sometime around twenty years ago, all of a sudden, it hit me - I like this guy, I mean, I REALLY like this guy. I was standing in back of this tall blond young man at, of all places, a fish hatchery and we were watching the fish being fed. I felt the impulse to put my arms around him from behind...but I didn't... Eventually though, through some planning and scheming I managed to get introduced to this guy and through some more planning and scheming actually ended up seeing him on a regular basis.
...so anyways, without mom&dad knowing it, I'm seeing this guy for awhile. One night one of his buddies comes over and says "Hey, do you want to go with us to see the Grateful Dead next week?" Well, ok, sure, why not. Back in those days, if there was ANY kind of concert (almost) coming to Hartford or thereabouts, I was there. It was the thing to do. I didn't know too much about the Dead but I was familiar with a few songs - you know, _Truckin'_ and _Casey Jones_. I'm not exactly excited about seeing them but it should be fun to go up to Springfield with Guntis and his friends and...but, wait, there's mom&dad. I really can't take off for a concert in another state on a school night with some people they've never met, can I? Well, then, it looks like it's about time to take the plunge and make it kinda o-fficial and introduce this guy to mom&dad...
March 28 rolls around and Guntis drives up in his sporty little Vega ;-). There's mom&dad&bro sitting around the den watching TV. I'm upstairs "getting ready". The doorbell rings. I hear footsteps and the door opening. I hear voices. I come downstairs... there's mom&dad&bro sitting around the den watching Guntis. A little polite conversation and then "well, we gotta go now", and we're outta there!
So we drive up to Springfield and we park along one of the sidestreets and we start walking toward the Civic Center. All of a sudden we're hit with this barrage of color as the t-shirt-selling tourheads approach. We watch as several been-a-long-time-since-I-last-saw-you heads recognize eachother and run into eachother's arms. This looks pretty interesting...
Our friends were inside (they had tickets) and we start walking around looking for a couple of tickets so we can get in too. We approach lots of people outside and most are looking for tickets themselves, or just hanging out. But, we finally meet one guy who has one ticket, which he sells to us at face value ($5!) - thank you, thank you, thank you. Now we have one ticket. Someone says, "you need a ticket?, there's a bunch of them on the ground over there". We run over. Sure enough, there's all these bogus tickets on the road. We pick one up and try to get in. No go. We take the one good ticket and head outside again. Eventually, we meet another guy with one ticket, which he sells to us at face value - thank you! And we're in...
Now it really hits me. This is NOT your run-of-the-mill rock concert. There's all these people swirling around the hallways. And there's all these COLORS. It seems to me like the ultimate love utopia - EVERYone is happy, EVERYone is smiling! And inside, in the darkness, there's this mirrored ball spinning and spotlights hitting it and there's "hundreds" of lights SPINNING around the whole place. There just seems to be an INCREDIBLE amount of energy going around. And throughout it all there's this spacey kind of music that keeps going and going and going...
...well, like I said, I didn't know too much about the Dead's music so, to tell the truth, I don't have a memory at all of what was played (but I DO have a tape of the show - who needs a memory! - and by the way - they played "Dark Star" that night - little did I know...). What DID stick in my mind about the event was definately the SCENE. Right from the start I was hooked. This is MY kind of people. I loved it. And the love of the music that sparks this energy came soon after...
twenty years ago.. I'm still with that tall blond man today...
I have always considered this date as an anniversay-of-sorts (after all, he met mom&dad, didn't he). I always like to think of our first "official" date together as the first time we saw the Grateful Dead as well. Twenty years later, there is still a part of our lives that revolves around the Dead. If they're in "town", we're trying to get tickets. The music is a big something that we have in common and it seems that it has kind of weaved through our whole relationship.
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