In 38 years at the Daily Times, this was one of my favorite stories.
I wanted to track down people who were at Woodstock to tie into the 50th anniversary of "four days of peace, love and music."
Not only did Peg DeGrassa do that, she managed to come up with something I never expected.
Peg made contact with Janet Saunders. Not only was the Springfield woman at Woodstock, she still had the cut-off blue jeans shorts she wore that weekend in August 1969 to prove it.
And those shorts appeared on our front page. It's the kind of thing you can never expect, but which makes a story literally jump off the page.
Also featured in that story was Chip Roberts of Media, who just happens to be married to longtime WMGK DJ Debbie Calton.
Peg's story on Woodstock memories was honored with a Keystone Award from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.
They'll get no argument from me.
From a guy who always lamented the fact that he was born a few years too late to get to Woodstock, I loved that story.
A few summers ago, while my son was doing a summer as a counselor at Ramapo in upstate New York, my wife, myself and her brother made a side trip to Bethel to visit the site of the festival.
You walk down a long path and suddenly it opens up on a hill looking down into the bowl where the concerts was held.
It was one of those moments where the hair stands up on the back of your neck. The amazing thing is how small it seemed in person. I have no idea how they jammed all those people into that space.
At any rate, kudos to Peg, who not only delivered exactly what I wanted in that story, she reminded me of a very, very special memory.
You can read the story here.
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