August 15, 2009
For many Americans of a certain age, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair is a hazy memory.
Not for Bobbi and Nick Ercoline -- the "hugging couple" whose photo ended up on the cover of the Woodstock soundtrack album.
Forty years ago, they were girlfriend and boyfriend. She lived in Pine Bush, N.Y., and worked at a bank.
He lived in Middletown, N.Y., and worked two jobs while going to college.
When they heard about the huge musical festival, "We just had to go," Bobbi Ercoline told the Albany Times Union.
They stayed only one night, and never saw the stage.
"Woodstock was a sign of the times," Bobbi told the paper.
"So many things were churning around in our world at that time: civil rights, the Vietnam War, women's rights. It was our generation," she said.
They married two years after Woodstock and have children ages 28 and 30. They live in Pine Bush.
Bobbi Ercoline is a school nurse who started a food pantry. Her husband is a house inspector.
"I think the further we get from the original event the more meaningful it becomes, the more we realize how phenomenal it was: all those people coming together with no violence, just peace, love and sharing," Bobbi Ercoline said. "Forty years later, it's just remarkable that it could have occurred."
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Woodstock 40th anniversary – iconic couple is still together
August 15, 9:15 AM / Atlanta Northside Family & Parenting Examiner / Jackie Kass
The country faced tremendous turmoil forty years ago today, but Woodstock brought together 500,000 young people on August 15-18, 1969, including one couple that was photographed among the masses. Today, Bobby and Nick Ercoline, the two hippies hugging each other under a soggy, dirty blanket in a sea of people, are still together, and the proud parents of two grown children, aged 28 and 30. The couple, now aged 60, live in the same town as they did then, Pine Bush.
Woodstock took place at a private dairy farm in a largely rural township of Bethel, near New York, and the music concert defined an era of protest and fragmentation. According to those in attendance, it was a phenominal event that marked the turbulent times. “There was no violence, just peace, love and sharing,” Bobbi told local media on the eve of Woodstock’s 40th anniversary.
The picture of Bobbi and Nick, clicked by Newsweek photographer Burk Uzzle, captured what it was like to be there — the slush and rain, the fatigue and the feeling of revolution, amid a haze of drugs. The picture made it to the cover of the `Woodstock' album, thus immortalizing the couple for generations to come.
Bobbi now works as a school nurse and Nick inspects houses of the poor earmarked for renovation by the government. They have been married for 38 years, and have raised two children. They are a testament to dedication, fidelity and endearing love.
Nick recently explained to the media about why their picture was chosen for the cover of the Woodstock album. “It’s peaceful, which was what the event was all about. It’s an honest representation of a generation. When we look at that photo, I don’t see Bobbi and me. I see our generation.”
In today’s world of excessively high divorce rates, isn’t it refreshing to see a couple that decided to stick together through thick and thin, better or worse?
Source: Daily News
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