Defining Moments

The tag line for the movie "American Graffiti" asks "Where were you in the Summer of '62?"

This weekend, the question to those of us of a particular age was, "Where were you in the Summer of '69? At Woodstock? All that peace, love, and sharing. According to the newspapers and magazines, it must have been great. The defining moment for your generation!"

Actually, I was participating in the other, somewhat less-celebrated defining moment for those of my generation lacking a sympathetic draft board that summer - military service. As a Letter to the Editor in Friday's paper pointed out, "Lost in the fine print of celebrating the 40th anniversary of Woodstock are the 109 Americans who died in the Viet Nam War from Aug 15 to 18, 1969. RIP."

If Crosby, Stills and Nash were correct and the Woodstock Nation was "half a million strong", the number of young Americans enjoying their music that day roughly matched the number of young Americans in Viet Nam at the time. Imagine if Woodstock Nation had to remain there for a year's tour of duty and if they suffered casualties at 25 per day or 10,000 per year like our boys in the Nam. If Woodstock Nation continued on, that would truly be a generational defining moment.