2026, animals, gardening, Gatherings, pets, Uncategorized

Peace, Love, Play

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It has been Buffalo Days here for the past week, and there has been a car rally, a parade, a 5K run, a quilt show, a craft fair, and many food trucks around town. Yesterday was to be Woofstock, a celebration of dogs. You can see the Facebook page below listing all the activities

https://www.facebook.com/share/1AjJi3XFZN/

Our pastor was scheduled to do the blessing of the Dogs. Our terriers needed blessings as well as forgiveness and penance! Husband and I left home with the dogs at 4:30 to head to the city park, but we hadn’t gone more than a block when the sky darkened and the wind really picked up. I turned the car and headed back home just before the thunderstorm hit. We got .50 of rain in about 20 minutes. Woofstock was officially rained out. I imagined all the wet dogs that were at the park and what a chaotic scene it must have been.

All this brought up memories of the original Woodstock, and what an awful thing the grownups around me viewed the goings on at the festival. I was still in elementary school but was fascinated by the scenes I saw on TV.

I was thankful that our rain and wind weren’t destructive We won’t need to water the garden for at least a couple of days. They were expecting 85-100 mph gusts, hail, and tornadoes back at our old home in ND last night. I can’t imagine a garden making it through something like that!

Been rained out? What are your memories of Woodstock? What Woofstock activity would you have wanted to do?

37 thoughts on “Peace, Love, Play”

  1. I remember hearing about Woodstock in early 1969. It sounded intriguing, briefly, but I had a job, an apartment and bills to pay so it was never a serious consideration.

    A couple of months after Woodstock happened, Robin and I met.

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  5. Renee – Did you write this piece on Sunday, so it’s a Saturday thunderstorm you’ve referred to? We got one that swooped in late Saturday; I neglected to close one bedroom window and Husband had opened wide, had practically a small lake on the floor… Short storm, but intense.

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  6. I was hardly aware of Woodstock at the time – was packing up from my “freedom summer” in San Francisco, returning to Ames Iowa for my senior year at ISU. I must have seen some news clips, but it was when the documentary came out in 1970 that I got interested. So many groups/bands whose albums I already owned…

    For Woofstock, I’d be interested in the Pet Adoption info piece, and it would be interesting what a Blessing of the Dogs would entail…
    The Buffalo Days craft fair and quilt shows would also draw me!

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  7. I have no memories of Woodstock at all. My first memories of the antics of “young people” didn’t come until a year later- Kent State and my first sitings of graffiti at Michigan State, where my dad was taking classes. I still think it was crazy, my mom with 3 little kids roaming that campus.

    We have a blessing of the animals at church later this summer. My resident delinquents have never been, but I trust they are blessed even so.

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  8. Rained out many times on the golf course. A few times selling books at outdoor events (but very lucky over the years to mostly have good weather).

    I got caught in the historic 2012 storm in the Arrowhead while I was on a BW canoe trip. Something like 10-12 inches of rain in a day or two. I had to abort my trip halfway through because I was seriously concerned about getting hypothermia . . . in JUNE! All my gear was wet. Starting a fire to warm up/dry out would’ve been impossible. Discretion was the better part of valor.

    That was the storm where parts of Hwy. 61 were washed out and I-35 was flooded near Cloquet. Had to detour around the flood. First time I’ve ever heard of an interstate being flooded.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  9. I was in high school and I knew what Woodstock was, but I didn’t know much about it. Without the Internet and cable is amazing what kinds of things didn’t ruffle my world back then. I’m not sure I would’ve gone if I had been older and closer, but you never know.

    Woofstock sounds fascinating to me. I could’ve gone in the morning and hung out all day long. And any activity which involve me petting dogs — sign me up. Maybe I’ll come next year!

    No significant rainouts that I can think of right now. So far, I’ve been extraordinarily lucky with state fair and weather. Some seriously seriously hot days, but I can only remember one in which there was rain. Not that that stops us.

