Uncle Mort

“Every grown up I’d talked to was  angry at me for being against the war. I wanted to get with my own kind of people for a little while before going back to college and enjoy some great music.” – UNCLE MORT

Scarlet Disko: How old were you during Woodstock?

Uncle Mort (Jan Senten): I was 19. I had just finished my first year of college at Amherst Collge of Massachusetts which is a small elite school.

S: What where you doing at the time?

M: I spent the 60’s growing up abroad, my father was an overseas manager for an allied chemical corporation. In 1961 we were relocated from suburban Connecticut to Mexico City. The Beatles had recently arrived to NYC and I was now on the outside of the American culture that I longed for as a 10 year old boy. I latched on to music at a pretty early age as a need for my emotions and connection with the states. In 1968, I graduated and started collge right after the Chicago riots. I was angry and confused at the time, like many, as the American promise was being shattered by war and the assumptions I had were being tossed sideways since I’d been out of the states.

S: Where your parents/family aware of you going to Woodstock? If so, did they allow it?

M: The following spring, my parents had relocated to New Jersey from Mexico City. I ended up spending the summer with my grandparents in Rhode Island while they were getting situated. I went to the Newport Jazz & Blues Festival and I saw Johnny Winter, BB King, and Led Zeppelin. That was one of my first tastes of live rock & roll. When I heard about the Woodstock festival I figured I could go since I’d be back in New Jersey by that time and could afford to pay for two days. My parents didn’t have any particular objections at the time.