Ex-lawmaker says festival was defining moment

Ex-lawmaker says festival was defining moment

http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090802/GJNEWS02/308029996/-1/CITNEWS

By GEOFF CUNNINGHAM Jr.
gcunningham@fosters.com
Sunday, August 2, 2009

PORTSMOUTH ­ Burt Cohen was sitting in traffic on the New York
interstate in August 1969 when he first began to realize just how big
of an event he was about to attend.

The 58-year-old Portsmouth resident and former New Hampshire state
senator was 18 when he borrowed his mother's Buick Skylark
convertible and set off for a Woodstock Festival that he said helped
define a generation.

Cohen ­ a peace activist and music lover ­ said he had obtained
tickets to Woodstock and believed he was among some 50,000 heading to
Max Yasgur's farm for a show, but the event ultimately would end up
drawing close to half a million people.

"That set the standard for traffic jams. I had two tickets, but there
was nobody there to take them," Cohen recalled.

Woodstock's 40th anniversary begins on Aug. 14.

Cohen said he was sitting in a sandwich shop recently when he
overhead a young man behind the counter saying he wished he was a
teen when the original Woodstock festival came about.

"I had to tell him I was 18 (years old) in 1969 and it was a great
time," Cohen said.

The former state senator was attending the now-defunct Windham
College in Putney, Vt., when he learned that some of the most
influential bands of the late 1960s would be playing at Woodstock.

He obtained tickets and set off with a friend for Bethel, N.Y., as
Woodstock's musical line-up swelled in the days leading up to the
event. He said his friend was quickly lost when he stepped out of the
car in traffic to play Frisbee.

"It was hard not to hear about it, and there were a lot of rumors
about who would be there. The posters kept changing as to what bands
were playing. Everybody knew it would be a good time," Cohen said.

He said he brought minimal supplies, packing very little food and a
single tent.

He would find that not many people were selling food at the show,
which required people to share and set up camp wherever they could find a spot.

There was plenty of recreational drug use at Woodstock, Cohen said,
but he was more interested in the music and the political statement
the concert would make about promoting peace.

"I was very much into the music and still am. I wanted to see the
Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane," he said.

He said he was less of a hippie and more of a "Yippie" ­ a term that
refers to a Youth International Party movement of the time, which was
associated with an anti-war movement led by individuals like Abbie
Hoffman and Paul Krassner.

Cohen said the scene at Woodstock was one of music and peace, with
downpours contributing toward a mud pit that he described as living
up to its legend.

"I didn't want to swim in the muddy water, but there were people
having a great time everywhere. I may have seen some people minus
some usual clothing, but it was not big deal," Cohen said.

Cohen said what he most remembers is his amazement when he first head
Santana perform.

"I wanted to make sure I saw them, and they blew me away," Cohen said.

He said he will never forget a Woodstock that he described as
dominated in its attendance by "average American kids."

"The sense of freedom and community was something none of us will
forget. The image of naked tripping hippies scared middle America,
and the political and cultural right seized on that fear and declared
cultural war on us. Well it's over, we won," Cohen said.

The Portsmouth resident said he eventually found his friend.

"He left the sleeping bag I'd borrowed from my brother in the
now-famous mud," he said.

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