I was a Dead Head once....

It was the summer of 91 and I had tickets to a Grateful Dead show. I was seventeen years old and so into hippie shit that I tye dyed my sheets and my entire room to match. I was WAY into it and wished I was born in the era when I could have been touring with the Grateful Dead in the 60's. But they were still going strong in the early nineties too. There were never a shortage of people who wanted to live that lifestyle. So I went to the concert and the before show was way more intense than the actual show. There were aisles and aisles of hippies selling jewelry and shirts and pot brownies and tickets. Anything you could want. And there were 5000 VW's of various types to be found. I fit right in. I had my own beaded jewelry I wanted to sell, but I kept getting hassled by cops to move and stop trying to sell shit. Which I thought was weird given how many people were walking around selling pot brownies.

There were also the people who didn't have tickets and wanted them and were holding signs saying, "I want a miracle!" and they wanted tickets. But I wasn't giving up my tickets. I think they cost me $17 back in the day. What a change from today! But I was in love with the scene. I just kept walking around and marveling at everything. There were young people like me there, and also old people who you knew had never gotten over their obsession from the 1960's. I saw naked women walking around like it was nothing, and naked men just hanging out on blankets. Everyone was insane. And the cops really stayed out of most of it. Just circling the crowds and telling me to stop selling, while everyone else did the same exact thing I was trying to do! But fuck the police. It was a love in. And they had no place there. I felt like I'd been transported back in time. I was finally able to live my dream. Being a part of a Dead concert. They didn't have bucket lists back then, but if I had one, this one would have been on it. I am SO thrilled I got to see them before Jerry Garcia passed a few years later.

The actual concert is rather a blur, but I remember being shot with water cannons filled with LSD and everything got fuzzy after that. People were everywhere and it was so peaceful and I remember dancing to Sugar Magnolia and just being in my own little world. I wanted to remember it all, but it's sadly not in my head anymore. I was buzzed out of my mind on drugs and I don't recall a lot of it. Except the feeling. I was fucking in heaven. All my life I wanted to experience the 60's and this was my shot. It didn't disappoint. I just wish I remembered more. But I still have the t-shirt I bought and I still have the tote bag I got from some vendor out in the parking lot. When people ask me about it I tell them I got it at a Dead concert and no one believes me. I guess I don't look old enough. But I am! I was there! I experienced it. And I'll never forget it. At least the parts I can remember....