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Woodstock


Something caught my eye as I walked into the living room this morning. A reporter was talking about this week being the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, but there was another festival coming up next month which may be out of this world. Alien-stock.

Sounds interesting to me.

I was seventeen in 1969 when Woodstock was held in upstate New York. At that time I wasn’t into music very much. The stations I listened to in those days were WLSM from my hometown in Louisville, WLS out of Chicago and WKOR in nearby Starkville, Mississippi.

Woodstock was barely a blip on my radar until I graduated from high school and went off to The University of Southern Mississippi a year later. It was only then that I became aware that there was a much larger world than the one I had grown up in in Winston County.

The three days of Peace, Love & Music that had taken place at Woodstock, New York had spread South by that time. Richie Havens, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were just a few of the sounds blaring from dorm rooms as I walked down the hall my freshman year. Slowly I became a fan of music and realized there was meaning behind the songs. That music timestamped my generation. When I hear those songs nowadays, I am swept back in time to my first weeks of college.

Would I have gone to Woodstock had I known how big of an impact it was going to have on my generation? Who knows? Probably not. New York was a world away for me in those days. Would I go to the 50th anniversary reunion if it comes to fruition? No. My Peace, Love and Music comes from Alexa while sitting on the patio with my dog these days.

However, this Alien-stock thing intrigues me. Some guy is trying to get it to happen next month in Rachel, Nevada – about twenty-seven miles from Area 51. So far only one band has shown interest in performing to the 30,000 folks who have signed up to attend the festival that will be held in a community of less than sixty people.

They are warning that there is no gas, no water, no sanitary facilities, no cell phone reception, no internet, and no place to stay. On the upside, tickets are free.

I’m all about free. Parking shouldn’t be a problem. There’s nothing out there but wide-open spaces. Who knows? Like Woodstock fifty years ago, unexpected appearances by a few unknowns may take place. Perhaps an alien or two.

I remember well the first time I saw a UFO. It was in the summer of 1973. I was working for a construction company, putting up a school building in Forest, Mississippi. I was renting an old house on the outskirts of town with one of my brothers. We were sitting on the front porch one clear fall night - skinny as rails and desperate to gain weight. One of the guys on the construction site had told me that I needed to drink beer. He said, “That’ll put the weight on ya.”

So we were sitting out there on that porch trying our best to gain weight, when I happened to look up and see something odd in the sky. I elbowed my brother and said, “Look.”

There were about five white star-like things way up in the night sky moving slowly. All in a straight line coming from the east. They made no sound as they traveled toward us. The first came to a spot in the sky and veered suddenly to the south. The next one reached that spot and did the same thing. Each one of the lights darted south at that exact same spot in the sky.

Then the first one reached another invisible point in the sky and veered back to the east. Then each of the other four white objects followed suit and did the same. After they were all lined up and heading east, the one in front suddenly sped up and streaked out of sight. As each of the others reached that spot in the sky, they did the same thing and streaked away in the blink of an eye.

Gone.

I turned to my brother and said, “Wow! What was that?”

“What was what?”, he said.

“Those light thingies we’ve been watching for the last couple of minutes!”

He smiled and looked at me, “I didn’t see anything, did you?”

“Heck Yeah, I saw something. I don’t know what, but I saw something.”

“Do you really think anyone would believe us? Two construction workers, sitting on a porch, stargazing and gaining weight late at night?”

I thought a moment. I nodded and replied, “I guess you’re right. Maybe I didn’t see what I saw.”

We didn’t gain any weight that year and we never saw again what we didn’t see that night sitting on the porch.

Woodstock? Nope. My money is on Alien-stock. Maybe Janis and Jimi will make a comeback.

_______________
Rick Algood
August 14, 2019

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