Fortunate Sons

Rain is a Good Thing: Woodstock, Day 3

Taylor and the others slept well into the morning on the third day and awoke to hear Jefferson Airplane performing "Volunteers", the song carrying across the field and into the open air. With heavy heads and aching limbs, they all crawled out of the vans and into the bright morning sunlight that hung over all of New York State.

"Oh my God," Dix groaned as he stretched. "How many hours of sleep did we get?"

"No more than four," Taylor yawned.

"At least it's better than none at all," Mitch said.

Taylor couldn't have agreed more. Lack of sleep was much better than none at all.....at least if experience had taught him anything.

"I think I'm going to let the baby sleep most of the day," Taylor sighed. "She'll turn into a monster if Sue or I wake her up."

"If you want to go back and sleep more, go ahead nobody's complaining," Dix said.

"Nah I'm already awake," Taylor told him.

Everyone was too tired to go anywhere else and stuck close to the vans. On and off for the next few hours they snoozed, but soon it became apparent that sticking close to one spot had grown old pretty quickly.

"We gotta do something man," Kurt said. "Last day of the festival is today and I don't wanna waste it."

Taylor agreed that they needed to make the most of the day. But what to do? He kept asking himself but no answers had come to him. At least until Leo came traipsing back covered head to toe in dark, slippery mud.

"Hey man you gotta try this," He said excitedly, his eyes bugging halfway out of his head. "There's a big mudslide up on the hill over there."

Taylor and Kurt eagerly followed Leo to the spot where a group of people had turned part of the hill into a slippery slope of brown muck that had boiled up from the rain the night before. Joyous shouts and yells filled the air around them, people chucked wads and handfuls of mud at each other, splattering it all over their clothes and faces. They were like kids again, playing out in a giant mud puddle and getting as dirty as humanly possible.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Kurt said with a wry grin.

"Why the hell not!" Taylor said eagerly.

The two of them headed to the top of the hill and joined in, not caring how filthy they got or what articles of clothing were ruined. Taylor skidded down the hill on his back, laughing and hollering until he came to a halt in a giant pool of mud at the bottom. His jacket, jeans and his face were covered in large patches of mud as was a good portion of his hair. Taylor shook the spatterings from the tendrils of his hair and got right back to his feet again, racing to the top of the hill to rejoin the others.

"I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!" He shouted to the sun.

One by one the group of filthy, dirty hippies slid down the hill, laughing, hooting and hollering without a care in the world. Taylor was surprised to see everyone else joining in, given how tired they had been from the night before. Sue jumped onto a flattened cardboard box and surfed down the hill before she toppled over into the mud while Leo held onto Tri and rode right down into the huge mudhole below.

Nothing else seemed to matter to them anymore. All thoughts of the past had gone and with it their troubles. All that had mattered to them was this moment. This wonderfully, filthy, dirty moment that would belong to them forever and ever.