continues to strike a chord. nbc news, new york. >> that's "nbc nightly news." brian williams will be here tomorr hs lester h >>. ♪ freedom >> there was nothing like it before. >> people coming all different directions. which way is the festival? i think it is that way, man. >> there has been nothing like it since. >> see 300,000 unsupervised kids. i thought god it doesn't get better than this. ♪ >> woodstock changed music. >> to hear jimi hendrix play "star spangled banner" number one in the sun, man. >> it changed lives. >> when you have been shown that love works. you stick with it.

>> some say it changed a generation. >> for the first time in my life i really felt that i belonged. >> the magic, the myth, the music. >> like a jubilant farm. >> tonight if you don't remember or just weren't there, take a journey back to woodstock. good evening, welcome to "dateline." i'm ann curry. it was 40 years ago this coming week that several hundred thousand young people got together to make music and ended up making history. tonigh the woodstock story from the ground up. told through the eyes of those who lived it in the crowd behind the stage or on it. and you will see home movies and rare film of the festival never before made public. it was three days of music and more than a little madness that rocked the world. >> something was taking place at woodstock that was spiritual or

magical. ♪ >> there was so much love and so many people, were so generous with each other that it became the woodstock generation. ♪ i didn't need some place where i can play my game ♪ >> it was a first, it was an historical event. >> we had the canvas, painted the picture. >> it was billed as three days of peace and music. but to man who went, woodstock was much more. ♪ toake a load off ♪ >> being part of the weekend that defined a generation would change the trajectories of their lives. ♪ you put the load right on me >> i decided at woodstock that i would not live a lie. >> the sense of community i got. out of seeing woodstock, it probably gave me more faith that what i was doing was correct.

♪ >> a lot of things went wrong over the three days. but what mas woodstock the most memorable concert in rock history even 40 years later is what went right. how on 600 acres of rolling farmland, a dispretcollection o drifters, lovers, seekers, came together to create something new. >> we were really a nation. we were a community. we were a tribe. >> they read from the stage, "the new york daily news." hippies mired in sea of mud. the new york daily. they were talking about us. >> at a time when the nati was grappling with the civil rights struggle and the war in vietnam, woodstock made headlines across the country. and it still resonates today. the director's cut of the documentary "woodstock" released this summer is the fastest selling concert dvd in history.

why do we still care so much about woodstock? the only way to understand is to go back to 1969. the woodstock music and arts festival was organized by a group of young entrepreneurs hoping ticket sales for a mass concert could finance a recording studio they wanted to build. they would need plenty of help to make it happen. one person they turned to, a young mother, and earth mother, named lisa law. in the late 1960s, lisa and her husband tom had been traveling the west with a mobile extended family known as the hog farm commune. often stopping at mass outdoor concerts like the human be-in in san francisco and monterey pop festival. >> my husband and i had built a teepee and we would set it up at various festivals. we took care of anybody that was on drugs having a problem. this became the trip tent.

people would come in there and -- sit around the fire and itas like womb. >> but lisa had more traditional maternal instincts too. we cameto satoant fe to have our first baby, apilar. > >th e rest of her life was anything but traditional. the laws shared a vegetable garden, chores, and child care responsibilities with a group of families. woodstock organizersasked lisa, tom and the hog farm to lend their expertise, preparing food for large groups. and caring for people on drug trips. >> we were ready for anything. always. we just took it on as that was our job. >> lisa came across the country to woodstock with the small movie camera to document it all. she was 7 months pregnant. carrying around her toddler daughter and raring to go. ♪ ♪

>> having a baby and being pregnant does not slow me down. my children are an extension of me. and so i have no problem doing things with them, attached to me.e >> lisa, her family and the crew from the hog farm arrived at the site and got down to business. lisa approached the woodstock orgazers with a demand. >> i need $3,000. to go into town to buy the food. so he gave me $3,000. and i commandeered a truck and i bought 1,500 pounds of bulgar wheat, rolled oats. 200 boxes of 25 pounds of currents, 160,000 paper plates, a jade buddha to bless our kitchen. >> a few hundred yard from the hog farm compound, a teenager named greg walter was helping build the woodstock arts and crafts pavilion. >> it was a job anyone would want. you could get 10,000 applicants to work at this music festival. it was amazing.

