Story 9: Hippies, Woodstock, and a Cautious Driver

 
        Since the 1950’s families have enjoyed summers in the Catskill mountains of New York. People often stayed at bungalow colonies similar to the ones portrayed in the film Dirty Dancing, as a way to escape the heat.  It certainly is better than sleeping on fire escapes, rooftops, or even cemeteries which my parents and their friends sometime did before the age of air conditioners.

In the late 1970‘s the whole family: My parents, four kids, luggage, kosher food, and the family dog were packed into our Rambler station wagon for a 3 hour trip back to our home base on Long Island.  While driving past Saugerties, New York (The home of the Woodstock Festival) my father spotted three hippies, two women and a man, hitchhiking.

“Morty, why don’t you pick them up?” My mother suggested.  We later learned that one or perhaps all of them needed some urgent medical attention. We should have known something was amiss. Even the dog growled.

My father agreed to pick them up because he was the kind of guy to help others, and the fact that they were two women and only one man made them less of a threat he reasoned. It was also a less dangerous time back then. However, after a half hour of driving, my father changed his mind when he smelled a strange sweet aroma coming from the back of the car.

“Natalie, do you smell something?” He asked. 

It was then that he realized that marijuana smoke was coming from the back of the station wagon, a la Cheech and Chong.

“Are you actually smoking in here in front of our kids?” my father questioned.

“Dude, chill out this is our medication” they answered with a laugh.

“Well, I don’t find it funny at all, and the pharmacy is now closed.” My father replied. After saying his peace he pulled the car over abruptly and told them to get out.

Life Lesson Nine: I never learned if my parents ever smoked themselves, but I know some of my siblings have in the past, and I have often wondered if I would have handled the hippie incident in the same way. A few things I do know.  I never pick up hitchhikers or smoke weed, and while I generally live by the golden rule, I know that if people are disrespectful, some rules like bad habits such as smoking, are meant to be broken.