Woodstock...recalling 1969

Here I go again with my early morning coffee and my thoughts from the days of old.

This time the year is 1969 and this weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival, which was held on a dairy farm in the town of Bethel, 43 miles southwest of Woodstock, New York.

The countryside was filled with more than 450,000 onlookers as they came to watch performers such as Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker and Jimi Hendrix perform...along with bands like Jefferson Airplane, Creedance Clearwater Rivival and the great Santana. It was a rock and roll "Heaven"...the place to be.

I was 24 years old at the time, married, with two boys.  Many of my friends had packed up their cars at mid-week and had headed out of Tucson to join the rock and roll crazed fans. I, on the other hand, stayed put in the Old Pueblo. For goodness sakes, I had a doubleheader scheduled at Santa Rita Park that weekend.

As I recall, on Saturday morning we had gone to the El Con Shopping Center. My wife shopped and I headed off to the barbershop. The barber was busy trimming my locks, when he stopped...pointed his trusty comb toward the window and saw my wife and the two boys stroll by. His exact words were, "Look at that gal, she couldn't be more than 12 years of age." An embarrassing moment for all.

Of course, we were both in out 20s, and, I guess, we were both a couple of scrawny looking young people. Getting back to the year 1969, it was a remarkable one as far as sports were concerned. I recall it was the year when the great New York Yankee center fielder Mickey Mantle retired. The New York Mets won the World Series that year, knocking off the Orioles in five games. Smokin' Joe Frazier sent Jerry Quarry to the canvas in the seventh round and won the heavyweight title. The Celtics beat the Lakers and Joe Namath predicted a win in Super Bowl VIII...and got it, as the New York Jets bested the Baltimore Colts, 16-7.

It was a sad day in sports as well. The great, Italian-American fighter Rocky Marciano died in a plane crash and 1969 was the year  Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

I can't remember who won the doubleheader at Santa Rita Park. I think it was my team.