In the late 1990s, my wife and I were in the Catskills for leaf-peeping season and our wedding anniversary.
We spent an afternoon in Woodstock doing some window shopping that evolved into real shopping as often happens. I saw a small copy of the Woodstock poster in a hippie tshatshke shop towards the western end of Tinker Street, the main drag, and ask the store owner if she had a bigger one. She went into the back and produced one that was rolled up and about 2 x 3 ft. She said it was her mom’s but she had passed away. I asked her if it was her mom’s, she might want to keep it? I could tell that she was a little down on her luck. But she said she never used it and I ended up paying $40 and leaving with it.
As I work in the graphic arts myself and I was able to immediately ascertain that the paper the poster was printed on was of a certain vintage, I took it to an appraiser at a large poster shop in Chelsea in NYC where I buy my collectible movie posters and asked if it was an original and if so, what it was worth. He said indeed it was and as it was in minty-mint condition, it was worth about $300 to $350.
We went back to the Catskills on Halloween to go to the Headless Horseman amusement in the town of Ulster. We went to stop at the hippie tshatshke shop in Woodstock on the way - well, OK, to those of you who may know, it was not on the way, it was almost an hour detour - and there she was and we gave her the $300.
The stunned look on her face was to die for. I think I have never received such a crushing, suffocating hug before or since.
A couple years later, the store had closed.
We spent an afternoon in Woodstock doing some window shopping that evolved into real shopping as often happens. I saw a small copy of the Woodstock poster in a hippie tshatshke shop towards the western end of Tinker Street, the main drag, and ask the store owner if she had a bigger one. She went into the back and produced one that was rolled up and about 2 x 3 ft. She said it was her mom’s but she had passed away. I asked her if it was her mom’s, she might want to keep it? I could tell that she was a little down on her luck. But she said she never used it and I ended up paying $40 and leaving with it.
As I work in the graphic arts myself and I was able to immediately ascertain that the paper the poster was printed on was of a certain vintage, I took it to an appraiser at a large poster shop in Chelsea in NYC where I buy my collectible movie posters and asked if it was an original and if so, what it was worth. He said indeed it was and as it was in minty-mint condition, it was worth about $300 to $350.
We went back to the Catskills on Halloween to go to the Headless Horseman amusement in the town of Ulster. We went to stop at the hippie tshatshke shop in Woodstock on the way - well, OK, to those of you who may know, it was not on the way, it was almost an hour detour - and there she was and we gave her the $300.
The stunned look on her face was to die for. I think I have never received such a crushing, suffocating hug before or since.
A couple years later, the store had closed.