>> before woodstock, greg hadn't considered himself part of the counter culture. far from it. ♪ another pleasant valley sunday ♪ >> greg grew up in a conventional suburban family in cornwall new york. he hadn't rebelled against his parents or much of anything else. but in 1969, that started to change. >> when you turned 18 at the time you were supposed to register for the draft. the principal of the high school scald me in and had the papers all prepared for me. i ended up getting my draft card. >> enemy forces delivered four ground attacks today in vietnam. >> he had seen the images from vietnam on the nightlynews. now he started paying closer attention. greg decided he opposed u.s. involvement in vietnam. with the church youth group he went to his first anti-war demonstrations. ♪ there must be some kind of way out of here ♪ >> we weren't real radicals or

anything. we were trying to make our voices heard. >> as he got more involved with the protest group. greg fell in love with the music transfixing american youths. ♪ ♪ in and out of the garden he goes ♪ >> music was one thing that our generation really felt was theirs. it wasn't coming from someone else. we were creating it. we controlled it. >> what drew greg to woodstock was the musical acts that were signed on. artists like janis joplin, ritchie havens, and the band called "the band." >> in 1969 we had just signed a recording agreement with capital records. ♪ the odds wre in my favor >> the drummer and singer in the band, levon helm was a natural fit for the festival.

he and his band mates were living in the catskills, northwest of new york city. in a town, woodstock, new york. >> a lot of the people here play music. you go into the gas station, the guy that is helping fill your car up, he may be the best banjo picker around. so people around here have always celebrated music. >> the band's album, music from big pink was named after their house in woodstock. their song, "the weight" was featured in "easy rider" the song, movie and band shared a strong cult following. ♪ i just need some place where i can lay my head ♪ >> it was in the midst of the first brush with stardom that the band accepted the invitation to play the festival being planned in their own neighborhood. they didn't know the details about woodstock but they knew it was going to be big. >> everybody kind of realized it was, for the east coast it was a first.

>> the woodstock music and art fair, three day aconveyorian expedition will give you unhurried calm days of peace and music. >> however the days leading up to woodstock were anything but calm and peaceful. >> the first thing they did was surround my place and threat in to burn us down. ♪ >> when "back to woodstock" continues. yeah to help with everyday bills like gas, the mortgage... ...and groceries. it's like insurance for daily living. so...what's it called? uhhhhh aflaaac!!!! oh yeah! that it! aflac. we've got you under our wing. a-a-a-aflaaac! this is my verizon small business specialist, tom. now, i know the catering business but when i walked in here i wasn't sure what i needed. i'm not sure what i need. tom showed me how to use mifi

to get my whole team working online, on location. i was like, "woah". woah ! only verizon wireless has small business specialists in every store to help you do business better. you're like my secret ingredient. come in today and connect up to five devices on one 3g connection. now only $99.99 the object approaching it is your hand. observe the differences closely. because when juicy, 100% angus beef is involved, the lines can become blurred. notice that the angus third pounder is bursting... with a bevy of toppings that make it virtually irresis-- whoa, close one. angus axiom number 16: don't bite the hand that feeds you. the astonishing new angus third pounders. all angus. all mcdonald's. ♪ ba da ba ba ba not playing with the kids? not on these legs. poor leg circulation. doctor says it's p.a.d. peripheral artery disease? hmmm. more than doubles your risk for a heart attack or stroke. so i hear.

better ask your doctor about plavix. plavix can help protect you from a heart attack or stroke. plavix helps keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming clots, the cause of most heart attacks and strokes. my cousin the m.d. call your doctor about plavix. (male announcer) if you have a stomach ulcer or other condition that causes bleeding, you should not use plavix. when taking plavix alone or with some other medicines including aspirin, the risk of bleeding may increase so tell your doctor before planning surgery. and, always talk to your doctor before taking aspirin or other medicines with plavix, especially if you've had a stroke. if you develop fever, unexplained weakness or confusion, tell your doctor promptly as these may be signs of a rare but potentially life-threatening condition called ttp, which has been reported rarely, sometimes in less than two weeks after starting therapy. other rare but serious side effects may occur.

