After visiting day at Tyler Hill Camp with my grandchildren, I spent the weekend with my friend Linda DeSabato at her getaway in the Catskills near the camp and to see the concerts at Bethel Woods. It was a weekend with a perfect combination of love and friendship.
Waiting for me at the Tyler Hill gates was my dear friend Linda, who has a home perched on Lake Wanaksink in Rock Hill. She had dropped me off for visiting day and in between, we were off with our friend Marge McGowan to Bethel Woods for concerts Friday and Saturday nights.
Linda’s family has roots in the area, a bus company, Big V Entertainment and an interest in the Roscoe NY Beer Co., producing craft beers in what is considered Trout Town because of the many streams and lakes that has turned the town into a mecca for fishermen.
The beer is sold on the East Coast and is worth looking for at your local beer distributor. Linda’s sister-in-law created Creekside Cabins along a pristine stream on their hundreds of acres of lush property for a getaway for fishermen and hunters.
I also visited their “Prohibition Distillery.” It’s a cafe and store that sells the gin, vodka and bourbon that they make on their Roscoe premises. At the cafe, I ordered their aged deli meats and assorted cheeses served with a warm baguette to eat with my ginger and vodka drink while listening to the music of a rock band. Make a trip to Roscoe and enjoy these great discoveries. It’s only about an hour and half from the city.
Another landmark in the area is Bethel Woods, which was built on the famous site of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. The festival had been planned for Woodstock but because the town had forbidden them from holding it there, the organizers were desperate and found a farmer, Max Yasgur, who allowed them to use his property in Bethel. And, as they say, the rest is history!
Linda’s family has season tickets and her brother, Phil Vallone, for decades has had a seat on the board of the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts for decades. We were fortunate to sit in a center stage box where we ate dinner in our seats, served by attentive waitresses.
Friday night, I was in awe of the performances of music legends Cyndi Lauper and Rod Stewart. Their spectacular, nostalgic performance brought back many of my all-time favorite songs — Stewart’s “Do You Think I’m Sexy?” and “Forever Young,” and Lauper’s “Time after Time,” “True Colors” and, of course, “Girls Just Want To Have Fun!”
I hadn’t realized that Cyndi Lauper has encouraged the use of her song, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” adapting the last word to be FUN-DAMENTAL RIGHTS! Pictures appeared on the gigantic screens behind Lauper to show women and girls marching for women’s rights, carrying signs from her lyrics.
Stewart, a Grammy winner, has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has sold more than 200 million records in his 50 years of performing, but he has seen pain, too. He suffered from thyroid cancer and had to learn to sing again.
I love his quote, “You go through life wondering what it is all about, but at the end of the day, it’s all about family.” Amen.
