I would like to tell you a little story about this video. Well it's not exactly about this video but about this song. Every time I hear this song, it reminds me of a day back in the spring of 1971. I was hanging out with Pez in back the tracks and we were wishing we had something to smoke. I just remembered that I lost a pack of smokes on the old toe path on the hill by St, Peters Church. Ah, the kicker; In that pack of  smokes was a chunk of hash. I told him I lost it two days ago and looked everywhere and couldn't find it. So off we went on the first adventure of the day. We came out of the tracks by Brian's house, IE: Pez and came across a friend. PT was just coming from Pez's house and said his grandmother told him he was with me around here somewhere. PT had a nickel bag and wanted to smoke. Great Timing, we were ready. Pez told him where we were headed and off we went. At the top of the hill on the old toe path there is an old headstone as a marker of the priest who first founded St. Peters and I was near that marker when I lost my smokes, so we started to kick over the dead leaves. About 20 minutes later Pez lets out a yell, FOUND IT. He opens up the pack and sure enough, a nice foil wrapped chunk of hash about the size of a sugar cube. I guess you would call it a dime back in 1971. PT said; Let's go to John's house and play some music and off we went. Now this guy John was a complete hippie he had hair that went almost to his belt and a beard almost as long. He lived about a quarter mile from me on Mountain Road in a very cool A-Frame cabin that he built himself.  Now this man never worked, he never left his property and always had great smoke and lots of it. My parents would kill me if they knew I was hanging out with the likes of him but I did and it was always an adventure. We got to his back door through a path through the woods from the back of my house. In we went. John was sitting in a rocking chair on the enclosed back porch and had company. A tray of some Colombian gold sitting on a coffee table in front of him with about 5 dubies rolled.. I walked up to the table and put the chunk of hash on the tray and asked for a pipe. Of course John was all excited and said I have something that will go nicely with that and he got up from his chair and disappeared into the other room. Now here we are left on the porch with this guy that no one knew who he was. He reaches over and shook my hand and said; Hi, my names Bob and you are? I grabbed one of the dubes and said; Don, this is Pez and PT. We all exchanged niceties and proceeded to party. John comes back into the room with a 6 pack of bud and a baggy with what looked like dries up mushrooms. John, What the hell is that, I said? He said; peyote buttons. Never heard of them. He proceeded to crush one and sprinkled the powder on top of a chunk of the hash he just put into the pipe and handed the pipe to me. The very first hit I almost hit the floor. A rush come over me of the likes that I have never felt before. This stuff was great, I thought and we partied for about an hour.  After awhile we were just kicking back and this guy bob picked up his guitar and started playing around with it. He was very good and the sound was great. He sang this song that he said he just wrote a couple of days ago and was just trying it on for size. That was his words about One More Cup Of Coffee. Now I didn't find out until about two years later that that man sitting there partying with us was none other than Bob Dylan. We were a bunch of care free kids looking for a party, that's all. I think this video at the top of this post was from about 1975 but he played the song for us in 1971. I swear that this is a true story and I hope that it wasn't the peyote buttons. This really happened.

One of my favorite things to do was to go fishing. Living on the Roundout creek was probably one of the best places in the world for fishing. My brother John used to go down to the creek just about every day. We had a special place to go where we used to pull  out Small Mouth Bass, Rock Bass, Catfish and Bullheads. I’m not talking about a few fish, we would bring home upwards of about 20 fish each. We used to have a big freezer and every day we would bring fish home, clean them, wrap them and throw them in the freezer. You see, this is clean water here and the fish in the Roundout are clean and healthy.

 

The Roundout was a great place to hang out. You could go rafting for a stretch of about 40 miles. It was nothing but woods and water. I have fished the Roundout for the better part of my life and know every nook and cranny, every fishing spot and every swimming area. Growing up in the 70s the Roundout creek was a part of me.

 

I can remember hanging out with Timmy Lent and Mark and Mike Hinetz at this great fishing hole in back of the old post office. We would make a dough out of corn meal, caro syrup and vanilla, cook it to make sticky balls. We would then load our real’s with 4lb test and use 3 prong treble hooks. Mold the balls on the hooks and cast out about 60’. This would take place in July and August when the water was very warm, low and calm. The cark would gather in schools and would be very large at that time of year. The average carp was about 10 to 15 lbs. Do you know what it is like to pull in a 15 lb carp with only 4 lb test at about 60’. All I can say is your arms get tired after about 20 minutes of fighting them.

 

Here are a few pictures of the creek I am talking about. When I think about the 70s, The Roundout creek always comes to mind.

The picture above is taken from the rail bridge. You see where the land jets out way past the bridge on the left? This is where we used to catch the carp.

After Woodstock was over I was left with this wow affect. It was a magical time and I never really got over it. A friend, who also went on this adventure with our group, Brian who become my closest friend, embarked on this journey that would last in my mind forever.

 

Before I go any further, let me explain what Rosendale NY, was like back in 1970. You remember me telling you about the woods in back of my house? The woods were our own town for all who indulged in extra curricular activity, (the pot smokers). We basically lived in the woods. We had trails everywhere; they crossed like you would see on city streets. There were tree forts and camp sites and even garden spots. We threw seeds everywhere and they grew. It was quite a site to see. You would be walking down a trail and suddenly find yourself standing in front of about 20 or 30 plants that stood 6 feet tall with buds the size of your fist. This is not an exaggeration, this was common place. We would take those plants and hang them upside down in the trees to dry and come across them at another time. After a while this would become quite a lucrative business for us but for now we were just heads and we lived in a fantasy world.

