Woodstock, That's Where People Started to Think

Generation X and Y may think Woodstock was just about the sex, drugs and rock and roll, but to our parents' generation, it was far more. For them, Woodstock was a chance to let their freak flags fly , their hair grow long, and perhaps most important of all, define themselves as a generation that didn't want anything to do with the values of their uptight, middle-class elders.

Photo: Woodstock, That's Where People Started to Think

Today, this self-described Woodstock nation has morphed into the very beings they rebelled against during that August weekend in 1969: Straight-shooting, buttoned-down, stressed-out parents , ABC News reports.

"If that's your job, to pay attention to these kinds of trends of movements, this was now a movement you could not help but notice," Light says.

Before Woodstock, most journalists and advertisers had written off the counterculture as something that was mainly confined to the San Francisco Bay Area, Light says.

"I think there was a still a sense that those were those kids. It didn't seem like they were our kids. At Woodstock, that's where people started to think, this is what all those kids are doing, and what they're going to be doing," says Light , NPR reports.

"We didn't know what was going to happen," says Martin Perry, a business consultant from Massapequa, New York, who went to Woodstock more for the experience than the music. "Who could have expected all of that ahead of time?" , eTaiwan News reports.