♪

>> i felt the momentum leading up to the first one. and i felt it was going to be almost overwhelming. >> in upstate new york the woodstock music and arts festival almost didn't happen at all. residents i the town of woodstock had rejected the idea of the concert from the start. fearing it would bring too much noise, traffic and attention to their quiet town. so organizers had moved the event to the tiny town of wallkill, weeks before the scheduled event the citizens revoked the permit necessary for an outside festival. >> they were afraid of a cultural group of hippies, musicians, to be in their town. >> eliot tiber helped his parents run the el monaco, a motel not far. the chamber of commerce down the road, eliot could issue permits for outdoor events. >> for ten years i had a music and arts festival of my own at the el monaco on the lawn.

i had an lp record player i played my favorites. judy garland was always number one. ♪ somewhere over the rainbow >> elliott was gay in aime when people did not talk openly about sexual orientation. in june, 1969, he was at the stonewall inn, a gay bar in greenwich village when patrons fought back against police brutality, touching off the modern gay rights movement. back at his parents' motel, eliot decided it was time to make his mark. he called the woodstock organizers out of the blue. >> i said, i have the permit for the festival. permit, what do you mean? a permit for the music and arts festival. >> elliott brought the organizers to meet max yazger, a local dairy farmer who agreed to rent out his prompt for the music festival. wh word got out, many locals

were fearouurious. the first thing they did was surround my place. threaten to burn us down. we don't want hippies, homosexuals, drug addicts. we don't want any of that here. >> but eliot tiber didn't scare easily. he rented out rooms in el monaco, saving the motel from bankruptcy and sold woodstock tickets at the front desk. >> lines were a mile long to our office to buy tickets. >> the woodstock music and arts festival was going forward all right. and a lot more people than the town of bethel had ever seen were on their way. some trip. patrick calucci's journey started at the seminary in queens where he was studying to be a catholic priest. >> things were not working out quite the way i expected at this point in my life. there was a lot going on in my head. >> patrick had begun to question his calling. ♪ to everythig, turn, turn, turn ♪ >> watching news of the anti-war

and civil rights movements, he was wondering whether a life in the church would leave him too sheltered. >> i felt that christ himself had rolled arounin the mud with the common man and i felt tht that's what i should do. ♪ >> so on his summer break, patrick decided to drive his old hon to the festival everyone was talking about. he was driving behind maria calvito, a 17-ar-old girl he had met recently at a party. i said i am going up with a bunch of friend. if you want to follow our car, you are welcome. >> soon after they started off. traffic shred to a crawl. i noticed the door open in the car in front of me. maria got out. walked towards me wearing jeans. she had no shoes on. and very long straight hair. and it was just a lovely sight. she hopped on the bike. i cranked it up. we road down the side of the ro as wou i t out there. i was doing my thing. >> duke devlin, a wandering

hippy with no fixed address, traveled to woodstock the same way he went everywhere. hitchhiking in cars, vans, and old painted school buses. >> psych delling colors, different things like that. don't want to be yellow. we weren't going to school, man. ♪ ♪ the magic bus >> going to a place with no rules and no authorities. duke hadn't bothered to buy a ticket to hear his rock 'n' roll heroes. >> i loved the band. i loved the band. ♪ take a load off ♪ take a load for free >> it drives me up the wall, man. you kidding? yeah. ♪ and you put the load right on me ♪ >> aer days crammed in strangers' vehicles, duke approached the woodstock site. ♪ he was walking along the road ♪ >> hey, man which way is the

festival. oh i think it is that way, man. waves of people were coming by. just coming in waves. we all knew it was going to be this music festival. but i don't think at the time the state police realized just how many people were going to be there. >> everett peersol was a state trooper called in to help with the spreading crisis. >> the traffic was horrendous. all little two-lane roads up there. and people, a lot of people when they couldn't get through they would just leave the car. there was cars parked all over. i mean, i am talking six miles from the place. >> can you imagine walking all that way with your bags, leaving your car on it the middle of no place. >> a sea of humanity, colorful clothes, friendliness, flowers, everybody giving flowers. a big party. >> people around here had never seen a purple flower. people started coming down the road dressed weird, man, you know what i mean. >> i walked over to where people were arriving on the main road behind the stage.

