Grateful Dead

What is it?!? I may go crazy if I don't find out this week

As someone pointed out, I had not planned on attending 6-10-73, just a palm-to-forehead moment after we heard how big the second night was. And who could know ahead of time when the big performances would happen? Not even the band knew. But it makes a brief anecdote in the annals of the-one-that-got-away...

Another such tale: after my first show, 9-19-72, in the Thunderdome-esque Roosevelt Stadium in lovely Jersey City, NJ, the band moved on to the intimate Stanley Theater there for Sept 26-28 '72; you know 9-27-72 was released as Dick's 11th pick. I knew it was relatively small (,4,300 seats) and my older brother's friends had cars. (I didn't know that the theater, built in 1928, had hosted my all-time heroes, the Three Stooges, as well as Janis Joplin.) But I was already in trouble for skipping school on 9-19-72 at the very beginning of high school, I had just turned 15, and it was just too much to ask of my parents and society generally for me to be allowed to accompany them. So I knew enough not to try. Result: three legendary shows, without moi.

So it goes! I did catch multiple major shows, as high as a Mayan priest (sans sacrificial virgins, dang it) so if I'd caught any more I'd be waaaay too crispy at this stage. Actually, after 47 years of consistent psychedelic use, I'm feelin' pretty good. I mean, sure, this odd white garment that ties my arms behind my back is a little tight, but between the injections, the attendants are generally pretty nice, except that one nurse named Rachett........

So I hitched alone, age 15 -- man, you look at a 15-yr-old these days and they do not look like the worldly person I thought I was at the time (1973) -- throughout New England and backpacked solo for a week through the Adirondack Mtns, famous for the density of black bears. Every night in the woods when darkness fell, I was scared shitless! Eventually I'd fall asleep, exhausted by fear. Would wake up in the middle of the night and see glowing eyes everywhere. I've gotten pretty comfy though doing this over the past 45 yrs... but back then, I guess I had a propensity for doing things that scared me. But I digress. Right here at the beginning...

So I'm hitchhiking from St. Johnsbury in northern Vermont back home to northern New Jersey. A pickup stops for me. It's a backwoods family: eldest son is driving, ma in the middle, pa at shotgun. In the camper in the back, I joined the youngest son, who unfortunately was developmentally disabled. This is the Clampetts to the nth degree. I get in. They're going as far as Bridgeport, Conn., probably 275 miles. The driver proceeds to drive, seriously, about 95+ mph. I could look through the little window and see the speedometer. Plus, the damn vehicle is shaking like it's on Star Trek and Scotty's yelling "She's breaking up, Captain!!" A five-hour drive looks like it's going to take about 45 minutes or so.... Then they stop at a liquor store: a quart of Jack for those in the cab, a case of Bud and chips for me and the kid. We resume at 95+ mph. I decided, probably unwisely, to stay with them. I convinced myself the driver could keep it on the road and, as a veteran hitchhiker, it looked like a quick ride, if we didn't all die.

They pull over at a rest stop and four of us walk to the trees to relieve ourselves. I think, where's "ma"? I look back, and she's got one foot on the truck's running board and one foot on the arm rest of the open passenger door, skirt hiked, taking care of business from about 3-4 feet off the ground. You can't un-see that!! Short story long, we got to Bridgeport in maybe 3 hrs and I thanked them and continued on my way...

Summer '78, after the first GD Rocks shows, a buddy gets a drive-away service vehicle (they used to transport cars interstate by getting someone to drive them one-way) and it's a brand-new power-blue Fleetwood Cadillac. No passengers allowed. So he invites me to catch a ride, Denver to Flagstaff to see another friend, while he would drive on to LA and deliver the vehicle. We stock up on ice, Foster's Lager, quaaludes, mescaline and few other goodies. No toothbrush, no spare clothes, just ... materials. By now I'm a fully ripe 20 yrs old. (A real adult, right?) Anyway, by the time we stop in at the Colo-NM border station (commercial vehicle, you know) the uniformed folks inside had swirling blobs for faces and I couldn't stop laughing. (Y'all know when, the next day, your smile muscles hurt like hell! That's going electric for ya.) When we got to Flag, my buddy the driver takes us and a couple young women four-wheeling in Sedona Canyon, across the creek and all -- in the Fleetwood. He splits. I spend a week pumping my buddy's older brother's girlfriend with ludes and foolin' around. Then my driver friend shows up, with a ride back to Denver. We get in. My friend immediately begins talking in an exaggerated street dialect, signaling me that our new "friend," the driver, is a) probably not too bright and, b) probably dangerous. That's when I looked down and saw the butt end of a sawed-off shotgun tucked under the driver's seat. After we had a few beers -- absolutely crucial on such a long hot drive -- the guy reveals that he and his dad just busted out of prison in Nevada and had split up, stealing cars to cross the country. Naturally, at this news, I pounded a couple more beers and joined in the lament about ... whatever he was lamenting at that moment. When we got to Denver, he insisted on driving us to our house. So we had him drop us off at a nearby friend's house, so he wouldn't know where we lived. And we (and they) thankfully never saw the gentleman again.

Great form of transportation, if you're ready for a little "adventure."

