The Music, The Magic, Part One

One of the big thrills about growing up in the
70s was the music. When I started smoking pot and by the way I don't smoke
anymore. That was a long time ago. While under the influence, I discovered
music that would change and shape my life forever.

My first ever concert was The Woodstock Festival.
I was 12 years old in August of 1969. My families house was located about
12 miles from the concert site. We hiked the railroad tracks that ran near
my house and camped along side. You have to understand that Upstate NY
was very undeveloped. It was nothing but farm country and woods as
far as the eye could see.

In my experience, anyone who has grown up in a
city environment has no concept of what it is like growing up in the country.
Life is completely different to the extent of this; People were more trusting
as they had no reason not to trust. People had less fear as most everyone
new everyone else and those we didn't know someone in our community knew
of them and spread the word pretty fast. I live in the city of Philadelphia,
PA, now and the trust level is non existent compared to what I grew up
in.

I Got The Home Sick Blues

Here are a few pictures of where I grew up through the early part of the 70s. This first picture is not the greatest but it is the only picture I have left of the house I grew up in. The house was built in the early 1800s and had 13 rooms. Remember that I have 9 Brothers and Sisters.

This picture was taken somewhere around 1962
judging from the fence. We built a new wooden fence around the front in
1969. Sorry for the B&W. The house sits on about 2 full acres of land
with about 1,000 acres of woods behind it. Notice the hill it is built
on. Just to let you know we lived on a mountain. As a matter of fact, the
name of the road that this house sits on is named Mountain Road.

Overlooking The Village Of Rosendale

This picture was taken from the railroad bridge that runs near my house. When I was a teenager this bridge was still in
use. It is now a walkway and doesn't go all the way across anymore. This is a picture of the Village Of Rosendale. When I first moved there the population was only about 200 people. I'm not sure what it is now. Take in the view, it still is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

At this point I am going to leave you with
a picture from Woodstock and hope you will return for the next entry.

This is probably the most powerful pictures that tells the story of how great it was to be a part of history. Note: To the top left of the picture you will notice the wooded area. We had a campsite in the woods just at the line. We weren't the only ones, there had to be about 100 or better campsites over there.

As I think back, I feel as though I was very lucky in this time period of my life. It was a magical time in history and I was very lucky to be a part of it.