 

One day the group of guys that I hung around with the most, went into the woods with chain saws, axes, hatchets, tool boxes and enough food to feed an army. About 2 miles into the hills we went until we found the perfect place.  Guess what? We had a good old fashioned barn raising. We chopped and sawed and nailed until we built the most perfect cabin. We designed the perfect A-Frame cabin complete with a front porch.

 

The cabin was everyone’s home. If you had some problems at home you just brought your bedroll and supplies and you had a place to stay. We were very careful as to who we brought to the cabin as not everyone was as open and free as we were. You would have to know these woods pretty good to be able to find our retreat.

 

Here is some information about this area in the Catskill Mountains.

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

The Catskill Mountains (also known as simply the Catskills), a natural area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau. They are sometimes considered an extension of the Appalachian Mountains into Upstate New York, although they are not geologically related. The Catskills are west of the Hudson River and lie within the bounds of six counties (Otsego, Delaware, Sullivan, Schoharie, Greene, and Ulster). The Catskill Mountains are also considered a physiographic section of the larger Appalachian Plateau province, which in turn is part of the larger Appalachian physiographic division.

As you can see we’re talking about a pretty big area and to this day this area is unpopulated.

 

By this time I was getting into some really deep artists for example I could relate to Neil Young. He was a country boy and would write about things I could relate to. As a matter of fact his style of acoustic guitar playing helped me to learn to play. I can remember sitting around a camp fire with an acoustic guitar and playing songs like Old Man and Don’t Let It Bring You Down. I found two great samples for you to see. By the way, I went to see him do an acoustical set and it blew me away.

I will leave you at this point. Come back for the next entry. It gets interesting from here.

 

Until Next Time.

 

One of the big thrills about growing up in the 70s was the music. When I started smoking pot and by the way I don't smoke anymore. That was a long time ago. While under the influence, I discovered music that would change and shape my life forever.   My first ever concert was The Woodstock Festival. I was 12 years old in August of 1969. My families house was located about 12 miles from the concert site. We hiked the railroad tracks that ran near my house and camped along side. You have to understand that Upstate NY was very undeveloped. It was nothing but farm country and woods as far as the eye could see. In my experience, anyone who has grown up in a city environment has no concept of what it is like growing up in the country. Life is completely different to the extent of this; People were more trusting as they had no reason not to trust. People had less fear as most everyone new everyone else and those we didn't know someone in our community knew of them and spread the word pretty fast. I live in the city of Philadelphia, PA, now and the trust level is non existent compared to what I grew up in.   I Got The Home Sick Blues   Here are a few pictures of where I grew up through the early part of the 70s. This first picture is not the greatest but it is the only picture I have left of the house I grew up in. The house was built in the early 1800s and had 13 rooms. Remember that I have 9 Brothers and Sisters.  This picture was taken somewhere around 1962 judging from the fence. We built a new wooden fence around the front in 1969. Sorry for the B&W. The house sits on about 2 full acres of land with about 1,000 acres of woods behind it. Notice the hill it is built on. Just to let you know we lived on a mountain. As a matter of fact, the name of the road that this house sits on is named Mountain Road.   Overlooking The Village Of Rosendale   This picture was taken from the railroad bridge that runs near my house. When I was a teenager this bridge was still in use. It is now a walkway and doesn't go all the way across anymore. This is a picture of the Village Of Rosendale. When I first moved there the population was only about 200 people. I'm not sure what it is now. Take in the view, it still is one of the most beautiful places on earth.   At this point I am going to leave you with one more video from Woodstock and hope you will return for the next entry. As I think back, I feel as though I was very lucky in this time period of my life. It was a magical time in history and I was very lucky to be a part of it.   Please share your comments and stories with me as this was a great time and it should not be forgotten.

I was born in 1957 and lived through the later part of the 1970s in Upstate NY.  I turned 12 years old in 1969 and instantly became hooked on that time frame in my life. I have 9 brothers and sisters 8 of which who are older than me. My older brother who is 3 years older than me was already living the life and introduced me to it. I used to listen to his records and found I loved this stuff. I started listening to everything I could and before I knew it I had a guitar and started to learn.

 

It was the biggest thing to go out camping with all your friends, grab a few guitars; a couple of cases of bud, a quarter pound or two and your favorite girl friend and you have the makings of a memory. I don’t know if it was the smoke but sometimes the music we created was awesome. I don’t know if that word is even used anymore but that is the only way to describe it.

 

I am saddened by how the world has changed. The people growing up in the late 60s and early 70s realized that peace, love and happiness was much more enjoyable and productive than war and violence. Although we did have our moments, the price of peace cost us dearly.

 

What was growing up in the 70s like? For me it was about the music. Music in the 70s shaped the decade into the most historical time frame of the modern age. People found a way to get their point across to the world and opened the eyes to many different things that we were blind to. We managed to stop a war that we had no business being a part of. We proved we could gather into a crowd of over 500,000 people for 3 days and not kill each other, try that now.

 

If you are a 70s teenager or even have parents and heard stories from them, comment here I would like very much to hear from you.

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