Woodstock, 1969. Ricky Peters and Trudy Morgul atop the bus "Light" painted by Bob Hieronimus. Associated Press.
I'm trying to find someone who remembers what may have happened to the original VW bus I painted called "Light" and later nicknamed the "Woodstock Bus" after it became famous. I know it sounds hard to believe, but I do not remember to whom I sold it or possibly gave it away to circa November 1972. At the time it was a rusting relic that was not recognized as a historic icon yet. After my musician friend Bob Grimm, the original owner of this bus, drove it back from the Woodstock festival, he later left it with me when he went to England to pursue his musical career. The Woodstock Bus then became a community van, used by all the members of the Savitria community and AUM Esoteric Study Center running around town. In the end, it was literally falling apart. Many engines were installed, transmissions repaired, the floor rusted out and it was dangerous to drive. About this time period, mostly what I remember is trying to keep the AUM Esoteric Study Center afloat. Also, this was just one of several VW busses I painted in this era, and as I read through my journals, it's hard to know which VW bus I'm talking about sometimes.
If you know anyone who was connected with the Savitria community or the early days of AUM, would you ask them to contact me please if they have any memories of this bus? Ultimately we want to discover to whom I ultimately sold it or gave it away to and where it ended up. We are talking to a couple of film crews who are creating 50th anniversary documentaries about Woodstock, and they want to try to find the original Woodstock Bus or even just a piece of it – a fender or a hubcap would do! You can email me directly at bob@21stcenturyradio.com if you have ideas. Thanks.
For those of you not yet familiar with the Woodstock Bus "Light," here is an excerpt from the passage describing it in the David and Cee Eccles book, Traveling with the VW Bus and Camper, published by Abbeville Press. "Not only was the 'Light' Bus by Bob Hieronimus one of the first VW buses to be painted in the 'psychedelic sixties' style, its Woodstock heritage adds to its importance and influence on the future. It is not just another 'hippie bus,' but a work of art in its own right, which captures the mood and aspirations of a generation searching for its own identity and place in the universal scheme of things. The bus may have passed into legend, but its legacy as inspiration for new generations of VW bus owners lives on."
Dr. Bob Hieronimus
Baltimore, MD
bob@21stcenturyradio.com
