I was at Woodstock...Man

As a youth growing up in the "post" Woodstock world, one of the big jokes was that even though approximately 500,000 people attended Woodstock, millions more claimed to have been there.

Another claim made by the Woodstock generation is that there were babies born at the event.  While one person did actually die, the Boomer attendees love to spout proudly "Yeah, man, one guy died but three babies were born."

According to a story compiled by the Associated Press in July of 2009, "no one has come forward with a credible public claim of giving birth to a Woodstock baby or being born there."  So, here is another Woodstock myth going awry.

While Woodstock provided some wonderful concert performances, the event was more a distorted myth than a grand experience.  For those who did attend the show, it was an unsanitary, mud fest for which you needed binoculars (which probably all attendees did not have) to even view.  With little food and even less bathroom facilities, it was a probably more a nightmare than the cultural event of lifetime.

For those who were not there and yet claimed to be, Woodstock became a symbol of a generation getting together for peace.  However, for those of us who review the actual history, the Woodstock era was more about divisiveness and individualism.  Divorce rates began skyrocketing after Woodstock.  People moved into separatist camps about numerous issues like war, culture, race and politics.  The 1970's then became the "me decade" as declared by journalist Tom Wolfe.

While the Baby Boomers relish Woodstock as some momentous and cathartic time, the reality is that Woodstock was more a anomaly then a symbol of the Baby Boom generation coming of age.