A CHARLOTTEAN'S STORY: HIPPIE TIMES AT WOODSTOCK

Charlotte woman recalls a like-minded, peaceful aura amid the crowded
confusion.

After attending Woodstock 40 years ago this weekend, Christina Palmer,
now 61 and living in Charlotte, is still a hippie. Just ask her
children, Moment and Stone.

The iconic music festival that some say defined the 1960s was
life-changing for Palmer, who now teaches art out of her Dilworth
apartment and works as a restaurant reservationist. Last week, she
channeled her 21-year-old hippie self to remember a moment in American
history.

On Friday, Aug. 15, 1969, Palmer, who at the time worked for AT&T,
escaped from Washington, D.C., to Bethel, N.Y., with friends for a
weekend of peace, love and music.

An estimated 200,000 people bought $18 tickets to Woodstock. But as
word spread that musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Santana and The Who -
among many others - would be taking the stage, 400,000 young people
flocked to the 600-acre dairy farm where it was held. Palmer, who
arrived just as Richie Havens opened the festival, remembers people
climbing over the fences to get in.

"That's when they declared it a free concert," she recalled last week
from her Dilworth apartment decorated with original artwork and
candles. "There weren't enough people to control the situation."

Palmer fit in perfectly with the people she called "beautiful." Photos
published in Life magazine's commemorative Woodstock edition show a
tall, lanky Palmer with flowing brown hair wearing flared jeans, a
cuff bracelet and a fringed leather vest, which she still has.

Upon getting to the farm, Palmer got separated from her group almost
immediately, she said. She made her way to the front of the crowd,
where she was so close to the stage that she noticed something missing
from Havens' mouth.

"I was right under him, and I could see he was toothless," she
said.

Joan Baez closed Friday night's festivities.

"She asked everybody to light a match," Palmer recalled. "The whole
Woodstock Nation, as we called it, was lit up for the night. That was
really cool."

Palmer said all she brought to Bethel was a sleeping bag. Since she
got separated from her group, she met random people who invited her to
share their tent. Though no food or drinks were sold on the farm that
weekend, Palmer said no one went hungry.

"A jug of wine would come by and you'd take a couple swigs of that and
pass it on, then a chunk of meat would come by, and you'd take a bite
out of that and pass it on, then cheese," she said.

Another common practice at Woodstock? Illicit drugs. And nobody seemed
to care.

"A (marijuana) joint would come by, you'd take a hit and pass it on,"
she said. "We were smoking right in front of the policemen, and people
were sitting on the police cars."

Two of Palmer's favorite performances were by Santana and Joe Cocker,
whose music she remembers as being political.

"A lot of the people at Woodstock were in like mind against the war in
Vietnam, and the music reflected it," she said.

After a short trip to Vermont after the festival, Palmer returned to
Washington by airplane with a first-class seat, which her mother
bought for her, wearing no shoes. Like a true hippie.