Hand in hand, Bobbi and Nick look up the hill in front of them and remember this weekend of August 1969. It was 50 years ago but they have not forgotten anything.
"From where we were, at the top of the hill, we could not see the scene," recalls Nick, "but we could see as a haze getting up." It was the dampness of the air, the smoke from the fires. camps, mixed with the orange lights of the stage, beyond the music of the artists, one could hear the murmur of the humanity around us, an ocean of humanity. "
A politically engaged festival
Bobbi and Nick were 20 years old and had been dating each other for three months. Local children, they had heard on the radio that a festival was going to be held in the area, in Bethel, 180 kilometers north of New York. With three friends, the couple immediately decides to take the road.
"We parked our car with thousands of others left anywhere, on the roadside, in the fields, on the lawns of the houses," Bobbi says, as they could not move forward, some started camping. On the spot, others started walking towards the festival, like us, and on the small country road you could hear the slap of barefoot or sandals on the asphalt, it was just wonderful! "
On stage, Jimmy Hendrix, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker and Janis Joplin succeed each other. All sing love and denounce the Vietnam War. That summer, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, African Americans fought for their civil rights and Sharon Tate was murdered by Charles Manson.
"These three days were like a parenthesis," recalls Nick Ercoline.
Once there, Nick, Bobbi and their friends find a corner of grass and spend the night on the ground, listening to music spewed by giant speakers. In the early morning of August 17, their eyes are still fogged when they are wrapped in a large blanket. Burk Uzzle, Special Envoy of Life Magazine, attends the scene and takes pictures, without even realizing it.
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© {{scope.credits}}Identified in Life Magazine photo 20 years later
One year after the festival, their friend Jim Corcoran comes to find them and shows them the album of the festival. On the cover, Nick and Bobbi recognize each other. "That's when I had to tell my mother that I went to Woodstock," Bobbi laughs. However, lovers quickly forget because "in the area, the festival had not left a good memory.Sullivan County was devastated because of the amount of waste and abandoned cars.He had to spend thousands and thousands The farmers had to throw away their milk for 3 to 5 days because they could not bring in the trucks, so Woodstock was not talked about enthusiastically. " It was only during the 20th anniversary of the festival that Bobbi and Nick were publicly identified for the special issue of Life Magazine. Since then, they are a little the depositories of the spirit of Woodstock.
A couple always united
Today, the hippies have given way but Nick and Bobbi are still together. They live a few miles from Bethel. Bobbi is a retired school nurse and Nick has been a carpenter for a long time. A calm life, far from the spirit of "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" of their 20 years. "In 1969, it was free love, community life, people did not stay together, we were the opposite of that, we went as a couple and two years later we were married. years later, we're still having fun! "says Nick.
In the garden of the Pine Bush family home, the hippie flag greets visitors; in the kitchen, a poster of their photo throne above the breakfast table. The cliché is an integral part of their love story. "I can not imagine our lives without Woodstock, it's part of us, it's a bit of our identity," says Bobbi, grandmother of four grandchildren whose many photos cover the family refrigerator.
"I see this picture of us at 20 years old every day," she says, "it's a witness to a time so hard for our country, divisions, racial conflicts, the Vietnam war, assassinations. .. but music brought us all together, and that's why it was so peaceful. "
A troubled time but also more authentic, that regrets the young retiree. "It's like we do not remember what happened 50 years ago, I'm waiting for music to send messages to the younger generation, and music can be a very powerful tool when wants to protest, but from what I hear, the artists do not really get involved, they talk mostly about them and money. " Bobbi and Nick regret this time and would like for future generations a little more of the spirit of Woodstock.