While much of the rest of the world might not be awash in peace and love, Laguna Woods residents and their friends formed a cocoon of serenity at Laguna Woodstock last month, 55 years after the historic 1969 music festival in upstate New York.
As the lawn in front of Clubhouse 2 turned into a sea of tie-dye, with festival goers sharing food, libations and weed under a makeshift tent city, music fans dressed in neo-hippie garb and added tresses rocked out on the patio to the musical lineup of Art of Sax, Vintage Vinyl, American Made Band, the Tricia Freeman Band, and Southbound and Company.
Inside the clubhouse and back patio, food and drink for sale was abundant and so was merchandise. Those still bereft of something tie-dyed or lacking a peace sign were in luck. Revelers could even get their futures told from a Tarot card reader.
“This year’s attendance broke all records,” said Susan Schneider, a board member of the Boomers Club, which has organized Laguna Woodstock for 16 years. Schneider estimated the number of attendees this year at more than 1,100.
Over the course of the balmy day, conversations suggested that few had come to memorialize the culturally iconic 1969 event. Instead, Laguna Woodstock was an occasion to just groove.
“Woodstock lets us take a day to enjoy with great friends, feeling alive all day, just loving the music,” said Tracy Murray, who was accompanied by her husband, Ron.
Partying with the Murrays was Diane Duffey. “I like to come every year,” she said. “It’s fun to hear music with friends, to see people get along as if it were 1969 again.”
For Bill Dewitz, “Woodstock still stands for peace and love and tolerance for each other and music.”
Sharon Matta, rocking a vintage fringed crocheted vest, lived relatively close to Bethel, New York, where the original Woodstock took place. And she might have made it there had her father not put his foot down.
“I was only 12 and wanted just to hear the music,” she said. “But my dad was talking about hippies and drugs.”
Matta’s husband, John, also from upstate New York, recalls the closed freeways and the mayhem on the roads that prevented him from attending.
“(Laguna) Woods gets it right,” he said. “We see rock ’n’ roll shows every few weeks now. It’s a good place to settle for a good rock ’n’ roller.”
Among the crowd was a pair of newlyweds. Jeff Grumbels, 62, and Rochelle Richards Grumbels, 67, tied the knot at Clubhouse 2 just two weeks before. They and their friends brought a Woodstock “regular,” Jimmy the guitar-playing skeleton.
As for the music fest, “this is all about peace and love, friendships and dreams,” said Rochelle.
On the other hand, Gail and Robert Weir were celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary. “Same as Woodstock,” they quipped. The pair moved to the Village two months ago and intend to keep on celebrating both events.
Maryann Berger had considered going to the original Woodstock but instead went to the Summer Jam at Watkins Glen in 1973 in New York.
“I drove there by myself and somehow ran into a lot of my friends – no cell phones or anything like that,” she recalled.
“I’m a child of the ’60s. This is still my thing,” said Berger, clutching husband Steve’s faux silver ponytail.
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