. The payphones had long lines just like in the movie along where people calling home.
We stayed for quite a few hours and then decided we had seen enough and began to make our way back to the car. We did not get back to Atlanta until late at night.
We each took our 35MM cameras and took multiple slides of the event. After the slides were developed, we put them all in a Kodak Carousel projector. My apartment faced a courtyard with other apartments on the other side. From my balcony, we had a clear view of the side of the apartment next to our building. We decided to project our pictures on the white or cream stucco wall. The distance was perfect and in no time, we had most of the people in the complex sitting on the grass watching the pictures.
Some of the pictures were as close to double R rated as you got in 1970. Many years later when my buddies from the complex and I retired we opened a loan business and one day we were talking about the good old days. 1970 to 2007 -It was thirty-seven years later, but we had a great time talking about that hot day in Georgia. My buddy Reggie said, I think I still have the old slides somewhere at home. We had combined all of the slides (about 100) into a couple of carousels. I do not remember now who actually had possession of the slides but neither of us had downsized our house yet so we had most of the important things from our youth in the basement. Well, that is most of the things that the wife's would let us keep. I do not think they knew what were in the two slide carousels.
Whichever one of us found the slides brought them to the shop and we set up and watched them again. What was once a bit of a scandalous slide show in 1970 seemed tame in 2007. They designated me to keep the slides and I took them home. When I downsized in 2008 and moved into my current house, I had to make some decisions on what to discard. Unfortunately, the slides did not make the cut. I did not even review them to pull out the ones of us guys. So that is my story and I am sticking to it. At the same time, I discarded quite a few of the party slides and pictures I had in the old "Oak Creek box".
Here are a few links about the festival:
Click here if you want some history from Wiki
Click here to read someone else's memories of the event.
Click here for another one
A quote from above link: "Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman - both of whom died within months of the festival - were the best. I'm grateful that I heard them live when they were still around. That I remember at least some of their playing there".
I recently reconnected with Beverly on Facebook quite by accident; her sister married one of my workmates. We exchanged a few short messages and I was glad that she did not hold any hard feelings. I was not the most considerate guy during those days. She is 62 years old now but she will always be my flower child who helped me get back on my wheels. Life has been good to me.
This is a picture of a ticket unused as it was turned into a free concert due to the enormous crowds.
Comment
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I went to festivals in Summer of 1973, at the Rockingham Motor Speedway, and again in 1974, at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. I figure I was lucky to escape both events with all of my life, and about half of my wits, so saving the stubs was not a priority.