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It was 1972 when Steely Dan released the song Reelin' In the Years, but for many this year signified the coming of the end of a culture that promised peace and love, and remains historic - forty years later.

Significant over the last month are events that took place during the sixties era that molded and shaped this history forever; events that live on as well in today's ever changing culture.

These historic events include the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, an event that attracted music lovers from across the nation at Max Yasgur's farm in the small town of Bethel, N.Y. The 40th anniversary of this three day event was yesterday, Aug. 15, 2009.

Another historic event that occurred during this time frame that remains etched in history were the Manson murders that occurred in California. On Aug. 9, 1969, a man named Charles Manson carried out the murders of actress Sharon Tate, who was pregnant with a child, in their posh California home, and did so without lifting a finger.

Forty years after that carnage, the man responsible for the two day murderous rampage in Southern California remains a household name synonymous with evil, hatred, even the devil. According to Debbie (Armstrong) MacMorran from Athens, Pa., the Manson murders were so contrary to what was happening at the Woodstock festival that took place just one week later.

MacMorran traveled to Woodstock in a Volkswagen beetle with three others on Aug. 15, and remembers talking about the Manson murders. "It was such a contrast to what we were all about," said MacMorran about the murders.

Others from the area, like Nancy Brown, a Sayre resident who was 26 at the time, said that the Manson murders at that time were a shock to the nation. "If it happened now it would just be another crime," said Brown. "Back then it was hard to believe."

Bonnie VanBoven, a Sayre resident who was living in North Carolina at the time of the Manson murders, described the Manson murders as "earth shattering".  VanBoven, who was raising children of her own at that time, remembered that parents wouldn't let their children leave their homes to go anywhere. "They thought they were going to come from California and start killing people," said VanBoven.

Bob Bassett, who was in New York at the time of the Manson killings, remembered them as well. Bassett recalled the emotion felt at the time when he heard of the killings. "These people were bizarrely out of the norm," said Bassett who lives in Anchorage, Alaska and has a home in Owego, N.Y. as well.

"Everything in the sixties had a political agenda," he added, "this didn't."

But the Manson murders also tied into the pop culture of the sixties. Most associate Manson with "Helter Skelter", the term he took from a Beatles song with that name and construed as an apocalyptic race war that the murders were intended to precipitate.

This connection with rock music linked him, from the beginning of his notoriety, with pop culture in which he became an emblem of insanity, violence and the macabre. Ultimately this name was used as the title of the book that prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi wrote about the Manson murders years later.

Pat Ayres, owner of Broad Street Records in Waverly, N.Y., remembered this period of time, and described it as a time when things got a little crazy. "We only had AM Radio, didn't have cable and didn't have internet," said Ayres, "so we didn't hear too much about it." "But we knew it happened and it was a tragedy."

One thing Ayres did know a lot about was the Beatles White Album that carried the song Helter Skelter, and how it is a record that is still selling consistently today.

As a retailer of vinyl records, CD's and Tapes, Ayres noted that the Beatles records are still selling strong today. He did note that although it was too bad that the White Album by the Beatles had the Helter Skelter song attached to the Manson murders, it was still a top seller, and remains his favorite to this day.

Ayres talked about the Abbey Road record as well. On Aug. 11 of this year, thousands swarmed London's Abbey Road to mark the 40th anniversary of the date that the famous Abbey Road album cover shot was taken as the Beatles walked the street's pedestrian crossing.

The Beatle's Abbey Road album has remained a top seller, and is carried in original packaging at the Broad Street Record shop in Waverly. According to Ayres, the Abbey Road record is also the last record the Beatles made together.

"The album holds up well," said Ayres. "Every song was a classic."

Ayres, who was born and raised in Waverly, N.Y., carries this sealed album among the other vinyl records that sit in boxes and racks in his neatly organized store. And the Abbey Road record is one that he sells quite regularly to this date.

"Out of all the vinyl I have, I sell that the most," he added.

Ayres also talked about a re-master of all the Beatles songs that is coming up on CD in September of 2009. He explained that some will have video portion of how the songs were created.

"They will have every Beatles song made in mono in one box, and every song made in stereo in another," Ayres further explained.

With his Broad Street Record shop, Ayres is sitting on top of a vault filled with music history, including the pop culture that exploded in the sixties.

"We were more interested in the music at that time and not the politics of it," said Ayres about the evolution and music history that was taking place at that time. He mentioned other records that came out in 1969 that included "Tommy" by The Who, and Led Zeppelin I and II.

