Often when thinking about 60's events, especially if comparing them to things
that might occur today, it is helpful to think in terms of "organic" momentum vs
"manufactured" momentum....in many ways, whether you are thinking about a free
concert in the park in a reasonably small town, or a demonstration or an event
like Woodstock....you really are talking about "things" that came into being as
a direct or indirect result of a generally stimulated condition. By which, I
mean that stuff (excitement, adventure, eagerness to experience) was in the air
everywhere!!! People were roaming, traveling without itineraries, showing up in
places in a mentally charged, positive state of mind...a few folks on the corner
could very easily and quickly turn into a small crowd in which someone breaks
out a guitar, soon all are singing...people sing...somebody drums...a new VW
load of folks pulls and someone has good weed...an imprompto concert in the park
results...later in the evening, someone suggests getting a couple of groups
together and doing this all again next week....
The motivation for all of this stems from a climate predisposed to have fun for
the sake of having fun, for the sake of having an experience and maybe growing
from that....
Today, there is always a more complicated set of agendas, one of which
invariably involves making money...and making money is really about quantifying
experience, not enabling experience...
Early on, dope was sort of the same way...I got tons of people high, but I
wasn't a dealer....I didn't make money, I facilitated experience...if money
changed hands, it was only to help score another load, which would be in turned
shared...we even linked with a botanist/horticulturalist guy to grow acres of
hybrid weed that we gave away all over New England...I saw myself as sort of a
Johnny Appleseed character, passing out pounds of great weed everywhere I
travelled....
Charles Shepard