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  • hockey_john
    Joined:
    1988 or 1987
    Just a little bit of my life on the road with the Dead. The year was either 87 or 88 cant remember which. Was handed a piece of paper at a shoreline show, read something like need help were here for you. Noticed it said something about balloons and being sober. I was as mass hole as they come. Having been to almost every show fro summer of 82 till this point in 87 or 88 I took the flyer crumpled it and threw at the persons feet. Little did I know a year or so later my life would change like so many others. I was rescued from the Haight in October of 89 walking down the street. Much to my surprise a family member from the east coast had flown to find me and take me to treatment. I have not stayed sober all that time yet I have NEVER lost my love for being sober. I put together 5 years then 7 and now 7.5 again. Life has its ways of throwing us curves we just need to learn to duck at the proper moment. In these last 7.5 years alot has changed I lost the love of my life in an auto accident and NEVER found it necessary to pick up a drink or a drug. That's the power of our maker and the program of AA Not one to like NA FIND TO MANY people there getting high. I happen to like AA the old fashion way sit down SHUT UP and listen. thanks to you people and my higher power life goes on. I miss my little one every day yet I love my life far to much to give in to the old habits. jhon my little one was dyslexic and always wrote my name that way. I know she is in heaven and I will join here and so many others someday
  • watts5565
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    new to this!
    wow~~~ i just joined the website today so i went to warf rats section to read posts because i liked the songs. after reading some posts i discovered warf rats were sober group of dh"s! as cool as this may be today is my 4th year clean date anniversary !! i would love to consider myself a warf rat dead head! i am so pumped about this! so cool how everything works in the clean life! love to all my fellow warf rats watts5565
  • watts5565
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    new to this!
    wow~~~ i just joined the website today so i went to warf rats section to read posts because i liked the songs. after reading some posts i discovered warf rats were sober group of dh"s! as cool as this may be today is my 4th year clean date anniversary !! i would love to consider myself a warf rat dead head! i am so pumped about this! so cool how everything works in the clean life! love to all my fellow warf rats watts5565
  • Sugareemoonflower
    Joined:
    All Good 2012
    Any wharf rats going to all good, lemme know
  • jimmieji
    Joined:
    Me and My Sponsor
    (with apologies to John Phillips) Me and my Sponsor, went drivin’ down, Southern California, San Diego bound, We stopped over in West L.A. That being’ the point way past half-way, You know Happy Hour’s a trigger time of the day. Went to a Meeting 12 Steps up on the wall We sat down, smiles ‘round to all Eight hours of driving, my neck and shoulders hurt, Needing a neck rub, I began to flirt Someone said, “She’s a newcomer, leave her alone, you jerk!” West L.A. dope fiends, they’s all around, With facelifts and money, they’re loaded down. The 7th Tradition in this town must be insane! Bein’ two strangers, we had to give our names. I said, “He’s Alkie Bill and I’m Dope Fiend James.” My Sponsor sat there grinning, I stared at the floor, But I spied me a movie star, and then two more. “Is that Johnny Depp?” Oh no! It couldn’t be! I know Johnnie, he ain’t nothin’ like me! I’m as crazy as a Frisco Fiend can be! One of those “dope fiends,” he starts to draw, Sketches of the movie stars, they never saw Leaned into my Sponsor, said, “This Meeting’s been sold!” He gave me a nudge and towards the door we strolled. Sure 'nuff paparazzi was lurking out there in the cold I love the 12 Steps, more precious than gold I love my Sponsor, his stories never get old Fooled them paparazzi Fooled ‘em good, ya know! Told ‘em they’d better hurry, Or they’d miss Russell Crowe Comin’ outta a SAA Meeting down the road! In the meantime check THIS out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp3lJg07u4w Yes! That's a VERY young Joni Mitchell
  • Steve B
    Joined:
    Wharf Rats stuff
    @ Freebird914...Try the link below. It's to the latest Wharf Rats newsletter and its got contact info for Warren, the treasurer/merchandise guru. http://www.wharfrat.org/?page_id=6 Also, if you go see any Furthur, Phil & Friends, Dark Star Orchestra, etc. show, the Wharf Rats will have a table under a yellow banner with all sorts of goodies. One show at a time.
  • freebird914
    Joined:
    Thanks for the reply look
    Thanks for the reply look forward to meeting some people down the road "As we Trudge the road to happy Destiny"
  • marye
    Joined:
    no
    but it varies as to how many people from a particular group are hanging out at any particular moment. In any case we're glad you're here, and in my experience this tends to liven up when people start wanting to meet at shows.
  • freebird914
    Joined:
    Wow is the forum dead?
    Wow is the forum dead?