He added that Woodstock, in itself, was all about the music.

Across the road from his Broad Street Record shop is the Broad Street Exchange owned by Art VanRiper. VanRiper, who is now 55, remembers the sixties era, but wasn't able to go to Woodstock - although he wanted to.

But VanRiper made a valuable connection years later when he purchased an estate and ran across three Woodstock ticket stubs. The stubs, which he donated one to be sold for a fundraiser and laminated the others to preserve them, were for all three days and were purchased by the original owner for $25 each.

VanRiper has had the stubs for twenty years, and keeps them as memorabilia. It just so happened that as the date of the 40th anniversary of Woodstock neared, VanRiper was able to revisit them. "I didn't get to go, but these are pretty neat to have," said VanRiper. "If I could have gone, I definitely would have."

The ironic twist to the resurrection and recollection of the ticket stubs last week was that VanRiper's friend, who was visiting his store that day, realized for the first time that she was born during Woodstock. Tess Foss, who was born on Aug. 15, 1969, never saw the connection until that day. "I never realized it was my birthday until I saw the ticket stubs in Art's store," said Foss.

Nancy Brown of Sayre, on the other hand, wasn't able to go to Woodstock because she had just given birth. Her friend Bonnie VanBoven of Sayre didn't go because she was raising kids.

Richard Parsons, who is originally from the valley and now living in Connecticut, didn't go to Woodstock but recalled being in an emergency room next to a girl that had been at the 3-day event. The girl, according to Parsons, was being treated for a wound caused by a stick that went through her foot.  "Everyone was barefoot at Woodstock," Parsons said by telephone on Wednesday.

But Debbie (Armstrong) MacMorran, an Athens resident who was 19 at the time of Woodstock, went to Woodstock in a Volkswagen beetle that was packed with three others, and recalls the impact that the event had on music at that time and the culture that surrounded it.

MacMorran doesn't know exactly how many attended Woodstock, she just remembers Joni Mitchell's song that sang about half a million strong. "I have no idea how many were there," said MacMorran. "It was surreal."

MacMorran talked about the traffic, like so many others, and how they had to park and then walk over a mile to get to the muddy field. It had rained every day, she noted, and the field was nothing but a big mud pit. But nobody even cared, she said.

There were hippie vans at the event from as far as California, MacMorran recalled, and there were so many people that you couldn't even begin to guess the numbers.

By the third day her clothes were stolen and the port-a-johns were overfilled. But still, nobody seemed to care. "I was into the sixties culture," said MacMorran.  "I just went with it - it just felt right."

MacMorran was one of many who could actually say she was there, and Jimi Hendrix, MacMorran recalled, was the headliner for the event. "It was overwhelming."

Bob Bassett, who was also into the culture, saw the massive amounts of traffic heading to Bethel, N.Y. for Woodstock, but kept going to his destination in New York to see a performance by Simon & Garfunkel. "It was all converging at that time," said Bassett. "I knew something big was about to happen, but I was locked into Simon & Garfunkel."

Bassett also reminisced about the music at that time and the significance of the Beatles to the pop culture.  "From a cultural perspective they drove the main stream music for that era," said Bassett of the Beatles and their final release of the Abbey Road record. "People were caught up in it," he added.

Others who weren't old enough to participate in the culture of the sixties tried to catch a glimpse of it in 1994 when the 25th anniversary of Woodstock took place at at a larger field in Saugerties, N.Y. Jerry Wilson of Sayre camped in a field during the second staging of Woodstock. "I got stuck in a ditch and had to get towed," said Wilson. "It had all the elements of the first one," he added.

But did it? The pop culture and music explosion that dominated the sixties was soon replaced with fast moving technology and its integration into the ways that music is performed and recorded. But according to Pat Ayres from Broad Street Records in Waverly, some music never goes away.

"Young people are coming back to a lot of the music created during that era," said Ayres. "New music seems to come and go, but these classics - they stay."

Photos:

Pat Ayres, owner of Broad Street Records in Waverly, N.Y. is pictured with his original Abbey Road album that was released in the fall of 1969.

Art VanRiper, owner of Broad Street Exchange in Waverly, N.Y. holds up three ticket stubs from the Woodstock Festival held on Aug. 15, 16 and 17 of 1969. Pictured with him is his friend Tess Foss who was ironically born on Aug. 15, 1969. VanRiper saw this as a coincidence.