Summer of '99

The summer of '99 was a summer filled with just about everything.  Heartbreak, new found love, my first apartment, drinking, a little more drinking, and one of the most memorable weeks of my life, the week of Woodstock '99. 

I was living with my father at the time in a large one bedroom apartment on the Berlin Turnpike.  For the past few summers before my brother, Kevin, would fly in from MN and stay for the entire summer so it tended to get a little cramped but not so bad that it was unbearable.  When they announced that Woodstock would be happening again I jumped at the chance to go and was planning on buying a ticket the day they went on sale.  A couple weeks before my big purchase I had spoken to my sister, Michelle (also from MN) and she managed to talk my dad into buying her a plane ticket and a ticket to the show.  The day they became available, I purchased the two tickets and started planning.  Michelle, myself, my two cousins Duane and James, and our friend Greg were all going to pack up and go on this exciting adventure together.

Michelle flew in about a week before we were going to go to Woodstock.  I mean she couldn't be rude and just not hang out with pops now could she.  That week was an adventure in itself.  I was working two part time jobs at the time, Filene's during the day and the Ramada Inn in Hartford at night.  Now remember one thing before I go any further, I was 21, naive (or stupid whatever you want to call it) and way to trusting.  One night while working at the hotel, I was approached by a man who said he was a friend of my family and started rattling off various names of people that he would have no way of knowing unless he truly was a friend of the family.  This man had a problem.  He just got a flat tire and had no money until the following day when the banks were opened and he could cash his check, which he showed me as proof.  He needed $100 to fix his tire.  Stupidly, I decided to help the man and I gave him $100 after he promised he would call me in the morning to come pick him up and bring him to a bank.  He left and I immediately realized that I just pretty much donated $100 to some random stranger.  I was conned.  Dejected, I went home and told my sister the story.  Being such a great sister, she made sure I felt even dumber and idiotic after hearing the story.  The next morning, we were awoken by an unexpected sound.  The sound of the phone ringing.  I sat up in bed half asleep still but I had a little problem, both my arms were dead asleep.  "Michelle, get the phone!  I CAN'T FEEL MY ARMS!!!" I yelled to her.  She ran and got the phone and brought it to me.  It was the man from the night before.  I had no idea what time it was but it was way earlier than I would normally wake up.  The voice on the other end of the phone wanted me to pick him up downtown and bring me to a bank so he could pay me back my $100.  I couldn't believe it.  I didn't believe it either.  I thought I was in for another con so I decided it would be best to bring my country girl sister in her weird MN clothes with me.  Believe it or not, we picked the man up, brought him to a bank where he cashed his check and handed me my $100 back.  Even though it all worked out in the end, I never wanted to see or hear from this guy ever again.  I dropped him off at a bus stop, said sayonara and jetted off as fast as I could.  Never heard from him again.  (funny thing is he needed money for a tire but didn't even have a car.  I just realized that right now.  Man I was dumb.)

The day were to leave for the concert was here.  The actual show started Friday and was to go through Sunday but they were allowing people to come that Thursday to get set up and enjoy some live local bands who would be playing throughout the day.  We were going to leave after lunch time that Thursday.  I had to work in the morning so it was up to my sister to get everything ready for the trip.  Around 10:00 am I received a page (yes, I said a page.  Remember pagers?  Mine was a clear blue one.  Thought I was so cool to have it.).  It was my sister paging me from my dad's house.  I figured maybe she just wanted to make sure she had everything we were going to need for the trip.  I picked up the phone and dialed. 

Michelle - (somewhat frantic) "Todd, you have to come home!"
Me - "Umm...why?"
Michelle - "Kevin fell through the ceiling."
Me - "What do you mean he fell through the ceiling?"
Michelle - "He was going in the attic to get the tent and all of sudden he fell through."
Me - "Is he OK?  Where is he now?"
Michelle - "He's stuck in the ceiling.  His feet are dangling down!"

