Michael Winerip on missing Woodstock by a few years

Michael Winerip reflects on being in the younger generation of boomers.

Michael Winerip '74 devotes his latest "Generation B" column in the Sunday New York Times to his experience of missing Woodstock, and the associated cultural upheaval, by a few years. "The Sprit of '69, Circa 1972," published on August 16, points out that it was an utterly different world for those who were just 17 in 1969--the year of Woodstock, Stonewall, the moon walk, the Manson murders--than it was for those just a few years older.

For example, he writes, "[I]t's possible that in the summer of '69 I didn't know what a homosexual was. (If I did, it was from  health class.)" When he graduated from North Quincy [Massachusetts] High in 1970, Winerip notes, "our class officers had short hair and posed for the yearbook in neckties. That year, a group of thug athletes beat up one of the few boys at our school with long hair." By the time he got to Harvard, he met openly gay people and "I also learned that one of those guys in the North Quincy High 1970 class officer photo with a tie and short hair, who had also come to Harvard--yes, he was" gay as well.

In the summer of 1973, Winerip recalls, he prepared for a newspaper internship at the Rochester, New York,  Times-Union by getting a haircut, only to find that he had the shortest hair in the newsroom: "[T]he '60s had reached Rochester long before I did." "Before I returned to Cambridge for my senior year," he concludes, "one of the veteran reporters invited me to his home for dinner. Sitting in his living room, over hors d’oeuvres, he and I and his wife, a bank vice president, shared a joint, had a good laugh about my Rochester haircut, and then we all sat down for a nice dinner."

Related topics

You might also like

A New Narrative of Civil Rights

Political philosopher Brandon Terry’s vision of racial progress

Bringing Korean Stories to Life

Composer Julia Riew writes the musicals she needed to see.

Being Undocumented in America

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s writing aims to challenge assumptions. 

Most popular

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts teaches the value of immersive attention

Teaching students the value of deceleration and immersive attention

Explore More From Current Issue

Nineteenth-century prison ruins with brick guardhouse surrounded by forest.

This Connecticut Mine Was Once a Prison

The underground Old New-Gate Prison quickly became “a school for crime.”

Student walking under bright stage lights shaped like smartphones displaying social media apps.

Two Years of Doxxing at Harvard

What happens when students are publicly named and shamed for their views?

Julie Riew, wearing a white dress, playing guitar and singing into a microphone on stage.

Bringing Korean Stories to Life

Composer Julia Riew writes the musicals she needed to see.