Letters

Woodstock Embodied the Era of Slovenliness and Decay of America

Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.

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It all began on a farm in upstate New York when a large group of young people gathered for a “peace meeting.”

Some brought pup tents, others ponchos and blankets. The entertainment consisted of various and sundry bands; their instruments were electric guitars, drums and the usual “vocalists.”

The planners of this gathering, expected 50,000; instead, they got almost 500,000. There were only 800 portable toilets available. If you had to go, there were trees and shrubs to alleviate your problem.

For dress, many males wore well-worn jeans with gaps at the knees, shaggy long hair, t-shirts cut off at the shoulders. For females, frizzy, unkempt hair, loose-fitting blouses and t-shirts, many with ghoulish designs emblazoned thereon.

A Top 40 DJ said “there was a lot of drugs, overdoses, acting out, puking and drinking.” A well-known journalist referred to it as, “a showcase of

spectacularly self-indulgent, childish and irresponsible behavior. Many Americans felt that Woodstock and the counterculture severely degraded the country’s morals.”

Another journalist who attended said “the weekend was a massive, teaming, squalid mess.”

The upshot of all of this was the beginning of the lack of pride, dress, manners, morality and respect.

For others, that still holds true today.

Joe Pettit
Yorktown

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