My writing group has monthly writing prompts. Here's my part true and part fiction writing for An Unusual Character
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| Duke Devlin |
Prologue
After
visiting the Bethel Woods Center for the Performing Arts, Bethel being the home
of Woodstock, my husband asked, jokingly, “I wonder if anyone stayed and never
left?”
That
question called for a Google search. This is partly fictional and the information about his participation at Bethel Woods in true.
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I
Ain’t Stayin’ Long
In
1969, Duke Devlin, 26, was living on an Amarillo, Texas, commune. The heat was
thick and dry. Some chairs and benches were strewn about in the cool spots
under the low hanging branches of a honey mesquite tree. He was sitting in a creaky
old rocker dressed in dirty overalls, a sweat-soaked t- shirt, and a tattered
cowboy hat pulled low in front. His friend Ezra came along, scooched a bench
over, sat, and stretched his legs out.
“So, Duke, I’m chasing good
leads for some jobs on the pipeline in Alaska. That’s gonna be quite a trip
from here upta there. I’d want company to travel and there’d be work for you, too. You interested?”
“Yeah. I reckon I am. Got no plans
now. Cooler than here, I ‘spose.”
“Well, I won’t hear back until
the end of next week, maybe a bit more. I’ll meet you here when I get word and I
hope we’ll be heading north.”
Duke was still sitting in the
rocker later that day when another friend, Ritchie, drifted into the shade.
“Hey, Duke. I’m headed to
Pennsylvania to visit my girlfriend. I need a travelling companion. Can you
come along with me? I got some dollars to get vittles and such.”
“Since I ain’t got no work seems
everybody wants to drag me along where they’re going. I’ll go but I ain’t
stayin’ long. Gotta be back here soon.”
They
set out, hitching rides. A VW van painted with colored flowers, hearts, and
peace signs, pulled up. The scent of pot
floated out as a girl rolled down the window and offered a ride. They were
headed to a music festival in New York, “3 Days of Peace & Music.” Duke and Ritchie rode along, lazing in the
back on Mexican blankets and looking up at swirling, whirling colors and shapes
on the ceiling. They got out on Route 40 in Nashville and hitched on to
Pennsylvania.
Ritchie discovered that long distance romance
was near impossible. His girl had moved without telling him. He was down and
needed a pick-me-up.
“Let’s
head up to that music festival. They said there would be some good music. Maybe
catch a buzz or two. It should be fun.”
“Well,
okay,” said Duke, “but I ain’t stayin’ long. I gotta get back home. Might be
some good work waitin’ for me.”
They hitched up toward Woodstock but learned
along the way that the festival was moved to a dairy farm in Bethel. Another
car headed that way picked them up. As they got closer, traffic was at a
standstill, gridlocked. They decided to walk in.
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| Woodstock Festival (Photo: Culturetrip.com) |
Once they got there the crowd was huge. Organizers expected 50,000 but 450,000 showed up. They got separated and Duke only had a few dollars in his pocket. Lured by the aroma of grilling burgers and hot dogs, he slogged through the muddy field until he found the food truck. As the concert started he was offered work at the food truck. All you could eat and $2 an hour. He was in. When he had a break, there was always an open invitation to crash in someone’s tent or under a tarp. He enjoyed the music and the atmosphere. Despite mud and overcrowding, the nearly half million people were peaceful.
When the concert was over, Duke stayed around
to help clean up the grounds, salvaging some of tents, tarps, and other items
left there. Yet, he still didn’t leave. He set up a small camp near the edge of
the field and enjoyed a bit of celebrity in Bethel after everyone left.
Strolling into a local bar they’d say “Hey, hippie, you still here? Set him up
a beer.”
He took odd jobs around town then a job at the dairy farm. He wanted to make enough money to head back south, but the beauty of the area and the friendly people held him. He met a girl and got married. He became the man who never left Woodstock.
In 1989, 20 years after the festival, a French reporter caught up to Duke for an interview with the hippie who never left. The interview was widely published and lots of people started coming to the Bethel site. Shortly after, a charitable organization purchased the site and put on a small show. Duke was asked to get involved, telling stories and walking people around.
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| Bethel Woods Center for the Performing Arts (Photo courtesy CDTrips.com) |
The show was a success, and this led to the creation
of the Bethel Woods Center for the Performing Arts. A special monument was
placed at the edge of the Woodstock field. Duke was hired to be the Center’s
Site Interpreter and for years he would give golf cart tours to performers
scheduled for the Center. At other times he could be found sitting at the
monument, reminiscing, and sharing little known facts about the bands, the
people, and the event.
He may have said “I ain’t stayin’ long” but he
didn’t retire until 2016 when he headed back to Texas.
* * * * *
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