Now at this point I couldn't help picturing my poor brother trapped in a ceiling without laughing hysterically.  I had no choice but to leave work early to go and assess the situation before to make sure it wasn't something that would cause my father to lose his mind.  When I got home, they managed to get Kevin down from the attic but in the spot where he was you could see two holes that marked the spot where his legs were stuck.  We had managed to pack up and leave before my dad got home to see the damage but poor Kevin was left behind to explain what had happened.  On the way to Woodstock, we could only laugh and imagine my dad's face when he heard the story from Kevin. 

After a five hour drive, we had finally arrived in Rome, NY, which is where the concert was going to be held.  We parked my car in an enormous grass field and made what felt like an eternal hike with two huge full coolers to the front gate.  Once inside we realized we were in for what might be the greatest weekend of our lives.  There were, if I remember correctly, three or four different camping sections, all of which were starting to fill up rather quickly.  Our camping area was located right in the middle, closest to the entrance to the stage area.  The stage area consisted of two main stages on opposite ends of an airfield.  I believe the stages were a legit mile or two away from each other.  In between the two stages was an airport hangar which would be having raves every night.  (a rave for you older folks is a 90's version of a dance party but with weird drugs and lots of glow sticks.)  We found our camping spot and set up shop. We did a little exploring then came back to sit and relax for awhile, meet our neighbors, and just soak in the atmosphere.  Later that evening as we all sat we heard some music coming from one of the stages.  No one was supposed to play that night so we were all curious as to what it was.  The music was funky with a lot of bass.  After hearing a little bit of it, it started to sound familiar.  It sounded sort of like George Clinton.  No, it sounded exactly like George Clinton.  We got up and went to check it out.  Sure enough, George Clinton decided to put on a surprise show for his own birthday.  He must have played for three hours that night.  It was a great start to our weekend. 

The next morning we woke up excited to see how the day would unfold.  The amount of people that had arrived since the last time we were awake almost quadrupled the population of the concert venue.  By the time the gates were closed, nearly 250,000 people were temporary residents of Rome, NY.  You can't even begin to imagine what if feels like to be in close quarters with that many people unless you were there.  After a day of watching acts such as James Brown, Sheryl Crow and the Offspring, we were ready for the highlight of our night, Korn.  For Korn I wanted to get as close as I could so I set off towards the stage thinking that everyone else was following me.  The closer I got the more suffocating it became.  And then the fear set in when I realized that I was not being followed.  I was alone.  Korn entered the stage and started with one of their heaviest songs (Blind for any Korn fans out there).  It starts off slow like a ticking time bomb.  I had to get out of where I was.  I thought I was about to die.  As I'm frantically pushing my way through this sea of people the music is getting faster and faster.  The crowd is about to erupt within seconds.  I knew I didn't have much time left to get out.  Then it happened.  The song kicked into full gear and the place went insane.  Just as this happened I fell right into the middle of a mosh pit.  I hopped up as quick as I could ready to defend myself against the onslaught of people only to be bumped gently by something.  Confused, I turned around and saw that the mosh pit I fell into was one that was filled with kids who were no older than eleven or twelve.  I took a nice long sigh of relief then just started to laugh.  I hung out with those young kids for the entire set of Korn then made my way back to the tent covered in sweat and mud.  The rest of my group were already there waiting for me.  I'm not sure what kind of adventure they had but I knew it wasn't anything like mine that night.

Saturday's early lineup wasn't really our cup of tea so we spent most of the day just walking around and checking out the scene.  There was all kinds of different things happening.  There was a group of about twenty who at some point turned over garbage cans and just started drumming.  I actually think they drummed for a good ten hours straight.  At one point Frisbees were handed out by the hundreds.  Those Frisbees were instantly thrown up in the air by whoever was able to get one.  It was like being attacked by arrows.  Once the Frisbee war ended a toilet paper one began.  There was non stop entertainment.  One group that I wish we never encountered was the "mud" people.  Mud is in quotes because the mud people were not rolling around in just mud.  The mud they were rolling in was a result of a backed up septic tank.  These people thought it would be a good time to pick up the "mud" and throw it at random people.  After making it through that minefield we didn't dare venture near it again the rest of the weekend.  What we did see most of this weekend was breasts.  There were boobs everywhere.  It was like shirts weren't allowed on girls or something.  I suppose it was the whole Woodstock/Hippie carefree attitude that caused the ladies to show off for the world.  I had no problem with it one bit as it definitely improved the scenery in Rome, NY.