i couldn't believe my eyes. there were thousands and thousands of people. you know? it was just blew my mind. and i said, ah-ha. we have prepared for these people. we are prepared. >> coming up -- a lost generation find itself and love at woodstock. >> ritchie havens was on stage. i see maria a beautiful youngee. iee 300,000 unsupervised kids. i said, god it doesn't get better than this. offering up to $4500 el igrdwara a new car with an eligible trade-in. plus, toyota is offering factory incentives omany models for even more savings. with toyota being the most dependable and fuel-efficient car company in america, it's no wder 25 models in the toyota family qualify. so hurry in to your toyota dealer today.

real food at the right price! this is the primo stuff. one appetizer and two premium entrees. just twenty bucks-every day. genuine food. generous portionsgenius price. 2 for $20! only at applebee's.

>> cars being abandoned on highways. leading to the area. festival producers called for all vehicles aheading for the event to turn back home. ♪ >> by friday, august 15th, the first official day of woodstock, plans for the concert were in disarray. >> no one was really sure if we were going to get shut down by the government. if the pa was actually going to work. if the performers were going few get on stage. chaos is really the only word i can get. >> amidst the chaos, cemetery student, patrick and his friend maria realized they had no clue how to find maria's friend who started t trip with her. so the two of them walked together down the sloping field to the main stage just as the first performance of woodstock

got under way. >> let's welcome mr. ritchie havens. >> a moment in time crystallized for me. the sun had come through the cloud. at turn i see maria, beautiful young girl. and i see 300,000 unsupervised kids. i look up to heaven and i said "god, it doesn't get better than this." ♪ freedom freedom freedom freedom ♪ >> i thought he was singing to me. suddenly i was free. >> from his fami's motel, eliot could hear the music ringing across the lake. >> it was my chance to be free. first time in my life, totally free. ♪ freedom freedom ♪ >> for the moment greg walter newly registered for the draft put aside his worries about vietnam. >> it was like freedom. we can do what we want to do. >> can i have your attention. from now on, the woodstock

festival is a free concert. >> from now on, the festival was going to be free. and i'm getting tingles thinking about it right now. >> duke devlin figured he had been right all along. why worry about tickets. why worry about anything. while others struggled to stack out space near the stage, duke wandered all over. >> i wasn't plopped. some people plopped. i am not a plopper, you know what i mean? i'm a mover and a groover. ♪ cloud of mystery >> late friday it started to pour. duke didn't worry about that either. >> you know if you go on a picnic, then you talk about the weather. you know what i mean. it's raining we'll cancel the picnic. this wasn't a picnic. ♪ still i wonder who stopped the rain ♪ >> we're all wet. so what? you're wet. she's wet. he's wet. we're all wet. >> the rain was the very heavy

summer type of rain. it just scam down like bullets. it came down intensely. ♪ and i wonder still i wonder ♪ >> 100 years of cow manure came to the surface. the smell was sort of like a mixture of poop and hasheesh if i had to put a definition to it. ♪ i'll miss you when you're gone ♪ >> but huddled close to maria listening to the music of joan baez, patrick wasn't missing the comforts of home or the churc he realized he didn't want to be anywhere else. >> i mean here i am with this gorgeous girl, you know, and with these people that are like-minded, the weather was really inconsequential. >> patrick and maria and about 400,000 other young people slept by campfire that night. they awoke to bright sunshine. ♪ it's a beautiful morning >> on saturday things really started to come together. and it was to coin a phrase from

