Although I was 9 years old while Woodstock was taking place, I have absolutely no recollection of hearing anything about it until a couple of years later when my musical tastes started to swing from the Partridge Family to the likes of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. I certainly don't recall my parents making any kind of commentary about it although I'm sure they had to have noticed reports on the news.
Maybe it just wasn't big news down in Arkansas. But I did know what hippies were when I was nine. I just had no idea I would become one later in life despite the fact that I could spell the word psychedelic when I was eight.
Thankfully, we have hundreds of thousands of people who lived through it to share their stories, as well as those who documented it through audio and video. And I think I would have had a blast there, even as a nine-year-old kid, because I loved music and I was already on the cusp of discovering blues-influenced music. I am sure I would have had more fun than Gail Collins -- she apparently missed all the music!
Having been born in the Delta, just a few short miles across the Mississippi River from Clarksdale, I think blues music was in my blood. Son House was born two miles from Clarksdale. Alan Wilson, leader and singer in Canned Heat, was a huge fan of Son House, and for good reason.
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