My Never Ending List

Have you ever heard stories about your parent’s pasts and just shook your head and thought “no way, they could never behave in such a manner?” Ever wondered as you where growing up where they came up with such ridiculous rules and strict ideas?  Rich was fortunate enough to experience just exactly what his stern father was like as a 15-year old teen as he time travels from 2014 to 1969 as his father is headed off to Woodstock.  Just thinking about the time that Rich spends with David (his father), his Uncle Michael and Willow (Michael’s girlfriend) puts a smile on my face as the trio relives this monumental event.  Rich, 15, being a guitar buff knows a lot about this event but his lack of the social scene with its drugs, slang, and carefree lifestyle will take some getting used to.   Rich’s reaction to his father partaking in the drug scene and his father’s change in personality made this section of the book hilarious.  As they celebrate a birthday and get out the birthday brownies, I remembered that this was Woodstock and the year was 1969. These are not your typical brownies, oh no.   But what’s Rich to do? Join in with his father or just take in everything that’s happening around him and watch?   The author writes with such warmth and style about their time at the concert, it’s as if I am with Rich as he goes back in time to this great event.  The unstructured planning of such a huge event yet the profound togetherness of all the individuals who came; it’s something that just amazes me. Blame it on the drugs, blame it on the people who attended, it doesn’t really matter where you point the finger – it’s the thought that all these people who came together to celebrate without many issues.  Rich had another thought in the back of his mind when he met up with his father.   Rich knows that after the concert is over and everyone goes back to their own lives, something occurs in his father’s family that changes everything.  It’s this incident that Rich feels he has the opportunity to change.  It’s a trip back through time and with every trip, I laughed my way through part of the journey and I got emotional as the story became powerful as the characters stories got dynamic.