the time, do your own thing. some people were swimming naked in the lake. and other people were off camping. >> nudity was more or less like to shock people, you know? it wasn't to shock each other. it was to shock other people. >> but as the crowd frolicked other problems were developing. ♪ there weren't enough portable toilets to serve hundreds of thousand of people. friend and family got separated. before the age of cell phones it wasn't easy finding each other. and concession stands all around the concert site had run out of food. ♪ there must be somekind of way out of here ♪ >> little b of despair or concern. what are we going to do? we are exposed, we have nothing. just have each other. what is going to happen to my bike. >> woodstock had become a disaster area. you have thousand and thousand of cars lining the streets. hundreds of thousand of people walking around.

you have a few outhouses. you have people that have come there for one day. they're stuck there for three days. everybody had to figure out, in this disaster area, how they're going to survive. >> coming up -- the birth of the woodstock nation. >> for the first time in myiyeat ry ill el i belonged. and belonged to that group. five co-workers are working from the road using a mifi, a mobile hotspot that provides up to five shared wifi connections. two are downloading the final final revised final presentation. - one just got an e-mail. - what?! - huh? - it's being revised again. the co-pilot is on mapquest. - ( rock music playing ) - and tom is streaming meeting psych-up music from meltedmetal.com. that's happening now with the new mifi from sprint, the mobile hotspot that fits in your pocket. sprint. the now network. deaf, hard of hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com. we've trapped kimberly in this glass box... with all this dust. well, it's only dust. in that dust are allergens from pet dander and dust mites.

eww! pledge with allergen trappers... traps up to 84% of allergens in dust. 84%? that's... nothing to sneeze at? yeah... no. that's great. allergen trappers. that's the beauty of pledge®. also available in wipes. s.c. johnson. a family company. introducing new brawny. a towel built with one layer to be even softer and another for added strength. brawny can do it all.

it's my "save-so-much-on- his-graphing-calculator... look. i made it say, "booger." ...i-can-get-him-a- math-tutor" button. (announcer) staples equals savings staples. that was easy announcer: there's a place called hidden valley. where kids not only eat their vegetables, they can't get enough. hidden valley ranch, makes vegetables delectable. now rediscover the delectable taste that can only come from hidden valley, the original ranch.

they were announcing it all over the radios. they were saying there is not enough food to go around. >> a young mother who lived in a town near the woodstock site. >> so i bought as many breads as i could fine, as much peanut butter, jelly. >> she made hundreds of sandwiches and had them delivered to the festival. >> i am a jewish mother. if somebody is hungry i try to feed them. >> but a few hundred sandwiches made by local tossed into the crowd weren't going to feed a half a million hungry hippies. lisa law and her hog farm crew had been cooking up massive amounts of vegetables, omelets and granola, a half mile from the main stage. most of the audience didn't even know about it yet. >> it is the only time i got to make my announcement, which was, with the microphone, anybody who is hungry can come across to the forest on the other side, the hog farm will feed you. lisa and her team served up hot meals while her toddler pilar

played with other hog farm babies. >> the hog farm, back to me, the commune type living. the real deal was there. >> duke was especially impressed by the commune's work as de facto security operation for the festival. they called themselves the please force. >> the please department. >> as for the real police they kept their presence low key. >> we weren't really looking to enforce all of the drugs. if you wanted to arrest people for marijuana, i'm sure it was there. i mean, it is not a question where, where we saw it and just ignored it. it was just the question, you didn't look for it. >> eliot remembers the police officer who ga him a ride from the el monaco to the woodstock ground. >> he said take a break get on my motorcycle. took me to the ground. i took a look at max's farm. last time i saw it it was empty with cows. now i saw a half million people, sea of humanity. it overwhelmed my senses.

