BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — Mar Penner Griswold and her husband drove more than 200-miles in this van to Woodstock.
“The crowd at Woodstock was just unbelievable. It was just so mellow. Nobody was fighting…everybody was just laying around in the sun. Maybe I was the only not stoned person there. But it was just amazing,” recalled Griswold.
Griswold invited us into her framing shop on Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo to flip through her scrapbook from the iconic event.
“Here’s this gigantic crowd and here's the stage and they're still building the stage,” laughed Griswold.
Griswold was only 23-years-old at the time and even now, 50 years later, she easily remembers the music of the three-day event, which cost only $18.
“What's the most memorable song that sticks in your head?” asked Buckley.
"I think I’d have to say watching The Who do "Tommy"because they did it in its entirety and even though – from where we were sitting, Roger Daltrey was about an inch high – you could still see the fringe flying around you know and it was just fabulous,” Griswold remembered
Griswold reflected on the simplicity of traveling with only a jar of peanut butter, a loaf of bread and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.
“And it was the best meal I ever had in my life. It was just fabulous."
Griswold recalled buying only one item at Woodstock – a fudgesicle.
“At 6’ o’clock in the morning…when we were heading back to go to sleep after watching The Who perform all night and Jefferson Airplane had just taken the stage and we could hear Grace Slick’s voice – out over the hillside. And I’m eating my fudgesicle for breakfast and the sun was coming up – and it was just glorious,” responded Griswold.
Griswold says she was naive to some of the events taking place, but she did admit to skinny dipping in muddy waters.
“Everything just seemed – you know – wavy – gravy – we’d get up there and say oh you know - 'Sally call your mother she’s worried' and 'don’t take the brown acid', you know those kind of things, but it was just so mellow and so calm,” remarked Griswold.
Griswold still has her long hair with the tips dyed red.
