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Kathy sighed and sipped her coffee as she watched her friend Katrina on the street corner. Sometimes she wondered if the girl was insane or just plain stupid. Well Kat is a blonde, she mused to herself. Perhaps that had something to do with it. It was 11:10 on a beautiful Friday and instead of having her butt in class, Trina was here with them. They were called Hippies by the press and they were beyond weird. That of course had never stopped Trina before. The girl had finally found herself a cult and she was loving it. Kathy rolled her dark eyes as she continued to watch her friend on the street corner. It would only be a few more minutes before the cops showed up and then she could grab Trina and leave.
She checked her watch again and when she looked up she could see the cops arriving. Now was the time to make her move. She pushed through the barefoot, dirty hippies trying to get out of the cop’s way, till she found her girl. She grabbed Trina’s arm and began to haul her away before they got into trouble.
“Kathy let me go,” snapped Trina, trying to struggle. “If I do that you’ll run,” Kathy pointed out, never breaking her stride “Why were you at that rally anyway?” Trina tried struggling again. “It’d be easier to answer if you weren’t dragging me along,” she pouted. “Well then you needn’t worry,” Kathy said brightly, “Here’s the car.”
Having said this she opened the passenger’s side of her 64 Corvair Spyder and threw Trina in. She reached over and buckled her seatbelt for her while listening to her whine about how she wasn’t a child. She gave a placating nod and hopped in the driver’s seat.
“Now do you plan to answer me?” Kathy asked as they waited at a stop light. “I was at the rally to protest,” Trina said in a haughty voice. Kathy rolled her eyes. “Do you even know what you were ‘protesting’? And I use the term lightly.” Trina stuck her tongue out. “Stop that, you’re not 5,” said Kathy. “We were protesting the treatment of blacks if you must know,” said Trina attempting to sound superior. Kathy raised an eyebrow. “Can’t they protest for themselves?” she asked.
Trina gave her a long suffering sigh. “You are so out of touch,” she told her friend. “Really? Cuz I think I’m the only one with a solid grasp of reality here,” Kathy responded. Trina just continued to grumble until they got to their apartment building. “Aren’t you going to drag my ass back to campus this time?” she huffed. Kathy shut the car off and got out. “No because I know you won’t stay any way,” she said going around to grab her arm again. “Kathy!” Trina whined again. As usual Kathy paid no attention to her while dragging her up to their tiny apartment.
Trina was about ready to shriek with fury at her friend. Whining had done her no good and pleading didn’t seem to work either. She couldn’t believe that Kathy was acting this way. All she’d wanted to do was go to a sit in. How could that be so wrong? She knew from experience that talking to Kathy tonight would do no good. She’d have to wait until morning.
Kathy was already sitting down to breakfast when Trina woke up. She walked out of her room cautiously trying to gauge her friend’s reaction. “Hey,” she said quietly. “Morning,” Kathy answered, not looking up from the paper. “Are you still mad?” Trina asked. Kathy sighed and put her paper down. “I’m mad that you lied to me,” she said. Trina hung her head “I’m sorry.” Kathy waved the apology off. “You say that every time,” she said going back to her paper. She knew that Trina was sorry, and she also knew that Trina would go back to her Hippie ways soon. It got to be an old routine after awhile.
Trina started to bounce around happily once she knew that Kathy wasn’t mad at her. “Would you stop that?” Kathy asked, looking up briefly. “I have a surprised for you,” giggled Trina. Kathy rolled her eyes as Trina handed her some coffee. “The next words out of your mouth better be we’ve just won a million dollars doll,” she said sipping the coffee. Trina giggled again and began to get her breakfast together. “Actually I’ve got tickets to a concert,” she said proudly.
Kathy looked up from her paper and quirked an eyebrow. “A concert?” she asked. Trina giggled again as her blue eyes lit up. “It’s called Woodstock. Three days of peace, love and harmony,” she said with a grin. Kathy groaned. “You’re taking me to a Hippie Music fest?” she asked. “It’s ‘flower child, first off,” snapped Trina. Kathy shrugged. “Same losers, different name,” she said. “Come on, it’s not that far away and it’ll be really cool,” Trina whined. “You said for three days right?” Kathy pointed out. Trina begged and whined and as usual got her way.
It was a week later and the two of them were on the road to the Hippie Love Fest. “Remind me again why I’m doing this,” sighed Kathy. Trina gave her infamous giggle. “Because you wanted me to shut up about it,” she said simply twirling a lock of her blonde hair around her finger. “I can’t believe I’m spending three days at a freaking farm,” sighed Kathy “and I’m being forced to wear Hippie clothes on top of it all.” Trina just laughed. Her friend had been grumbling for awhile now. She learned long ago to just let Kathy run her course and all would be well.
“Ooooh, take a right here,” Trina told her. Kathy did as she was told and swept her black hair away from her eyes. When they pulled into the farm Kathy could not believe her eyes. “This is it?” she asked. There was a stage, a bunch of buses and a field. That was it. “This is it,” said Trina. The girl was practically jumping out of her skin in excitement. Kathy couldn’t understand it. “Oh hey there are the guys,” she said spotting some friends of hers. “Shoot me now,” Kathy murmured under her breath. As soon as Trina dragged her over she began to zone out.
“Kathy, Kathy,” Trina called. Too late Kathy realized she’d been daydreaming and not really paying much attention to all that was going on. “What do you want Trina?” she sighed. “You haven’t met Kevin,” Trina admonished. Kathy really wanted to throttle her friend. “Fine,” she sighed “Let us meet Kevin.” Trina grinned and tugged her through the crowd.
