1969’s Woodstock Music Festival is legendary in history for its showcase of amazing musicians and everything that made the 60s the decade of peace and love. While Woodstock might be important to the public at large as a historical event, for those who attended the music festival, it is full of amazing memories and deeply personal moments. One such moment was shared by Judy and Jerry Griffin, who were both 22-years-old in 1969.
Married for decades now, Judy and Jerry met by chance at the music festival. Speaking with People, Judy told of how disaster struck when she and her friends were driving to Woodstock only to have their car break down. Hating the idea of missing the festival, Judy and her friends accepted a ride from a good Samaritan in a 1967 VW Beetle that was also driving to Woodstock. Judy told reporters that she was initially reluctant to accept the invitation, but she felt safer when she saw that there was another woman in the car.
Jerry, who was one of the passengers in the Beetle, said that he was immediately smitten by the cute girl that he and his friends had just picked up. Getting to know each other on the way to the festival, by the time the gang had set up camp near Woodstock, Judy and Jerry were completely in love. The story of their chance meeting and love at first sight inspired everyone they told over the years, but one thing that always troubled the fun-loving couple was that they didn’t have a photo of themselves together at the music festival.
For the past five decades, Judy and Jerry had looked through albums of other people who had attended the festival but were never able to find a picture of their first meeting. All that changed this summer when the two attended a screening of the PBS documentary Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation. Watching the documentary, Judy and Jerry were shocked to see a video of themselves huddled together under a blanket during a light rain. Judy recalled shouting “There we are!” as the image came onto the screen. The two had known each other for about 48 hours when the video was taken. After all the years of searching, Judy and Jerry are beyond thrilled to finally have a photograph of their younger selves when they first fell in love.