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  10. Love the Woodstock music.
    Pre-Woodstock May 1969 saw the Zip to Zap in North Dakota.
    Turned into a riot.
    The Come to Climax (Minnesota) Summer of Love event never took off.

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    1. Moorhead State students also considered something the fall of ’69 in Fertile, Minnesota.
      I can’t recall the alliteration innuendo.
      F…in Fertile?

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  11. I like the header photo.

    I was too young for Woodstock, but I appreciate the event and the music. I’m a big fan of the late ’60’s and ’70’s music. ’80’s music sucks.

    Yeah, been rained out in farming. Planting, doing fieldwork, making hay. We’ve had a couple parties that ended up on cold damp days. In a couple weeks Kelly is hosting a ‘Movie Night on the Farm’ for her work people, the residents and fellows. We’ve done it a few times before. The first time we got a storm and had to cancel. The second only had about 10 people attend. The third time had 40 or 50, but it was cold and rainy and we moved it into the machine shed. Projected the movie on the shop door. We’re hoping for better luck this year!

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  12. Woodstock “happened” during my sophomore year at S.I.U. At 26 and married, I wasn’t your typical sophomore, and most of the people I hung out with were at least a couple of years ahead of me in school, even though they were younger than me.

    It was heady time, so much was going on. Just a month prior to Woodstock, Apollo 11 had landed on the moon. A hippie friend had invited wasband and me to a party at his rented farmhouse to watch and celebrate the event. I think it is fair to say that most of the participants were high on a combo of beer and weed by the time Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon.

    With that party fresh in my mind, I never considered going to Woodstock. I was pretty sure I would have been a pretty square peg in a round hole.

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  13. I was 10 or 11 for Woodstock. I remember hearing about it, but my parents were strict and frowned about the whole thing. My “sister” Lori was four years older than me. She wore peasant blouses and had a suede leather fringed bag, and she played guitar. I fell in love with the whole idea of hippies.

    Woofstock sounds like fun. Maggie saw one of her doggy daycare friends walking along the sidewalk that goes along my backyard this morning. I was watering my plants (all the storms and rain are missing us!) so I went to grab her leash and take her out there to see her friend. She dashed out the door between my legs and was out there playing with her friend in a flash. We indulged in an illegal off-leash doggy play party for about 10 minutes. It was great!

    We got rained out at Rock Bend one year. The weather is usually perfect for Rock Bend, but the year we had Texan Eliza Gylkison play it was 50 degrees and steady rain. She was freezing. The show must go on, so we moved the performers back under the pavilion. We had a poor turnout that year because it was so cold and wet.

    OT: I harvested my first bunch of basil! Enough to make pesto. I have to go get some garlic – don’t have any. I also harvested Swiss chard. AND there are three zucchinis on my plant already – almost ready to harvest!

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  15. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    We were rained out of the Jazz on the Prairie Festival last night at 5:45pm when it got too wet so the host band from EP stopped playing. They now have electric piano, guitar and bass, as well as the sound system, so the show could not go on. There is an accompanying Lion’s RibFest. We got our ribs before they shut down.

    I have been rained out of a Cub Scout camping event, family camping events–even hail, any number of outdoor band concerts, etc.

    I dimly remember mentions of Woodstock between my 10th and 11th grades. However, this would have occured right before the Plymouth County Fair where I entered all kinds of projects in the 4H section. I was busy, busy, so very little outside of that got my attention. Plus my friend Ruthie and I had a demonstration on hair care (Frizzy Frantic’s Rendezvoux with Hair Care–a space theme inspired by the lunar landing/walk) that earned us a trip to the Iowa State Fair, which took up my entire attention. I saw pictures of dirty hippies in the mud and there my memory ends. Does Woofstock include a mud pit for the dogs?

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  17. Woodstock happened during my first week of Basic Combat Training in the Army. I was at Fort Ord, CA, and not yet 18 years old. I was totally in the dark about Woodstock, but was becoming very familiar with the gunstock of an M-14.
    The events at Kent State, the following May, happened while I was already in Vietnam.
    I guess that it can be said I missed certain significant events of myth late teens because I was “otherwise” and “otherwhere” occupied.

