Locals look back at Woodstock turns 40

LYNN – The sun was setting as Dick Willis and his friends trudged along the country road leading to Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, N.Y. Their car had been abandoned miles away, part of a massive traffic jam unheard of in these remote Catskill foothills. Just when it seemed they would never reach the Woodstock music festival, Richie Haven’s voice and guitar wafted over the fields.Willis, a Lynn resident and GE employee, was 18 years old in 1969, a college freshman, his pockets stuffed with snacks, a tent and sleeping bag strapped to his back.”There was music in the distance but by the time we got there it was dark. We knew we were in the middle of nowhere because there were no lights anywhere, just a few small campfires and the glow from cigarettes,” he recalled earlier this week. “We angled into a slot, put down our bags and went to sleep. It wasn’t until we woke up the next morning that we saw the most amazing thing. There were people everywhere you looked, a mass of humanity beyond description.”Musicians played into the wee hours and resumed the next day ? Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Who, Donovan, Country Joe McDonald and the Fish, Joe Cocker, Arlo Guthrie, The Grateful Dead, Crosby Stills & Nash, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Joan Baez, Sly and the Family Stone, Sha-Na-Na and two dozen others.”There were some hippies in the crowd, people who had driven VW buses from California, but for the most part it was white, middle-class kids getting their eyes open,” said Willis, 58, of Linton Road. “The music was going continuously, like a backdrop, and people were hanging out, talking, drinking, sharing food. There were no fights, no violence. And there was no commercialism. The concert just happened. Nobody knew what we were getting into, that it would become an event of such magnitude.”John O’Brien, then a teenager and now Essex County registrar of deeds, was among those walking along the same road as Willis. “There were kids along the shoulder who had hoses set up and signs that said ?spray the hippies’. They cooled us off as we walked past,” he said.O’Brien was a drummer in the rock band Plain Jayne, as was his school chum, Bobby Russo. “We went for the music and it was fantastic,” he said. “We just sat there in the mud, listening to the music. Where could you assemble so many great musicians today ? Jimi Hendrix playing ?Star Spangled Banner’ in the rain? This was the time of the Vietnam War, which we were against, and here was Country Joe McDonald singing ?1-2-3 What are we fightin’ for, don’t ask me I don’t give a damn, next stop is Vietnam.’ And all of us were shouting along with him.”O’Brien laughingly told how he purchased a case of warm Genesee beer off the back of a rental truck for $22. “People were selling ham sandwiches. Everything was very peaceful,” he said. “I don’t think anything could top it. I’ve had a lot of great experiences in politics, but nothing compares to the summer of ?69.”Paul McCormack of Nahant, a former street advocate in Lynn, was also in the crowd with nine buddies who had packed into the late Danny “Ringo” Hynes’ car. “Purple haze, acid, all kinds of drugs. You were stoned the whole time, just listening to Richie Havens, Sha-Na-Na, Donovan. We slept in the car when it rained. It’s something that you just can’t forget,” he said. “I never once saw an argument. You really didn’t care because you were high. We drank Kruger beer, really awful stuff that we bought in Lynn n 25 cents for a 12-ouncer. We took along 129 quarts of Narragansett Giant Imperial Quarts and when we got to Woodstock we had to buy more ? and there were only nine of us.”McCormack was also accompanied by the late brothers Ronnie and Glenn Taylor of Lynn. “We had an amazing time,” he said.Unlike the others, O’Brien took a Greyhound from Boston to New York and a charter bus to the festival at the 600-acre dairy farm from Aug. 15-18 n a site actually about 40 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock.”We