Grateful Dead

Funny story,not so much then,but now,pretty darn funny.At the time I was 16 I lived in Seal Beach with my mom,(who by the way turned me on to the dead,she is the coolest,I miss her,shes hanging out with Jerry, Sheila Ann Snyder Jan.1953-March 2001)We were super excited about the shows,being that they were so close to home(like 6 miles).It was like two weeks before the shows,and a good friend of my moms comes over with this guy,he seemed super cool & he just happend to be the assistant to the manager of ,yep The Grateful Dead and he was in town to promote the upcoming shows,and there had been some kind of "mix-up"with his hotel reservations leaving him sans a place to sleep.Naturally my mom being the kind hearted, trusting(gullible)hippie chick that she was,offered up our couch,he accepted and in exchange for the hospitality he was going to sell us and all are friends all access passes for all three shows for the"pal"price of 20 bucks.I rounded up all my friends,even the ones that werent really in to The Dead,and my mom and her friends did the same, he must have sold at least 75 maybe 100 of these passes.Ok, two days pre show,and dude man is gone,he leaves a thank you note saying have fun im sure i'll see you there,(yada,yada,yada,Bull sh...!)Ok its the day of the show,me and my friends are so ready so we head off to long Beach with are little green laminated hand drawn"all access passes"and no clue.We get there and find this AWSOME parking lot It was all fenced in there were no in and outs,so it was basically car camping in down town long beach,(it was 45bucks for all three nights!)It was like some kind of super happy magical hippie village hidden in the shadow of the city.The smell of BO and pachollie oil was intoxicating.People started heading to the arena,but sence we had all access passes for all three shows we stayed in the enchanted parking lot and consumed mass quantitys,untill everyone was in.We deside its time to go in, so we head twards the entrance,I was feeling super fine,and was ready to dance,we get to the door,pull out our passes only to be told that not only were our passes fake they were not very good fakes,we tried pleading it didnt work so we headed back to the parking lot.There were still a bunch of folks just hanging out we found a bunch of people that had a little camp fire going, a guy playin guitar,all in all the vibe was good so we sat down, we were singing and talking,having fun.Then from out of darkness came this super cute sparkley,impish ,hippie chick she walked right up to me and kissed me,and not like a friendly peck,it was a full blown,warm,wet,open mouth kiss,and it lasted a long time,then as quick as she appeared,she was gone.The only person more suprized than me had to have been my boyfriend at the time.Looking back even though I wasnt able to get in and see them play,it was still one of the funnest shows ever! Shine on you crazy diamond, farahkitty

Our San Gabriel Valley had been the epicenter of a very recent earthquake that had snapped chimneys off a couple thousand homes, so it seemed like providence when the SG ticket lines opened a half hour early for great seats to this run.I had emigration proceedings in the works and this could be my last shows, so providence stepped in again when pal Steve broke/sprained his foot and insists I take his loose front row tickets (he'll go to heaven for that, you know!). So I spent most of this run plunked in front of the massive stack of 15inchers (not the ol' D-140F's, but new 1000watt liquid core, etc). I was hoopin' and hollerin' for Earthquake Country, and holding a finger in my ear to stop the funny rattle (which was apparently my mastoid bone in my cranium). The only annoyance was the front row center folks all had back stage passes and were incessantly coming in and out (remember that old joke?; just sell 20,000 backstage passes and have the band face the back of the stage!) The 3rd night, Maria, my cute old girlfriend (from during the Dead's 75-76 break period) spots me and popped down to share the show. Talk about tidying up my loose emotional/karmic ends!

keep your character, enjoy living, share your fortune,OXOX Merple Reddin

This was my first-ever Dead Show. I was 16, and it blew my mind. I will never forget it.

I feel fuckin' lucky to say my first concert was a Dead Show!! I won tickets off the radio (KLOS 95.5) and ended up going with my dad. (I was 14) During the show he grabbed me by the arm, said "just keep dancing and don't lose me" and got me up to around the tenth row for a little bit until security came through and cleared the aisles...The Grateful Dead was the strongest bond I had with my dad. Not much else. We went to more shows together, I never said no to him if he was buying my ticket. Lol...now he is with Jerry. And hopefully a much happier man. 🙂