my first experience of counterculture was when i
was a wee child in 1970s Hempstead NY when the
Grateful Dead would play Nassau
Coliseum, trailing in their wake a caravan of
hippies
and their self-contained nomadic economy of
tie-dyes, grilled cheese, and nitrous oxide
balloons, giving me and my stunned Czech immigrant
parents our first second-hand
whiffs of pot and patchouli when none of us knew
what either one was. 15 years later i would
drop acid at a Dead show
there, impressed more by the parking
lot scene than the show itself, of which the main
thing i remember is
an
arena opaque with smoke and a red-eyed baby staring
into my soul over the shoulder of its swaying
mother.
ah,
memories. tonight's performance was a little bit different, though
when i saw this bus outside the Carco
Theater
in Renton i could relate to the Deadhead impulse of dropping
everything to hit the road.
and not only that, they're looking
for a tour bus driver. it's enough to make me
want to run away and join the circus!
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