  • freebird914
    Joined:
    Glad to find out
    I'm not the only one never knew we had a name ... Glad to know been Clean and Sober for awhile Thanks to Uncle Sams Canoe Club years ago... Anyone every make a wharf rat pin or patch just wondering...
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17 years 5 months
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Welcome, Wharf-Rats.
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16 years 8 months
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I'll be sittin' in the " No Alcohol " section at Wrigley Field 5/5.Cubs vs Giants.........Game time 1:20 pm Tickets still available :o) It would be so cool to have a whole WharfRat section at Wrigley. See you there. November and more as I wait for the score. They're tellin' me forgivness is the key to every door.
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15 years 10 months
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I will be at the DCU 4/18...this will be my first show w/ out being "chemically" inconveienced...will there be a wharfrat meeting there? And how ill I know they are there and where ? Also I haven't recieved my tix yet...has anyone out there recieved there's? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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15 years 8 months
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thank you... i am so grateful to be here.. when ratdog.org went down, i wondered where i would find some kind fellowship... WHARF RAT: 8 years; 9 months; 5 days... glad to be here...
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17 years 1 month
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Are you the other Charlie I met in PA? If so, Welcome friend! If not, Welcome friend anyway!Peace, Love and Recovery,lefty
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17 years 5 months
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tj crowley traditionally the 'table' is identified w/ 'yellow ballons' usually there's a banner (wharf-rats)attached to the wall inside milieu(s) will have table on main floor directly behind drums/stage above all..if even staying w/ the wharf-rat folk is un-comfortable, the same two feet that brought you dancin in can bring you to the exit sign(s)
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16 years 5 months
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Hello friends, Haven't visited the forum for a couple of months now, but very happy to announce that I recently celebrated my 1 year birthday - hoping to get to a show or two out west in May. If I can make it, I will certainly be on the lookout for fellow wharfrats - would sure love to meet some of you! Kym
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15 years 10 months
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Hey people, DC and Charlottesville are just a couple of weeks away! I'll be doing my 1st shows sober. My last shows were in NC 89 right before getting sober. I'll be on the lookout for the table and yellow balloons-can't wait to see you there!
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16 years 9 months
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Hey y'all. I'm going to Greensboro and the 5/5 Chicago shows. It's just me, one ticket. I'm super-excited but also a little wary because of the cunning, baffling nature of this disease. Any folks here I could meet up with before/after these shows? (Can't wait to look for the yellow balloons!) I want to really have a good, carefree time, and not feel weird if there are triggers, y'know? I've been clean for a few years now but haven't been to hardly any shows. I went to tons of meetings the first few years, got a strong foundation I guess. But for the past five or so – the familiar story – I've gotten "busy" with life: having a kid, work etc. I'm grateful to have remained clean during this time. Actually, since getting my ticket for Greensboro, I've been to more meetings than in the the last five years. But still not in the middle of the boat as I was when first clean. I was so excited when I found archive.org a few years ago. I got back into the Dead without getting tangled in the scene. But it's just been me and the music. My wife – who I met in recovery – unfortunately doesn't get the "dead". Thank god for this forum. Once again, I realize I'm not alone; there are people out there just like me! Peace. ---- I was blind all the time I was learning to see.
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17 years 5 months
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tj crowley not sure if i'll be at any show(s) due to price of tckt's BUT march 28th will be my anni
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17 years 5 months
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RODGER ALLINSON alas yet being clean and sober now for the past six years i can really apreciate and respect what being a wharf rat is all about when i was on tour all those years i could'nt even begin to imagine the concept but now i,m glad that as i go to shows this spring ill have a network to plug into
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15 years 9 months
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Hey Jimmie C and all wharf,sI'll be at Wrigley 4/18, with 11 years clean and sober. I'll let you know how cold it was. -PEACE-
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15 years 8 months
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I've got 8 yrs and L.A., May 9th is my first Dead show, is any one else going??
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17 years 4 months
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Celebrating the resurrection of The Dead on Easter Sunday in Greensboro. Yellow balloons/tables on the premises?
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17 years 4 months
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I'll be there, Lord willin'.
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15 years 10 months
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Well the final weekend before the tour has come and gone, and no west coast freebie, warmup, sendoff, nothin, zilch (I was hopin). Guess the days of the unanounced free show in Golden Gate Park are over. Oh well, see all of you west coast rats @ Shoreline. Hope I don't go into DTs between now and then (deadlirium tremuns) "I'll get up and fly away"
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15 years 10 months
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I have looked for WR groups around chicagoland to no avail.Nobody seems to feel like typing.
