“By the time we got to Woodstock we were half a million strong…..”
(Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young 1970)
So there she sat, alone in her NYC hotel room watching on TV the mayhem that would define the times, as it unfolded upstate in the fields of a local dairy farm. Joni Mitchell missed Woodstock because of a Dick Cavett Show commitment that same weekend. But she still managed to write the defining anthem of that experience, thus enlightening us again with her ability to bring life to musical notes. She recorded it on the album of hers that she was currently working on, but it didn’t strike that proverbial chord within us until her boyfriend, David Crosby of CSN&Y, suggested that they include it on one of the albums that we all had at the time DéjàVu.
So, by now, you’re probably wondering where all of this is going.
I will tell you.
We’re going to Woodstock.
This time we’re not “a half a million strong”, just the two of us and about 15,000 of our best friends and we’re going to see James Taylor at the Bethel Woods Performing Arts Center which sits smack-dab on the properties that were the site of the now infamous festival.
The Backstory.
It’s early 1969 and the promoters of this festival are getting a lot of pushback from the residents of the town of Woodstock, NY. The town of Woodstock was already a haven of sorts for artists and musicians (Bob Dylan frequented the hamlet) so the promoters wanted to capitalize on this and sought to build a recording studio (OK) and have a big, outdoor, three-day concert, (not OK).
Now pressed for time as the deals had already been signed with the performers, they scoured the nearby towns for one that would allow them to hold their festival (nope, nope, and NOPE!) Until, about forty miles away, they came upon a child of God (like the way I wove that in???!!!) who owned a dairy farm. Max Yasgur agreed to let them use his 600-acre farm for the festival. If you mistakenly travel to that little town of Woodstock (which does have an exit on the NY State Thruway) and ask for directions to the concert grounds they will say, “Go West young man!” while pointing that way (about 50 miles or so) to the even smaller town of Bethel, deep in the area known as the Borscht Belt. (more on that in a little bit)
And now it is really safe to say…. and the rest is history.
My sleeping bag made it to Woodstock courtesy of my friend’s sister. She scoured the neighborhood for camping supplies to borrow. I never saw my sleeping bag again……. and now that I think about it fifty-seven years later, I never received an apology or an offer to pay for it. Oh well.
I told you just a minute ago that we would further explore the Borscht Belt (and show our age at the same time) so here goes…… Henny Youngman, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason, Woodie Allen, Joan Rivers, Mel Brooks, Rodney Dangerfield, Buddy Hackett…… and the list goes on, and on, and on……
I am positive that you all remember them! The common threads that run through that list are several, the two main ones are that those folks are Jewish, and they cut their teeth in stand-up comedy at the various clubs and resorts in the Catskill Region that catered to vacationing NYC inhabitants, dubbed “The Borscht Belt”. Note the past tense of the word ‘catered’ as these once world-renowned businesses no longer exist. Their demise was brought about by several factors, air conditioning being one of them as the City became more tolerable with this modern appliance. Jet travel took some more folks that instead of spending a few weeks up in the mountains, they jetted off to far-away places during their vacations. And of course, Time changes everything, including habits and norms, kids don’t want to follow what their parents did, so gradually the business eroded to the point of no return and now there are only a very small handful of old Jewish resorts left upstate, and these have evolved into a more modern version of their ancestors. I’m sure that you’ve seen Dirty Dancing, this movie takes place in the heart of the Catskill Region and toys with the idea that those days are numbered. Another good one that combines the bungalow life, and Woodstock is “A Walk on the Moon” set in the summer of ’69.
The Borscht Belt shares that nomenclature with other areas of the States such as the Bible Belt, the Sun Belt, the Rust Belt, etc. and as far as the borscht part is concerned, that comes from the traditional Eastern European (but mostly Ukrainian Jewish) dish of the same name. Plus…. it is nicely alliterative!
The Festival was just a little west of there and that’s where the Bethel Woods Center for the Performing Arts is located.
The rest of the map shows all of the locations of the Borscht Belt hotels, resorts, and bungalows. The NY State Thruway would be just off the map on the right.
I grew up in this part of the country (the greater NYC Metropolitan area), and I remember as a kid watching on TV all of the advertisements for the resorts upstate, each with its own jingle and motto. There was the Nevele, Brown’s, the Concord, and of course, Grossinger’s and hundreds of other Jewish owned and operated hotels, resorts, and bungalow communities in the area. There is a Borscht Belt Museum and many Historical Markers in that area. It is worth the drive if you are in any way local to see what was back in the day. The Museum does a fine job in bringing you back to those times.
The genesis of this trip is the James Taylor concert, this coming Thursday night. James and I go way back, I think it was 1971. I was so enamored with him that I found out all that I could about him, both positive and negative, and even unearthed a rare recording of him and his group The Flying Machine from 1967. (this is not the Flying Machine that sang “Smile a Little Smile for Me, Rosemarie”) Anyway, I heard rumblings that this may be his last tour and that he may retire from Touring, so I hastened to my laptop, dug out my credit card with the most Available Credit on it and brought up Ticketmaster on the screen. I headed right up front, center, but not the first row as I have found that the first row is not the best seat in the house…… unless you are attending a Chocolate Concert and free samples are being distributed from the stage! I then went to the Camping Module and booked a spot for Miss Biggie so we’re going to take her up there. The Center has both a very accomplished Museum and a nicely laid out campground and RV Park.
Note the proximity to the field on the left, this is where the actual concert took place, right by the Woodstock Monument.
I’m glad that they didn’t put ‘something’ directly on the site.
Our plan is to then proceed west from there, out to DuBois, in mid Pennsylvania where Sherry’s moms Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday.
We will return to Northern NJ on Sunday.
In time for me to report to St. Barnabas on Monday.
Film at 11.