Going to the Woodstock Music festival was always a fantasy of mine, but since I was only four years old at the time, it wasn’t in the cards! However, when I wrote the first book in my trilogy, I sent several characters to upstate New York to experience it for me!
In honor of that most important festival and cultural event, here is an excerpt from Red, White & Blues: Book One…
Woodstock Music Festival, New York. Pete and Sandy, Haven and Julie and Sarah have abandoned Haven’s car somewhere out on the long stretch of road leading into the festival. They carry blankets and bags of food, water and clothing as they walk with the hundreds of others who have done the same.
The long drive from California to New York has afforded Sarah a lot of time to think. She hadn’t realized how oppressive Mike had become or how on edge she was. He actually made her nervous and she feels more relaxed being away from him despite the guilt she feels for leaving him alone with Maura and Toby.
Her life has taken such a strange path since she had met Mike in Wyoming. It had only been two years, but so many things have happened, that she hasn’t been able to stop and think about any of it until now. Her feelings for Mike have changed, she realizes. She feels more like his wife of ten years than someone who had barely gotten to know him before the war. She knows now how exhausted she has become. Mike is draining her both physically and emotionally.
She thinks about the dreams she had had before getting onto the back of Mike’s motorcycle two years earlier. Many of them have been realized: the separation from her family and the South; the autonomy of living the way she wants; her job at the bookstore; the parties, friends, drugs, sex and concerts. But her relationship with Mike seems to be creating a life that is the opposite of all that. It seems that they are heading down a path that she could follow almost instinctively but is fighting desperately to resist. She doesn’t want to end up like her mother, taking care of a drunken man, feeling afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing, feeling alone all the time.
By the time they all arrive within the festival limits, it is late Friday night. They have missed most of the acts for the day but spread their belongings out and stake an area of ground as their own.
In the morning, Sandy arises, a sleeping bag wrapped around her body.
“Wow,” she yawns. “We’re actually here!”
Pete smiles, runs a hand through her mess of blond curls.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Creedence plays today,” Haven says. “Too bad Mike isn’t here.”
Sarah winces. She really has been trying to forget all about Mike for the weekend. She slides out her sleeping bag and rolls it up.
They all decide to try and get closer to the stage today, but as the sun rises, so does the humidity. Many people have stripped down to their underwear or nothing at all to cool off in a nearby pond. Pete and Sandy decide to do the same. They remove their clothes and trot down to the water. Many people ask Sandy when her baby is due and she fills with happiness. Pete beams with pride before dunking his head under the cool water.
“Well! Well! Fancy meeting you here!”
Sandy turns and sees Keith Burke, the owner of Moonstone Books, standing on the shore. Suddenly, she is embarrassed, and drops down into the water.
“Keith! Hi!” Sandy calls, and then turns to Pete. “Pete! Look who’s here!”
Pete waves. “Keith! Wow, man! It’s a small world even out here!”
Completely unashamed, Pete walks over and shakes Keith’s hand.
“So,” Keith says, looking over at Sandy. “Is it yours?
“Yeah! She’s due in November.”
Keith, seeing that Pete is happy about says, “That’s great, man! Really!”
Sandy continues to stay submerged. It is different to be naked among acquaintances.
“Where are you guys camped out?” Keith asks.
“Nowhere,” Pete says. “Anywhere!”
“Well, we’ve got some tents near here and plenty of room. Who else is with you?”
“Haven and Julie,” Pete says. Keith knows that Sarah has come. He is her boss, after all.
“It’s up to you, but we’ve got the room. I mean, you’d all have to share a tent, so if you don’t mind balling in front of your friends, then you’re welcome to it!” Keith laughs.
The tent camp that Keith’s group has set up is small and comforting. Although they had initially come for the music, the communal feel of the entire event, and especially Keith’s group, feels so good that Pete and Sandy, Haven and Julie and Sarah end up spending most of their time listening to the music from a distance. Occasionally, a small band of people will walk up closer to the stage area, but there is always a nice group back at the camp. They smoke dope, cook up vegetable stew, play with the dogs and the few small children and make love in the surrounding tents.
Sarah is glad that Keith has found them. He has become a good friend to her over the last two years. With Santana playing in the distance, she and Keith sit by the fire and talk.
“I didn’t know you were gonna come,” she says. “You didn’t say anything when I told you I was goin’.”
“I know. It was really last minute. My friend over there, Alison, was going and she talked me into it. I locked up the store and jumped in their bus!”
“I’m glad ya did!”
“Me, too! Hey! How come Mike didn’t come? You two break up or something?”
“No. He just didn’t want to. With his cane and all, I guess he thought it’d be too much for him.”
Keith nods. “It must be hard, huh? How’s Mike doing?”
“Okay,” Sarah sighs.
Someone comes by and hands Keith a joint. He takes a hit, and he and Sarah pass it back a few times.
“Mike drinks a lot,” Sarah confesses. “I think he might be an alcoholic.”
“I guess I’d be drinking a lot, too, if I’d just come back from Vietnam,” Keith says. “Does he ever talk about it?”
Sarah shakes her head. “I don’t think he wants to.”
“Probably just wants to forget about it. Probably why he drinks so much.”
Sarah stares into the flames. “He’s a different person now. I think he’d be happy just to be alone. Maybe I shouldn’t go back.” She laughs to soften the sting.
“It’s that bad?”
“Oh, he’ll probably be fine in a while,” Sarah smiles. “He’s only been back for a few months.”
Keith pushes a strand of hair from Sarah’s face. “You wanna go in one of the tents?”
Sarah nods and follows Keith. They lie down on a bed of sleeping bags. He kisses her, runs his hands over her breasts. She does not stop him. She rubs his cock through his jeans while he unbuttons his shirt. In a minute, they are fucking. Sarah urges him to move faster, deeper. She and Mike have only had sex a few times since he has returned. It is an increasingly unpleasurable experience as she can feel Mike’s resistance and lack of interest.
When she and Keith finish, he pulls a joint from his shirt pocket and they smoke again.
“I needed that,” Sarah laughs.
Keith smiles. He has developed strong feelings for her.
“Just let me know when I can be of service,” he says.
lvsage 