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15 years 7 months
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Hi, I am looking for a kind soul in NYC to sell me 3 tix for the 042509 MSG DEAD show for $200 total. I realize this is CRAZY-BELOW the price on the tix. To compensate for this I am offering you a FREE 3 NIGHT stay in San Francisco. I have a lovely studio apt located 3 blocks from the Powell Cable Car turnaround and would love to share my space w/ you for free. SHORELINE May 10th, SHORELINE May 14th, and you've got a free place, heck, I'll let ya stay at my place from the 9th till the 15th!! (Shoreline stay ONLY offered for Wharfrats, and I pay only $150 for the 3 tix) If this works for us, I have a relative in Manhattan that will pick up the tix and pay you, Of course, I am sure we will speak prior. search words to pull up my post quicker: SF NYC MSG Mountain View CA 05/10/09 05/14/09 051009 051409 0510 0514 042409 0424 04/24/09 04/24 $200 $150
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16 years 1 month
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Sorry I havent posted in a while.....life on lifes terms. IM SO EXCITED-its been hard to work, think, eat, sleep, I know you guys understand! April 12 will only be my second show sober but I CANT WAIT!!! I am gonna be doing the family thing most of the time but will be hanging with the Rats too!!!! Did I mention IM SO EXCITED?????!!!!! c u guys sooooooooooon!
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Member for

16 years 9 months
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Anyone know of good meetings in Greensboro or Winston-Salem Saturday night or Sunday morning? I'd love to get a meeting in before the show.
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16 years 11 months
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Greensboro, NC I'll be there. 15 yrs clean. See you guys under the yellow balloon. It will be my first WharfRats experience.
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15 years 7 months
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I am just discovering this Wharf Rats thing. Feels like comin home all over again. I have been to lots and lots of shows but hopefully(if I can find a ticket to buy!) May 9 in L.A. will be my first sober show. I have 7 yrs of good trudgin here in L.A. but I'm really excited to see the dead when I'm sober I am REALLY EXCITED!!!!!! LIFE IS GOOD!! May the four winds blow you safely home
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15 years 10 months
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just 2 nights and a wakeup Wife and I are taking our 18 & 20 yr olds to their first show... they grew up listening to The Dead and they are as stoked as their ole man. It was my 20 yr old son that noticed it would be the 38th anniversary of my first show... pretty special and will be my first with my children (double special) See everyone at the Meeting between sets ... Been clean n sober 26 years and gonna shake these ole bones one more time... :-)
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16 years 11 months
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What time will the wharfrats gather at the Greensboro show? Any good Narcotics Anonymous meetings in the area?
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17 years 5 months
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I found out about them 2 years ago at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN. This past 17 March 2009 I celebrated 23 years clean and sober. I thank God I survived the 15 years before that. Let your life procede by its own design.
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15 years 10 months
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Hey All,Can't wait until you come up to NJ/NYC. My name is Jason and have been a wharfrat since 2002. Looking forward to seeing you up here! Have fun tonight :) Can find me on aol Notfadeaway18, give me a text when you get to NJ. Jason
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15 years 7 months
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Hey All, Tammy from Philly, PA here, 78 days sober, my 1st sober show will be in Philly Sat May 2nd and i'm nervous, looking for wharfrats to help me stay sober and dance the night away. Please contact me so i don't have to sell my ticket out of fear, i had to give up all of my ppl, places and things. JazzKittenPoet@yahoo.com
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17 years 5 months
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tj crowley meetings usuaaly are during the break but the table is attended to throughout the show
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15 years 10 months
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Looked high and looked low ... No Wharfrat table at the Greensboro show Couldn't find table nor meeting between sets ... Glad I wasn't Jones'n
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15 years 7 months
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I hope to see the yellow balloons at the show tomorrow in Albany. There's nothing like a Dead concert sober!
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15 years 7 months
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Wow, we ended by loudly singing a line from "Black Peter" starting with "See how everything leads up to this day" and people were stopping and staring and taking pics. Big Daddy Don said Jerry sang that at the WR first show. Thanks to the guys at the table for being there when I took a break from the freaky Space stuff the Dead are doing now. I'm SO GRATEFUL for my WR fam and wouldn't have made it these three shows without you!
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15 years 10 months
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Yea, I couldn't find the rats at the greensboro show either. But I had a great time. Thats 6 clean shows for me and looking forward to many more. The boys sound great I hope they start touring more often. This summer or next fall would be killer.
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15 years 10 months
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Made my shows in DC & UVA clean and sober. Thanks for the yellow ballons at both shows. It was a comfort to know you were there, if I needed you. My brother rode shot gun for me. Miracles in sobriety never cease.