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  18. Have I been rained out? No doubt I have. I can recall Danish Day celebrations, generally the first Sunday in June, that were pretty soggy affairs. I can recall a folk festivals with on again, off again rain showers. One such festival culminated late in the afternoon with a handful of die hard fans, huddled under ponchos and plastic tarps listening to Townes Van Zandt as he was wrapping up the music for the day.

    But the one rained on, but not rained out, event that stands out in my mind, was a Memorial Day Eddies’ picnic on Harriet Island. It was memorable for several reasons: one was that Hans’ brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Denmark. Another was the amount of rain that fell in a very short time, and the spirit with which the people in attendance chose to handle it. Our Danish visitors thought we were nuts.

    The sky had looked iffy all morning, but the five members of the Eddies, who had prepared food for days for this annual event, and a group of roughly forty dedicated attendees were an optimistic bunch. As we approached the start time for putting the food out, ominous cloud were approaching along the river. We managed to stay dry long enough for a first pass through the buffet, but by the time we were thinking about seconds, all hell broke loose.

    Strong gusts of wind threatened to blow away our spread and garbage pails, but somehow we all sprang into action and managed to secure everything under a huge tarp. That’s when a torrential downpour began. Within minutes we were all drenched, and there was just no point in seeking shelter.

    That’s when the magic happened. Kids and dogs were happily sliding and romping in shallow puddles that had formed on the grass, and the Eddies began to sing. We all joined in, Singing in the Rain, as it were. For about fifteen minutes we huddled and sang in the covered passageway in front of the toilets, and then the deluge stopped as suddenly as it had started. We sang some more, standing with bare feet in water up to our ankles, as the sun reemerged.

    The rain definitely managed to shorten the picnic as there wasn’t enough heat in the sun to dry our soaked clothes, but I’d venture a guess that most of us who were there that day came away with a precious memory.

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      1. Yes, I remember the year a number of baboons attended the Eddies’ picnic. I can still see Robin sitting knitting away. Linda was there too.

        That was the year that the police came toward the end of the picnic to close us down. Not because we were rowdy or causing trouble – and to their credit, the cops were pretty nice about it – but because the Eddies, as per usual, had not secured a permit from the city to hold this event there. We had done it for years, and there had never been any other claims to the place.

        The two subsequent years the picnic was held at Cherokee Park, just to play it safe, then we eased back to Harriet Island without a permit.

        It was a lot of fun while it lasted, and I still miss it.

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  19. Our puppy has decided that whenever he gets the chance after he jumps into bed with me at night he needs to lick all over my face and lips. I get a dog kissing booth every day. Ishda!

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  20. I was eleven when Woodstock took place. Pretty sure I didn’t know about it at the time. When the album came out, it was a pretty big deal. My sister borrowed it from someone. We played it over and over and over.

    I made a tote bag, a simple red teardrop-shaped bag with the Woodstock logo, cut out in felt and glued to the rounded lower part of the bag. The logo looked like this:
    woodstock patch

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  21. Lots of rainy memories. We were on the North Shore in 1999 during the blowdown, in a cabin right on the shore. It was a wild night, and our poor lab, who hated storms, was terrified. In the morning, the creek next to the cabin was churning and overflowing, jammed with trees and branches.

    When I was in my early teens, I went to a movie with my best friend, out in the suburbs. My Dad drove us there and was waiting for us to call to be picked up. Unfortunately, the movie theater was closing and we were kicked out into the deserted parking lot, just as it started to pour. It was a warm summer night, so we decided to throw caution to the wind and danced around the parking lot, doing our best Gene Kelly impressions. By the time Dad arrived, we were drenched and dripping.

    Over the years there have been a multitude of rained out soccer games, camping trips, and outdoor concerts, but those two are the most memorable.

    Like Renee, I was in grade school the year of Woodstock. I remember seeing photographs in one of their magazines (Life? Time?), and thinking the muddy fields looked unpleasant. It was a few years before I became more interested in the music.

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