♪ one pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small ♪ >> some kids offered me acid. i was with a couple overnight in a vw bus. i don't remember anything about what we did. nothing. ♪ go ask alice >> i was into the drug scene. i wanted to get to the edge as far as i can without falling off. >> 40 years ago there wasn't today's level of public awareness about just how dangerous drugs can be. >> you couldn't breathe the air without getting high. every conceivable drug was being passed along like on a human conveyor belt. >> hundreds of thousands of kids even some of the performers on stage partaking in what seemed like unlimited amounts of pot and lsd. >> the acid circulating around us is not specifically too good. it is suggested that you do stay

away from that. it is your own trip. be my guest. >> people losing it. freaking out. >> it became part of greg's job to assist concert-goers having bad drug trips. >> people do acid and lose it. >> some drug takers were taken to an on site medical center. one died of an overdose. but for less serious cases, lisa law's trip tents were ready and waiting. >> we took care of them. say like this. what is your name? bob. well, bob, you have taken some psychedelic drug and it's going to wear off. you are going to be okay. okay. once they're inside of a trip tent, there is not all this distraction on their trip. they can actually finish their trip inside the trip tent. when they get up to leave, they were told, see that guy coming in here looking look you did a couple hours ago. now it is your turn to take care of them. >> for patrick, the seminary felt further and further away. the priests he studied with would never have approved of his

growing feelings towards maria calvitto and horrified by his decision to experiment with lsd. >> see me. feel me. >> i was a product of the times. and i did indulge a little bit. saturday i think i got a little carried away. i think some of us got caught up with stuff that was pretty potent. ♪ see me >> patrick made his way to the hog farm compound where he was comforted with warm food and kind words. in the shelter of the trip tent, he fell fast asleep. ♪ feel me >> i remember waking up at around 11:00 at night all of a sudden, white fringe jackets and their brass instruments and just blew the place away. strobe lights were hitting the audience. 500,000 kids were standing up. got to get higher.

♪ higher ♪ higher ♪ higher >> going to take you higher, you know? higher. it was like fitting. you know? >> the woodstock nation was born with that song as far as i am concerned. and for the first time in my life i really felt that i belonged. i belonged to that group. >> coming up -- the party wasn't over yet. and not even another storm could stop this show. >> just as we got there, the sky broke open. nd we kind of gotta sge at at around 2:00 in the morning. it looked like a jubilant party.

♪ what would you do ♪. i sang out of tune ♪ >> a lot of kindness that i witnessed. >> i knew then there were more of them than us. the haters. >> they had coalesced into what they felt was a tribe. the woodstock nation. >> people realize the only way they are going to get through the weekend was to be cool. and helping a neighbor pass it on. >> went to the guy who had a tent. can we share the tent with you. he said take it for a half-hour. then i got to let somebody else in. i saw a lot of that. >> so many people were volunteering to do anything. >> lisa signed up to help out at woodstock. by sunday she says it seemed like half the crowd was tying on red strips of fabric to designate themselves as

volunteers. >> if you put an armband you are part of security force. you are a helper now. that person turns around and has a job. and they go and help out. >> the positive vibes were spreading so wide that even a state trooper outside the concert site could feel them. >> there was no problems. and it was a different time back then. >> one, two, three. ♪ what are we fighting for ♪ don't ask me i don't give a damn ♪ ♪ the next stop is vietnam >> there were so many of us that had a common value system. a common idealism. >> for greg walter, 18 and recently registered for the draft, being enveloped in a crowd that vocally shared his opposition to the war in vietnam was a revelation. >> that empowered me. i realized that the movement was far bigger than i ever cod have imagined it to be.

♪ the next stop is vietnam >> we were becoming something more than the sum of our parts. >> for patrick who had been planning all of his life to be a catholic priest. the transformation that took place at woodstock wasn't just political he was falling in love. >> it brought up emotions in me that i have never felt before. we were immediately attracted to each other. i guess we did what all attracted people did in those days. >> at the el monaco motel down the road from the concert site, eliot was feeling the woodstock freedom too. right in front of his parents he kissed a man. >> i thought there would be thunder and lightnin my mother did laundry. my father used the lawnmower. they didn't say a word.

