Grateful Dead

Happy Mother's Day to all of you Mommies!___________________________________________ Will you come with me? Once in awhile you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right!

to all moms!

Talk about a heartwarming experience: the phone rang just now and it was a friend of my partner's daughter. She surprised me by wishing me happy mothers' day! She was calling around to all her favourite moms and I was on her list. I was blown away. I guess common-law stepmothers count too! These 17yr olds today, I tell ya... some of them have their heads screwed on right... already respecting their elders. What happened to rebellious teenagers? I guess my Mom's generation did that one so well that I didn't have to and neither does she. To all the grateful moms - keep shining your special light as you glow in the beauty of the bonds you've created.

My little one saw (well heard) the Dead in June 2009, when she was 4 months in her mama's womb. Would be great for them to do it one more time so she can hear them better. She loves when we put them on, and American Beauty soothes her to sleep.

Or am I the only one. =) If you're going to Furthur Fest it would be great to connect there. My wife and I will be attending with our 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son. Rock on in Him. Dave

I am just starting out on this crazy journey of being a parent. my kids are 2 and 6 months and they love going to shows. Its so nice to hear my son request donna..then when the music starts he says "there's jerry donna coming wait a minute"......Sometimes i sing him to sleep..he picks a subject and i make up a song..one night i sang meerkat sunflower..he stoped me in a most serious tone "no daddy you can't sing that jerry sings that"....my mom always worries because of all the open partying at shows and don't want the kids thinking it is allright..well SOME TIMES it is....plus there is not to many places the kids can see people from many different walks of life gathering pretty much peacefully...

I've said some of this before on other posts on this site so forgive me if I repeat myself. I've been married twice and have 2 "sets" of kids. The older ones are 31 and 29. They both grew up listening to the Dead. My son and I attended our first show together when he was 8! The music of the Dead has been a shared experience for us since then. He still loves the music and he manages to turn me on to some newer bands that I might otherwise overlook. My daughter is by no means a full blown Deadhead but she did attend 2 shows and the music has obviously had an influence on her. A couple years ago she couldn't wait to play Jimmy Buffet's version of Scarlet Begonias for me! She is a bit of a parrot head, so she's sort of on the same wavelength. My 13 year old and 10 year old are both special needs kids. He has autism and she has Down syndrome. Josh and I have been to many Ratdog, Phil and Friends, Dead and Furthur shows. He knows the music very well and can remember set lists from several years ago (which I certainly can't). We saw Furthur on 2/12 at Hampton, VA with his older brother. That's where his brother and I saw our first Grateful Dead show. So it was like a family reunion "where it all began". Rachel hasn't been to any shows yet, but she sings Uncle John's Band, Playing in the Band, Truckin', Mama Tried and many other GD songs. She loves Bob Weir's vocal acrobatics! When you ask her what Bob Weir says she'll scream! The Dead have been a huge part of my relationships with all of my kids and our family is better off for it!

A few years ago my daughter then 12 expressed peer opinions that "the Grateful Dead sucks", and I shuddered to think where she was going. There wasn't a way to play it much then when we were together. Now at 15 she's thinking for herself as they all begin to do, she's gone through alot of stuff, and we're living together, me as a single parent. She saw The Dead twice and Furthur at NYE. She's into a lot of electronica and a mixture of new stuff I don't know, but she's a new generation Deader and feels at home at a show. She loves Shakedown, but even more of a good sign is she likes He's Gone, even without the pronounced beat. See you at Angel's Camp. That kid's going to be alright.

I've been singing GD lullabyes to my son since he was born. Ripple, Brokedown, WBYGN, even Crazy Fingers and China Doll. He knows them well. But nothing compares to hearing HIM sing Fire on the Mountain or Shakedown. I am a very proud daddy.

Ever since my daughter was born, she's been hearing Grateful Dead playing at home or in the car. Now she's almost 4 years old, and requests me to turn up the Grateful Dead when we are in the car.