Well I am on record as still being pissed off 30 years later. Not sure about HF. All I know is the common source of angst for both of us was formal education. I'll tell you what though. I learned a hell of a lot more about life following that god damn band all around than I ever did in school.

Actually the biggest regret about Hampton was in 88 and not staying in touch with Amy from SUNY Stonybrook. If you are still as cool as you were and look anything remotely like you did, I'll divorce my wife.

Not really.

Well, maybe.

More about hitching later.

I couldn't find it, but I'm sure some here know it. A Lampoon(?) skit about a dead head who was asleep for 10 years.

My mom would tell me about Jersey City in 1956 (year I was born). Everyday she would walk down the "boulevard", usually with her mother or sisters. We lived in a 6 family house. My mother's brother lived across the hall, her parents lived two floors above us. I remember being little, moved from the city in 60, but I remember walking down the boulevard, the long walk took us to JJ Newberrys (5 & 10 cent store), big toy section. Anyway, Mom would tell about how in her day, women left their sleeping babies in their carriages while they ran into the store and there be a dozen carriages out there! "Nobody would ever think about someone taking their kid!"

Also when I was 7 to 8, during the summer mom would push us out the door, lock it and say don't come back till dinner I got work to do. We would go miles from the house, places where "parents" couldn't find you. Play on the railroad tracks, swim in the marine creek under the bridge, play at the brick works at night when they were close. So yeah, hitching to the mall 15 miles away, a large group of kids,,,, you know to me that seemed about right!

Angry Jack: cheese and rice dude, what a bummer! Missing 3/27/88 was bad enough, but 10/89......words can not convey.....3/27 was definitely in my top tier of shows, don’t think the download recording does it justice. And I won’t even mention how great the experience was in 89......reminds me of a local joke.....How does a snowboarder introduce himself.....”sorry dude!”
Not sure which story is worse, AJS or Hendrixfreak. HF never intended to go to 6/10, where as AJS intended to go?
I almost think missing 89 Hampton was worse just because of the historic nature. 73 they played DS still fairly often, of course that one had the Allman/Merl jams etc.....yeesh, either way sucks!

89 BOX: I’m up for any of it, but feel the same as others about the likelihood of a summer release this close on the heels of the last one. Now fall 89 might be more appropriate. Personally I’d prefer that, especially the Philly shows. COME ON DAVE PHILLY 89! 😉 Alpine would be cool, but I already have that.....not familiar with the giants shows?

HITCHIN’: first thing I think of is the poor bastard they pick up in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas! We actually did that to some poor bumpkin out in the country......not anywhere near like the book/movie, but it was us three “booze brothers” in a giant Ford Galaxy around 1980. We used to go work for and go hang with our buds in this awesome dead band (had all the same gear from that period etc)...it was about forty miles of 2 lane country road with like no cops back then...so the booze mobile was modified with dual overhead openers, holes drilled in the back floor and trunk, and a giant plug in cooler. The holes in the trunk were for long road trips or tailgating etc. You could fill the whole trunk up with beer and ice and it would just melt out the holes! The back floor would get filled with cans etc so after a trip you could just hose it and the trunk down and clean er right up!
Anyway, we pick this guy up with the radio playing jazz and the boom box playing something else, with us being especially weird, mostly show, just to try and freak this guy out. Well it worked, didn’t take more than 10-15 minutes and this guy wanted out.LOL
Personally didn’t do to much thumbing, but did hitch to my first JGB show at Brookport university in November 81.
Unfortunately not so romantic actually doing it as compared to the dumb notions I had in my teenage head! Same route out to the same friends as above, but rides were few and far between, and the weather was horrible. Ended up walking probably half of it just cause I was desperate to meet up and not miss my ride to the show...long day but I made it and the show was awesome. So chill. It was in a tiny gym with no real stage, maybe only a foot or two off of the floor....so we sat on the floor right in front of Jerry. Could literally reach up a touch his mic stand, not that we would. The second set though some uptight dumbasses made us stand up cause they thought we were hoggin too much real estate. We tried to explain that with us on the floor they could see better, but they started being douches and sorta kicking us and saying “your too mellow, you need to dance etc”....so all six or seven of us stood up, many over six feet and shuggred and said, there, happy now....because of course now they couldn’t see!

EDIT; another good hitching image....sissy raw shanks in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues! Hee-hee which of course makes mr think of Deloras and the peyote wagon 😁

Cheapest I have found so far for the upcoming vinyl. Thought I would share for all the vinyl people out there.

https://www.google.com/shopping/product/7073759308451941209?q=grateful+…

I hitched up and down the West Coast quite extensively from 1969 to about 1978...lot'sa fun, lot'sa strange happenings...once in So Cal going out to Malibu from Hollyweird I got a ride from a rather creepy looking fellow who after a few blocks asked me if I had any "abstract manifestations"...hmmmm...I'll get out right here and thanks for the ride...but those days are long gone as they should be...also rides seemed to dry up around the time of the Manson Trial...

Some quite helpful people, to be sure...but a few decidedly off key ones too. The fastest ride I got was on the back of a Hells Angel wannabees bike-the slowest with a vicar. Who was actually quite a nice chap, as I remember. The worst was with a guy who propositioned me. I got out unscathed, but it was back to public transport for me after that one.