[bside123]

Once again, I recently had the enjoyment of watching "Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music"... all four hours of it! This version of the documentary was the 40th Anniversary, Director's Cut Edition of the film and was remastered in HD on BluRay of the 1969 Woodstock Concert and Peace Festival.

As the cameras panned continuously from the music to the crowds (400,000+ people) to the stage to the events & happenings, there were two interesting things that stood out for me:

1) NO OBESITY - I did not see any obese people. None! Remember, this crowd approached about a 1/2 million, primarily young people. At the time, this would have represented one of the largest municipalities in the United States. The mean income of the attendants was not particular high or well-to-do. Okay, there was a chunky person here and there, such as Bob Hite the lead singer of Canned Heat, BUT no obesity to speak of... These were the days before high fructose corn syrup!

2) NO TYPICAL ADDHD - I did not see the typical behaviors that now have been described as or associated with Attention Deficit Disorder or Hyperactivity. No cellphones; no game boys; no Walkmans; no iPods; no Ipads; no Computers. The crowd seemed fairly resigned to waiting: waiting in traffic, waiting in lines, waiting for food and to eat, waiting to go to the port-a-potty, waiting for bands to set up, waiting for bands to play, waiting for bands to tear down, repeat, and waiting for the rain to stop. As a matter of fact, the people seemed happy enough to wait. People were "hanging out" with each other, on top of each other, beside each other, etc... sharing tarps, plastic sheets, blankets, bed rolls and the like. JUST HANGING OUT and having to "be together," no cliche intended. The crowd didn't seem to expect instant gratification, nor was anybody able to get pissed off and leave. No road rage.

I wondered, given all of the myriad of today's health, political, economic, emotional and world issues, what that concert might be like in a current setting. Don't get me wrong. I'm NOT advocating going back to the "good ol' days" or romanticizing "hippiedom" although I was one...

I just couldn't get over seeing the lack of FATpeople as well as the lack of HYPER-ACTIVITY... What do you think?

[Devil Doc]

Better living through chemistry.

Doc

[satfrat]

Yup,,, it was definitely the brown acid. 

[bside123]

While I'm sure that the "brown acid" and the "chemistry" had their effects, there has to be much more to it. And, if that's not the case, we'd better "turn on" a good 40% of the country as soon as possible. Could you even imagine about 64 million obese people tripping on acid? Though, I'm not sure that'd help with all of the hyperactivity and anxiety issues we got going! 

Although there was a lot of substance use/abuse, I'll bet it doesn't compare to the current day level of pharmaceutical and over the counter chemical abuses. 

[Devil Doc]

Oh well, if you want to get serious, I can assure you that ADD, ADHD and a myriad of other alphabetical psychological aberrations did in fact exist. They just weren't identified in those days. Think back to your grammar school days. Remember those kids who couldn't behave and sat in the back of the class? The ones who were always in trouble. We just have a name for them now. They were always there.

Doc
 

[jimdgoulding]

T'was a love fest were it not?  People had a lot in common. Then came Altamont and some idiot's idea of having the Hells Angels do security.  I was living in the "City" at the time and thought that was the dumbest idea I had ever heard of.  I skipped it.  Marty Balin got so pissed at the way The Angels were roughing up some dude in the audience that he jumped off the bandstand to rescue the kid and got knocked out.  The 60's were over on that day.  I have enjoyed The Woodstock movie, too.  Bought Jefferson Airplane's CD of their entire set.  Thanks, Laura.       

[Tyson]

I had a whole thread on this a while back.  We are a lot fatter (and sicker) because we eat a hell of a lot more sugar and processed foods (ie, grains).  Cut out the sugar and grains and weight/health start to improve almost immediately. 

[SoCalWJS]

I had a whole thread on this a while back.  We are a lot fatter (and sicker) because we eat a hell of a lot more sugar and processed foods (ie, grains).  Cut out the sugar and grains and weight/health start to improve almost immediately.

Yep - a big part of it. I would be willing to bet the the overall obesity level of the US in the late 60's was much lower than now. Combine that with a much higher sedantary lifestyle today, and guess what the result is   

[Tyson]

One of my favorite graphs:

[Rclark]

So you didn't see anyone in the line playing gameboys or ipods huh?? At best they could have probably played with sticks or rocks, but there was nothing like a walkman back then anyway. And obesity? Well it was the hippie Gen that kicked that one off. Not exactly a bunch of fitness advocates.

[satfrat]

So you didn't see anyone in the line playing gameboys or ipods huh?? At best they could have probably played with sticks or rocks, but there was nothing like a walkman back then anyway. And obesity? Well it was the hippie Gen that kicked that one off. Not exactly a bunch of fitness advocates.

Exercise isn't high on the list of things to do when you're trippin' your brains out.  It's peace, love, dove,,, and rock n' roll! 

Cheers,
Robin

[SlushPuppy]

I didn't know there were so many "healthy" dieting tips for "the munchies" until I did a quick Google search