Kathy sighed as she realized why Trina hated it when Kathy tugged her along. It was really annoying and it hurt. She was stopped in front of another group of people that she’d never seen before. “Kevin, come over here and meet Kathy,” Trina called. A guy with dark hair and eyes came over to them. “Hey, Trina who’s you’re friend?” he asked.
Kathy smiled grimly. “I’m her friend Kathy, and I’m here under protest,” she said in a sickly sweet voice. Trina elbowed her in the ribs. “She’s here to keep me out of trouble,” she said laughing. The guy laughed along with her. Kathy really wanted to just curl up and die. But before she could Trina started squealing again. “Kath! The music is about to start!” Kathy was so tempted to stab her eyes out with a rusty spoon.
Trina dragged her to sit on the top of some bus so they could see the concert. Kathy was actually looking forward to this part. She was bored stiff by all the strangers that were Trina’s friends. She hoped the music would be a welcome change. She looked down at her watch as the first strains of music came out of the speakers. Kathy had a feeling that maybe this concert, though it would be long, wouldn’t be too bad. She leaned over to Trina and asked who the singer was. As usual she had no idea who Trina was talking about when she heard the name, but the music was good so she didn’t mind. That night she enjoyed the unique experience of falling asleep to music.
Trina shook her awake pretty early the next day. The first thing she and Trina did was to scrounge up some food for breakfast. Many people hadn’t the forethought to bring stuff so there was a “lack of food.” (Woodstock 69). They finally found enough to keep them from starving and they found another place to sit and watch the concert. The bus they had sat on yesterday was occupied by a couple who were very…busy. She giggled as she heard the guy on the stage yell. “What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000.” (Welcome to Woodstock) She leaned over to Trina and whispered to her. “I wish we actually could do that,” she said. Trina smiled at her. “And you said this would suck,” she whispered back. Kathy imitated her friend and stuck her tongue out.
The music didn’t start right away that day. At about 12 o’clock some group called Quill got themselves up on stage. Even Trina looked really bored at their set. The band seemed to get the disinterested vibe and “threw maracas, then whatever else they could get their hands on to get the crowd into their set.” (Woodstock 69 lives) Kathy looked at Trina. “Remind me again how you can honestly like these guys?” she asked. “Simple, I don’t,” Trina answered.
They were pretty much booed off stage and they waited for the next set. “I wish I could take a shower,” sighed Kathy. Trina shrugged. “There’s the lake over there,” she pointed. Kathy shivered. “I am not bathing in front of total strangers. Besides I’m not sure it’s all that clean,” she added. Trina giggled. “We’d better go find the car,” she told her. Kathy nodded and they went off. Since the place all looked the same it was going to be rough going.
They finally found the car and had to throw a few occupants out of it. But by then it was pretty late. “Let’s hang here for the night,” said Kathy. Trina could barely keep her eyes open and just nodded. Kathy on the other hand stayed up all night. She even shook Trina awake to watch the sun come up with her. Trina was awestruck at how it rose during the chorus of her favorite song.
Two sets later they were having fun jamming to the music when it started to pour. The concerts were stopped for next couple of hours as everyone ducked for cover. Kathy and Trina sought refuge in the bus housing many of Trina’s friends, including Kevin. While the other hippies traded protest stories and pot, Kevin and Kathy sat in the back and talked about music and college. It turned out that he was also here by force.
Kathy had actually fallen asleep on Kevin’s shoulder having been up all last night. Out of no where she could hear Trina screeching in her ear. “Get up! Get up! The bands are back on!” she yelled. Kathy pulled herself up and looked at Trina. “Do you always have to be so loud?” she asked. Kevin chuckled. “Come on let’s go see who’s up now,” he said helping her up.
“Alright it’s Fish!” Trina yelled. Kathy gave her a very confused look. “Who the hell?” she asked. “It’s a protest group,” Kevin whispered. Kathy knew enough to not ask any more than that. He helped both of them up onto the hood of the bus to watch more of the concert.
They fell asleep again on the hood of the bus during Blood, Sweat and Tears. Kathy woke up once during all the excitement. Kevin was still bright eyed and bushy tailed watching every bit. He told her that the group on stage was called Crosby Stills Nash and Young. “They’re pretty good,” Kathy commented. “Yeah they aren’t too bad,” Kevin answered. Kathy chuckled and soon fell back asleep.
She was woken up the next morning by, of course, more music. Now Kevin was asleep but Trina was also beginning to rouse. She thought it was pretty strange that she heard music she actually knew. Until she looked at the band, that was. “Trina,” she called. “Yeah,” her friend mumbled. “Should Sha- Na- Na be here?” she asked. Trina looked over at the stage. “I guess so but damned if I know why,” she said. She shook Kevin awake and the three of them went off in search of Kathy’s car. “Wow a lot of people are gone,” Trina said. “It’s a Monday morning,” Kathy commented.
The two friends got in the car and were just about to say good bye to Kevin when Kathy stopped them. Trina gave her a strange look. “It’s the national anthem,” Kathy pointed out. Trina and Kevin listened and sure enough Jimi Hendrix was belting out “Star Spangled Banner” on guitar. They waited until the song was over before heading out. But not before Kathy made sure to get Kevin’s number. Trina looked over at her friend as they flew down the highway. “So did it suck that badly?” she asked Kathy.
Kathy shook her head. “No but I’m dying to change clothes,” she answered. “So what do we say to Trina?” Kathy rolled her eyes. “You were right, however you’re not going to that protest next week,” she said.