Grateful Dead

Year after year, we'd make our way to the line after breakfast, wait a couple hours or so for the gates to open, see the beautiful shows, then back to camp or the hotel. After Saturday's show I declared "I'm not goin' in tomorrow. I'm going to laze on the beach or the lagoon and hear the show from there." This was met, of course with disbelief and cries of "You're gonna miss something!!", but I couldn't be swayed. I jettisoned my ticket, bid my pals good-bye as they departed in the gates, then headed off for....uh, whatever happened. My companion was a chunk of the previous day's "jawbone", a spiked slab of watermelon, affectionately dubbed so after the biblical jawbone of an ass that smote the Philistines and laid their dicks low in the dirt. I did indeed hear the entire show from outside, though admittedly not in high fidelity, and I did encounter a rather amusing situation/story to boot. There is a large lagoon behind the stage area with a train trestle running over it. I wandered up to the water and there were about 8 guys and girls, friends and strangers, sitting wading or swimming. Something dark broke the surface behind one of the waders and lunged, sending that person scampering to shore. A few of us watched as this was repeated with another wader. A large sea lion (not just a seal) was very slowly approaching anyone in his lagoon, then lurching with inch-and-a-half long fangs bared, and chasing them out. We conferred and presumed the aggressive animal was sick (slow) but territorial (lunging). He finally chased the last swimmer out, proving that hippies, like Jesus, could run on water. The lagoon now emptied, our attention was now drawn to a couple on the far shore of the lagoon. They'd just finished making love in the sand and had been unaware of the sea lion. SO we start yelling "Hey, look out! Dangerous thingy in the water!!" The clearly inebriated naked young woman was being helped into her jeans by a young man in preparation for their own crossing, and she, not hearing a word, starts shouting back "We were just partying! Take it easy, you guys", by which time he's got her into her top, like dressing a Barbie doll, and picks her up in his arms and wades into the water. So we start yelling even louder "There's a big ol' seal with big teeth RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!", as the sea lion slowly moved in literally a couple feet behind them with fangs bared as the guy is now waist deep. To which she's still jabbering "Hey, It's all right you guys, I've just met him and, well, he's kinda cute and one thing's led to another....". The sea lion's head followed them inch-by-inch, teeth bared, all the way across the lagoon with our shouts being continuously drowned out by the girl's pleas for us to "mellow out and be happy for her". As they both emerged on our side of the lagoon oblivious and unscathed, the sea lion swam off and we all simply shut up and walked away.

Very nice to get back...

More people at these shows but still a lot of fun. Loved the 82 83 84 better.

And it was the show where I "got it." I had been going to shows since Feb '82 in Sandy Eggo, but this is the one that grabbed me and put me firmly "on the bus." It was during Estimated Prophet, I felt this great big thing grab ahold of me and pull me in - and I've been in it ever since. Not only that, but it truly was a great show!

My neighbors Joe and Michelle liked this better than irvine because we could see better. Any photos please.