Age of Aquarius - Page 12 - 'Duke' Devlin and the 'Last Burst of Innocence'

'Duke' Devlin and the 'Last Burst of Innocence'
By Ted Waddell
"Sullivan County Democrat", Friday, August 14, 1998

Duke Devlin and Bethel constable Ray Neuenhoff share a laugh and a practical joke at the concert site in Bethel recently

Patrick "Duke" Devlin's got Woodstock on his mind - and on his left arm, which is tattooed with colorful "Woodstock" designs. And on his truck's license plate, which reads "Yasgur," in tribute to the man who gave up his hayfields to make the Woodstock Music and Art Fair a reality 29 years ago on August 15-17, 1969.
And what a long, fascinating road it's been for the "hippie" turned entrepreneur. Always one to speak his mind and perhaps march to a different drummer (does Hendrix's rendition on "The Star Spangled Banner" on a Monday morning almost three decades past still linger in his mind?), Devlin wears his hair long and proudly sports a beard along with his Woodstock and Harley Davidson tats.

    Lost in the '60s? Perhaps. But, as the proprietor of Duke's Farm Market in Jeffersonville (which he and his wife Pat established in 1987), he's a man of the '90s.
    In 1969, Duke Devlin was one of the estimated half million souls who traveled to White Lake for the Aquarian Exposition.
    He's one of the few who stayed.
    In August '69, he was living in a commune near Amarillo, Texas, when a friend told him, "They're having a dynamite festival up in New York. Let's go."
    And so they did, arriving the day before the festival began.
    "It was a wonderful thing," he recalled. "Hendrix, the Grateful Dead. Jopin and Credence Clearwater Revival - it was just fantastic.
    "Traffic was building up, and there were hitchhikers all over the place," he added. "Nobody seemed to know where the festival was, and everyone was asking, 'going to the festival, man?` "
    According to Devlin, "It was such a weekend. We were drinking some wine and smoking some flowers. There was too much happening for anyone to absorb it all. You had the music, the rain, the crowds all around you. The Hog farm, medical tent, helicopters in and out, the cops and the information booth. People were all over and the air was filled with the scent of marijuana.
    "No matter what you went to Woodstock for - to listen to the music, the sex, drugs or nudity - you couldn't help but get caught up in the peace thing.