Jay Kernis, now a producer at CBS Sunday Morning, recalls his experience at Woodstock and shares this great Walter Cronkite evening news coverage of it once the weekend was over. Plus, we get an added commentary from the young newsman John Laurence who was one of CBSs brave Vietnam war correspondents if my memory of that time serves me correctly. In the commentary, 45 years ago, Laurence for all practical purposes comes out for the legalization of marijuana, something that we are still debating in this country today. I love that his own producer allowed him to tip his hat toward legalization which was even more practical coming from a young button-down guy like him. For all the hipsters with your beards and waxed mustaches - from Valencia Street in San Francisco to Williamsburg in Brooklyn - and all you Burning Man bohos who for a few costumed carefree days get your boho cards punched so you can carry them around in your wallet next to your ream of credit cards the rest of the year, Ill just remind you there was this weekend in 1969. You didnt invent it all. Of course, Euripides had his own opinion about it all as well. Heres Jays reminiscence of that weekend: The summer between my junior and senior year of high school, some college friends said, You like music and art. Want to go to Woodstock with us? I said sure! We knew something was up when we got caught in that huge traffic jam miles away from the area. We decided better get some groceries and when we got to a store, almost all the shelves were bare. My friends had rented a small cabin about a mile from the stage, so we didnt have to sleep in the mud. But they didnt love the concert, so after a night began packing up. I was sitting near the road when a car pulled up with an NBC crew. Could they use our bathroom? When they saw everyone packing, they asked if they could rent the cabin from us. I said: if you get me back to NYC when this is over. So my friends left and I stayed, but never thought to follow the crew around. I just took my horse blanket down to the field and everyone seemed very happy to have me join them or share their food. Tired of sitting in the back, I worked my way up to as close to the stage as I could--took about an hour--and found a place to sit down. Finally, I was right there when the announcer introduced the next act: Ravi Shankar. Uhm, he wasnt exactly what I had in mind and fell asleep after the first song. My most vivid memory is the kindness of the townspeople and older hippies there, and the profound realization that life was probably more than the suburban split-level childhood I had known. After the concert--the NBC crew drove me right to my front door in Bergenfield, NJ they were so grateful--got back to my summer internship at public station WRVR-FM in NYC and everyone was discussing what they had done over the weekend. When I said that I had been to Woodstock, a producer said: write three minutes now! Which is how I got on air the first time. Still have my tickets, which were never collected because the entrance fence had been knocked over by the time we got there. Was it really 45 years ago?
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 15:55:10 +0000
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