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15 years 6 months
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Hello family,Going to the Mountain View show, 6 of us Clean, not Dead Heads. Hope to get to meet some of you there. Anybody going? Janice
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15 years 7 months
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MSG SHOW... WOW!!!! I went with my 69year old Dad, My Brother in Law and a friend. We had section 401, but MIRACLED floor seats, both sets! Cosmic Charlie, U J Band, He's Gone, Gimme Shelter all SUPER DUPER!! Mid Set break Wharf Rat mtng, very nice, extra special. The meeting was so packed, "normies" in the hallway couldn't get by! Hahaha. I shared, said I was Wharfrat from SF. Very warm, good vibes. Sobriety countdown, beautifull. Confetti was thrown and my thick hair soaked it up. I think some of it remains. St. Stephen w/ confetti, in and out of my hair, like spaggetti... I will be at Shoreline both shows, Call me up, my name is Lew. (415) HOLY-GUY Wharf Rat AA mtngs on Thursdays at 8:15, Noe Valley SFCA, hope to see y'all there...
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15 years 7 months
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FYIOn this site's video page, the video of Greensboro featured Big Daddy Don on the floor dancin with his crazy hat! When I met him in G'boro I didn't know who he was, but I found out at the other shows. He was a valuable asset to me at the shows and generous to my driver, gifting her some "Cats Down Under the Stars" jewelry.
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15 years 6 months
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Hi Everyone, Sounds like the shows are amazing and everyone is havin' fun doin' it sober. I live in Carlsbad, CA and was wondering if anyone from San Diego is heading up to the show on May 9th. I'm newly sober and would love to go to the show. I need to go with some wharf rats otherwise I won't be going. I'm leavin' it up to my higher power. I'm puttin' it out there and seein' what comes back. Cuz I no that the life I was livin' was no good but I'm gettin' a new start to live the I should. please email me at phreeang@yahoo.com if you have any info, would like to chat or are goin' to the show and you have room for one more sober head. Lots of Love, Ang
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15 years 9 months
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I see no one has posted to this in a few years so I am reaching out in hopes that someone will respond...any wharf rat action at the 2009 shows?
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15 years 9 months
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Ok, now the site is acting funny..as soon as I posted my question the 2009 comments came up LOL. Hugzzz
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16 years 5 months
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Coming out from Arizona for my first SOBER show on 5/14 and hoping to put some faces to the names I read here. Where should I look for the table and balloons - somewhere inside the venue would be my guess. Will be visiting with friends in the area, but will be on my own at the show and hoping for support! Love y'all - see ya soon!
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15 years 10 months
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Gettin close to showtime folks...would love to get together with other clean and sober rats before show and share experience strength and hope. I went to the NYE Phil/Ratdog shows and my sobriety was in jeopordy for a while. Need to make sure I'm plugged in for this. I plan on getting there very early (lawn seats). Shoot me an email here or rhollis80@yahoo.com ♪♪♪ "I'll get up and fly away" ♪♪♪
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15 years 10 months
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Thanks for the table in Hartford! My 5 years and my buddies 1 year sure did appreciate you being there.
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15 years 7 months
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Meadowlands was great!! Looking for a safe place to meet on lot in Philly?? I'm doing a few shows with Louie, and am always happy to give out a one show sticker and a hug. His Falafal/ Jerry Roll booth is impossible to miss on shakedown. Also looking for an extra ticket both nights.. Haps/ Flaps/ 7 Laps
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15 years 10 months
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Original Wharf Rat from the East coast now living in Wyoming. 24 years clean and looking for Wharf Rats to hang out with at the Denver Show. HP provided a clean rider by "coincidence" when I posted on a local board. Email me at lonesomejohnnie@hotmail.com or call me at 307-248-3117 (cell). Some folks trust in reason, others trust in might, I don't trust in nothing, but I know it'll turn out right.
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15 years 6 months
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Haven't seen any version of The Dead since I sobered up in 2000 and am heading to Shoreline on Sunday... can't wait to feel the music again. Will be with a solid buddy but am hoping to find a meeting at set break... any suggestions from those in the know?Enjoy the shows, take care of each other and be well. Thanks for any help you can hoffer. "once in awhile you get shown the light"
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15 years 7 months
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Just wondering if there will be a booth at the Forum for us? Didn't see one in Philly.....
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16 years 1 month
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wow! what an amazing trip-ya a little strange too I guess!!! Hit up tables in Greensboro, D.C. and Charlottesville-which was AMAZING might I add-Black Peter is so powerful-great shows-great sobriety-I even got some great bumper stickers for my car! Now people can come up to me and ask who August West is-or what a Wharf Rat is for that matter-lol!!! I love all of you my brothers n sisters-thankx for being part of my family!!!peace, love, n sobriety-hcm
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15 years 10 months
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I count 19 shows and no Wharf Rat. Maybe Shoreline?...
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15 years 10 months
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Phil and Friends: 50 times, Ratdog: 45 times, Other Ones: 12 times, The Dead: 1 time ♪♪♪ "I'll get up and fly away" ♪♪♪