>> elliott said coming out to his parents was eclipsed by something bigger. the pride he felt for his role in making woodstock happen. >> i did al of this? my dad said that too, he was cryingch he said look. from nothing, and the empty parking lot, look what you did. and gave me a hug. only time in his life he ever gave me a hug. >> meanwhile, by the woodstock main stage. one last night of music was just getting under way. >> we got there. we had to talk a helicopter in. and just as we got there, the sky broke open. and it came about a four-hour thunderstorm. we were supposed to go on around dark. and we got, finally got on the stage at around 2:00 in the morning. ♪ snoe crazy chester followed me ♪ >> and the crowd they had a mind of their own. it looked look a jubilant party. i didn't see anybody crying or wishing they weren't there. ♪ take a load off

♪ take a load for free >> he was talking our talk. you know? >> take the load off. and put the load right on me. i will carry you, old man, you know? >> lasting lessons from woodstock. the good. >> when you have been shown that love works, you stick with it. >> and the bad. >> let's talk about jimi hendrix and janis joplin. ofe year after woodstock, both m t t dreheeceased.re

how about a swim? i'm a little irregular today. don't you eat activia? for my little issues? they're not that bad. summer's no time to put up with even occasional digestive problems. believe me, once they go away, it's amazing how good you feel. announcer: activia is clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system in two weeks. summer's a wastin'... take the activia challenge now.

it works, or it's free. ♪ activia ♪ of sheer white cotton? to that posh boutique on miami beach... or that fancy little place on rodeo drive? how about right around the corner? luxurious fragrance at a practical price. find it where you find glade®. s.c. johnson, a family company. i don't know anything about computers and my daughter is going to college, so she needs one. - can you help me? - ( shouting ) - yes, you. - our line of next class laptops are perfect for college, and they start at just $650. are those good? 'cause i don't want to get her something - that she thinks is totally lame. - no, they're awesome. and they come with pre-loaded software so she won't have to do a thing. - great. she's good at that. - ( blue shirts laugh )

laptops designed for college and thousands of people eager to help. best buy. buyer be happy.

♪ back to ourselves ♪ >> the sun rose on monday morning to the strains of jimi hendrix on guitar. the final performance of woodstock weekend. >> in music you have innovators and immitators. he was an innovator. >> a percussionist in hendrix's band. that's him on the left. >> we didn't know we were going to play the star spangled

banner. that was totally ad-lib, improvizational. it was never rehearsed. and he just said play. >> i think that it meant we are all americans, and we were happy to be in a free country where we could express ourselves. >> that morning, and it's like smoldering, after this great weekend, man, to hear jimi hendrix play the star spangled banner was, blew you away. number one in the sun, man. yeah. it was cool. >> the only thing left was cleaning up the mess. it took organizers more than a week and cost $100,000 and then the long trek home. >> for everybody who knows susan, please come to the information booth. >> patrick and marie never did find the friend she set off with that weekend. but before patrick and maria parted he told her of his decision. he was going to return to the seminary.

>> my monsignor, parents, parish, everybody is counting on me to do this. hopped on the bike. went back few school. i tried to forget about her. i put on my vestments, took my book out, kept turning the page. every second or third page i would see maria's face. ♪ i see the glory from you >> after a lifetime preparing for the priesthood, 72 hours at woodstock had created a conflict for patrick that he didn't know how to resolve. ♪ in the fall of '69, greg walter enrolled at orange county community college, a move that deferred his military service but college just didn't suit him. >> there was too much going on. so i threw all caution to the wind, quit college, lost my deferment and became 1-a you are

eligible for induction into the military. >> he got his induction notice the next year. ♪ don't ask me i don't give a damn ♪ ♪ the next stop is vietnam >> greg chose not to report for duty. moved to canada, evading the draft and facing prison time if he ever returned to the united states. >> definitely the sense of community that i got out of seeing woodstock it probably gave me more faith that what i was doing was correct. >> he didn't return to the u.s. until 1977 when vietnam draft evaders received a pardon from th en president jimmy carter. lisa law we back tohe t counterculture life in new mexico. that's where she stayed. her photos of the 1960s have been displayed at galleries around t world. her work providing food and comfort at woodstock made her a celebrity in hippy circles. >> everybody give me a peace sign. >> i drive my bus in the summer