We managed to take in a little bit of Counting Crows, Alanis Morrisette and Kid Rock before settling in for what was to be the headline event, a trio of powerhouses, Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine, and Metallica.  As expected, Limp Bizkit and Rage Against the Machine each played for about 45 minutes a piece during which the crowd of nearly a quarter of a million looked like an ocean of rough waves.  People jumping, body surfing, and moshing.  You couldn't sit down or else you would have gotten trampled.  One of the cool things to do for a woman during the performances was to flash their boobs to the crowd.  Again, I had no issue with this.  Well almost no issue with this.  It was about half way through Limp Bizkit when I hear my sister say "Duane, put me on your shoulders.  Todd don't look!!!"  Yup, you guessed it.  My sister had to be a follower.  I didn't get mad at her for it.  Just shook my head and enjoyed watching her laugh afterwards. 

The last day's music lineup was not too impressive so we decided we would start packing up our things and bring them to the car.  We planned on coming back to catch Red Hot Chili Peppers close out the show.  I thought it would be a good idea to go get the car by myself and move it closer so we didn't have to drag all our stuff as far as when we arrived.  Well instead of driving the car up to the road and move it like a regular person would, I decided I'd just drive straight through the grassy field to a spot much closer.  Not a smart idea.  I had bottomed out so many times along the way that a hole appeared in my oil pan under my car causing oil to constantly leak.  Besides this problem that we discovered, we also were not able to restart the car once I parked it.  James had his head close to the engine to see if you could hear anything while I continued to try and start the car.  I tried and tried and tried until BOOM!!!!  The engine battery cover blew right off the battery itself, nearly taking James' head with it.  We were screwed.  With no battery, a car that constantly leaked oil. barely any money left and a five hour drive ahead of us things were looking pretty grim.  They had buses that were running back and forth to down town but they stopped running early since the show was nearly over.  We had to somehow talk one of the bus drivers to bring us to the Walmart to get what we needed.  I don't know how she did it, but my sister managed to get one of the drivers to feel so bad for us that he made the trip just for us.  We got to the Walmart and bought what we came for...well that's a lie, first thing I did was run to the bathroom.  It was the first time all weekend that I was able to shit.  If you saw the bathroom situation at the concert you would have held it too.  Went went back to the car, replaced the battery, filled it with oil and started on our way.  Traffic was not moving so we decided to sneak in through the knocked down fence and watch the Chili Peppers.  This is when all hell broke loose.

It was part way through a rendition of "Light My Fire" when we noticed that off in the distance random bonfires were sprouting up throughout the crowd.  Then gradually those bonfires grew larger and larger until they were ten maybe even twenty feet high.  The fires were everywhere.  We decided this was a good time to leave.  As were were getting ready to leave a series of explosions went off right in the area of where the fires were happening.  Flames were touching the sky and a thick black smoke was rising from the airfield.  As we slowly made our way out of the madness, police cars were speeding past us.  There must have been 50 to 100 cars that passed us as we sat.  It wasn't until we got home when we saw what really happened.  People were so angry over all the price gouging that was going on during the concert that they decided to show their anger by starting an all out riot.  The riot lasted all through the night and nearly everything was either stolen or destroyed. 

Eventually, we made it out.  James, Duane, and Greg all fell asleep in the back while me and Michelle popped Vivarin for the length of our trip.  We had to stop every hour or so to refill the car with oil since it was still leaking from my off roading excursion earlier that day.  After about seven hours or so we finally made it safely back home.  The adventure of a lifetime was over. I always hoped they would have another Woodstock so we could relive this trip but they never did and most likely won't.  No matter though,  the memories of that trip and everything else that happened will never leave my mind.