Posted by Felice Yurkiewicz on November 30, 1998 at 12:16:47:
In Reply to: Woodstock posted by Sid Schipper on November 26, 1998 at 13:29:39:
Sid,
When I emailed you shortly before the reunion, you had a problem recalling that I went to Jeff with you for three years, and then also on to NYU. I am glad your brain cells recall this episode, however! Yes, it's true -- several of the Jefferson teachers took it upon themselves to organize a group trip to Woodstock. I was active in the Drama Club back then and my acting teacher, Jerry Bialy, invited me to go up. My parents were kind of leery of letting me go, but what ultimately persuaded them was that Gail Markels and Debbie Stein's parents had already said yes. The teachers bought the tickets for us, and we met in front of Jeff and drove up in about 4 different cars. I remember vividly that my backpack and sleeping bag were last to be loaded and couldn't quite fit into the already stuffed small trunk of Bialy's battered black Plymouth Valiant, so it was placed in another's teacher's car, Mark something -- can you remember? Leisant Girau would recall. Anyhow, in all the chaos of driving up there, we eventually lost each other as we followed each other, caravan-style, upstate. We finally had to ditch the car in a corn field some 20 miles from the site, and alternately walked and hitched to the concert. I remember being distraught that my backpack with clothes, food, sleeping bag, and TICKETS were in this other car and there was no way in hell we were ever going to find the rest of our group that weekend. So Bialy actually stopped somewhere and bought another set of tickets for the three days, never dreaming that by now there was no semblance of a gate and entry had become a free-for-all. (P.S. - I still have those vintage, unused Woodstock tickets, and have never gotten around to pricing what they are worth as memorabilia -- anyone have an idea?)Without clothes, food and sleeping bag, I was pretty miserable, I remember, until the rains came and then everyone was in the same boat. Our "chaperone," Jerry Bialy, actually met what was to become his second wife on that trip (did she come up with Harriet Goldberg, another Jeff teacher?), and he remained shacked up with her most of the weekend in what was to be a communal tent; Debbie, Gail and I caught cap naps in someone's car that weekend. The difference is we wound up staying practically to the end, after arriving there half a day late, so we did catch the third day's musical acts. By dawn of the third day, Gail and I had made our way down front, close to one of the towers, and it wa spretty awesome. When I finally could claw my way to a pay phone and called home by evening of the second day, my mother was freaking out, demanding I come home immediately -- didn't I know the concert had become a DISASTER and was on the NEWS?? It took half a day to make our way back to the abandoned Plymouth Valiant in the corn field, and I remember being dropped off in front of my project building at 245 Wortman in the dead of night. My mother was up and waiting for me, and ushered me straight into the bathroom for a steaming shower. In later years she always said she never smelled anything so bad as the clothes that came off me that night! And she was forever suspicious of school trips after that, always questioning if it was going to become another Woodstock.
Thanks for prompting the memories, Sid. I also remember Barry Pannish being there -- can anyone recall which teachers and other kids were also on that trip?