Roadtrip: Go Back to the Garden! At The Woodstock Museum (Bethel)

Picture this.  It was the summer of 1969.  I was 19 years old and working in my parents small grocery store in Delaware County, NY.  Everybody had heard of the upcoming rock concert in the Catskills and both my brother and I wanted to attend it.  My father said only one could go, and we had to flip a coin to see who would get the day off.  Needless to say, my brother Jim won the toss and attended the most famous rock concert of them all, Woodstock.  Me?  I worked 9 hours in our little store stocking shelves.

Oh, well.

Almost 500,000 attended the 1969 rock concert in Bethel, NY.  (I should note that Jim never even got close to the stage).  It was a musical memory that a half a million people have been able to carry with them the rest of their lives.  Today, the field at the concert site is still there, green, lunch, and manicured.  A far cry from the mudhole that was home for a weekend for so many young people.

The Bethel Center for the Arts is a bucket list destination for all in the baby Boom generation.  The "Woodstock Museum" there is a treasure trove of memorabilia, audio and visual remembrances, and exhibits of everything from 1960s clothing to VW Beetles to famous musical instruments.  As they say, this museum is a real trip! Here are some things to look for on your first (or next) visit to a place that is sacred for so many "old timers" today.