Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Hot dogs and work shops again

My son Ben (smart kid!) had the answer to today's mystery challenge: the text that I quoted is from an ad for the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair. That ad seems quaintly innocent now, as elements of the so-called counter-culture have become the staples of any middle-American "fair" or "fest."

I found the Woodstock ad in the July 20, 1969 New York Times, while searching for the details of the first concert I attended — Pete Seeger and the Hudson River Sloop Singers (August 4, 1969, at Gaelic Park in the Bronx). The Times seems rather serious about restricting the use of its materials, so I won't reproduce the Woodstock ad here. But a similar ad with identical text is available online.

Ben's correct guess saves me from having to work up clues. I did have one ready: "A little less bottom end on the guitar, please." Anyone know the source?

[Thanks, Dad, for taking me to Gaelic Park way back when.]

comments: 2

j said...

Recently saw a PBS documentary on Pete Seeger. There was either footage or still photos of some of his concerts focused on cleaning up the Hudson.

Elaine might be interested to hear that parts of the Charles are open to swimming. (Don't see crowds flocking, though.)

Michael Leddy said...

I saw Pete Seeger again in the mid-1980s, doing an informal concert from the porch of a house in Little Compton, Rhode Island. No chance to meet him, alas. I liked seeing him doing "Guantanamera" in that PBS documentary.

The sight of a person swimming in the Charles would be mighty startling to me!