Woodstock in a Whirlwind
...page 2

It was even more fun since Mr. Andrew Peck, my host, was a real estate broker, an occupation that has horrid connotations in Eastern Europe. We think of such professionals in terms of "jackals" or "sharks." Please don't take offense out there - it takes us time to adjust to the new market economy. When I say "we" it's out of difficult to dispel imbedded hasty generalization habits.

Anyway, here I was in Woodstock, admiring the scenery that was exactly like in my Transylvania, with hills and woods, deer crossing the road in front of your car. We didn't see any wild hogs as at home, but deer would do it. Andrew was taking pictures at my request He seemed to have fun behaving as a tourist in his own town, as he put it. He took some photos of the people bathing in the clear river. I haven't seen people bathing in a river, with this pollution that pesters our rivers, since childhood.

He took me to his lake on a property near the place of the Woodstock remake festival. For now I will make a detour and tell you how Andrew rented his property near the festival location to a radio station from Boston at the time of the 25th anniversary celebration of Woodstock in 1994. That was all fine but the thing was that when he left for Nova Scotia, Canada, with his family and heard on the radio announcements from Radio Boston, "Hello there! We are on a wonderful property. Come all of you! Just say at the police cordon that you are coming to us and you can put your tent here. There is plenty of room for everybody!" Andrew flew all way back from his beach cottage in Canada to Woodstock to protect his property. He found that there were already 18 tents camped on his lawn. He didn't chase them away, but asked the police people to stop anyone going to radio Boston because he didn't rent them the lawn but just the house. End of the detour. Back to my Woodstock visit.

Andrew showed me the Village Green where young people hang out next to Bill, a psychedelic T-shirt vendor. That one was fun. He unstoppably told me, seizing the moment to get his message through into the media: he was a war veteran and had the right to sell under federal jurisdiction. But the town widened the sidewalk and chipped away from the federal road. Now he had a hard time since in front of his stand there was a shop selling equally psychedelic T-shirts at a more costly price.

His competitors wished him to move out since his stand was no longer on the federal road but on the municipal sidewalk, but Bill wouldn't leave saying he was still on federal land, stolen by the municipality. Even if you understood exactly what Bill did say, it would end up equally confusing. The short of it is that Bill fights his own war.

It was nice to walk around this pretty town, go into the grocery store, see a vendor worked up because someone on the street was almost making a car crash: "Unbelievable how some drive! This is the second that is going nuts today! Oh! Excuse me! Excuse me! But it's so maddening!" Then we went out: a group of people were having a squabble over some decision one of the aging, modest women would refute categorically, waving her plump hands and killing with her eyes shouting, "No! No!" as her husband followed her meekly. Andrew looked at me amused saying, "It seems the whole lunacy in town erupted right now!" It was fun to watch them, imagining him worried about what I would write about his town, ultimately ruin his business, perhaps. But he wasn't worrying, he said. We went across to his office. That was impressive. But this is not a sponsored article, so I will restrain for fear of sounding like a commercial. Actually it was a sponsored article, since he drove me around, fed and entertained me.... Anyway, we went to the bank where I picked up all business cards to have a better feel of the businesses people ran in town of Woodstock. There were many people making music, selling antiques, dealing in real estate, construction, or in human reconstruction: healers, psychologists.

Names of businesses in Woodstock: "Peace Antiques," "A Divine Idea," "Beautiful Things" "Unique Gifts, Antiques, Personalized Horoscopes by Equinox Astrology of London," "Corporate Building Services, Inc." "Pure Lands Construction," "Open Heart Therapy," "The Creative Instinct," "Quit Smart, Stop Smoking System," "Magic Hands, Dr. Kamayani, Chiropractic & Massage: The power that made the body heals the body," "Woodstock Strings," "Pema Chodron Clinard Minister," "Council of Light," "Meditation groups & Individual therapy," "Blair Collectibles, Professional Appraiser and Dealer, specializing in Coins * Currency * Jewelry * Marbles * Old Toys * Postcards * Worlds fair related & Unusual Items, Over 25 years Experience."

Continued...