of love hippy dippy parade in santa fe. ♪ something's happening here >> lisa says her woodstock memories are still with her every day. and she passed them on to her children. her daughter pilar, a toddler in 1969 says her three days at the festival set the course for her life. >> being part of something that spread a whole new consciousness around the world. when you have been shown that love works, you stick with it. >> back in conservative upstate new york, lenny binder was never really part of the counterculture. today she serves on the county legislature as a republican. still she fought to get a monument placed on the woodstock site and says the role she played at the concert was a defining moment in her career. >> peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. if i am googled in posterity that's what will come up. it is nice to have posterity

remember you one way or another. >> eli tiber's woodstock story is also headed for posterity. ang lee's new film taking woodstock is based on eliot's life. >> you have a permit, right? >> yeah. very cool. >> but perhaps no one stayed more connected to woodstock than quintessential hippy duke devlin. he certainly didn't pl it. >> i had no intentions of staying here. no intentions. i had no intentions of having intentions even. i just did. >> duke found himself lingering in bethel. he work at a farmer's market. and he served as a sort of hippy ambassador giving free tours of the field where the festival took place. then last year, he was hired by curators at the bethel wood center for the arts a concert space and museum right on the woodstock site. duke sees as an ad hoc hisrian. >> they pay me money to do it now. pay me money.

i would do it for a pack of twinkies and a yoohoo. ♪ i got today >> like going back to hitchhiking. everybody walks on the side. >> you know the password to get on stage don't you? >> i forgot. >> that's it. >> that's the password to get on stage. >> but some thingsave changed since duke's days on the road. >> i don't do drugs. i don't drink. let's talk about jimi hendrix and janis joplin. one year after woodstock both of them were deceased. the king andqueen of the culture you might say. kind of a wake-up call to a lot of us. >> how you doing? >> what's up? >> 40 years after woodstock, duke says he knows all too well how many time has passed. >> woodstock was look a capsule, you know, i could put it mine pocket. you know what i mean. now i can go on with my life. every now and then i open my pocket up, let out a little woodstock. ♪

♪ >> levon helm, former singer and drummer of one of the most revered groups of the 60s and 70s, keeps a little bit of woodstock in his pocket too. >> ended up one of the people that didn't go home. i stayed right in town. and i have never regretted it. i le woodstock. ♪ america's music town. >> but as for taking part in a three day gathering that defined a generation. >> so what? big deal. >> the band broke up eight years after woodstock amidst bitter arguments over credits and money. levon battled throat cancer for years. then last year he released a solo album, dirt farmer which won a grammy award. the follow-up, electric dirt came out this summer. ♪

when heap is not on tour, levon holds intimate, exuberant concerts he calls them rambles every saturday night in his barn in woodstock. ♪ i had wished that i had known what it means to be me ♪ >> it's -- it's been a hell of a good ride, you know. for me it is nothing but a celebration. ♪ there's a sorrow in the wind ♪ blowing down the road i've been ♪ >> the generation that didn't trust anyone over 30 is closer to 60 now. some clung tightly to the counterculture. but most chose the more conventional 9:00 to 5:00 world. patrick calucci works at a car dealership in pennsylvania but says the transformation he went thrgh at woodstock changed him forever. he ended his quest for the priesthood in the fall of 1969.

and as for maria calvitto, the long haired high school student he shared the unforgettable weekend with, patrick married her in 1970, less than a year after woodstock. >> i think the three days at woodstock had the most impactn my life out of anything i have ever experienced. it's where i met my soul mate. it's where, everything came to a head. >> it's just -- it was a terrific experience. i don't think that will ever happen again. it was just unbelievable. >> the values that i took from that experience will always be with me. and to this very day, the mud of woodstock still squishes between my toes. if you still have a little woodstock in your pocket or between your toes, we invite you to share your stories on our website. you also will be able to vote for your favorite woodstock band. the address is date.