August 08, 2005

What a Long, Strange Yahrtzeit Its Been

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the passing of Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia. Hopefully fans of the band have found new and interesting things to do with their lives in that time, at least enough to invalidate the famous Norm MacDonald joke: "followers of the band, formerly known as 'Deadheads', will now be referred to by a new name: 'homeless people.'"

I still remember the day Garcia passed away: I was at summer camp, and one of my hippie-inclined co-counselors had been calling around camp screaming "Jerry's dead!" (sort of a faux pas, considering that the camp's director was also named Jerry.) Then, at the breakfast table, another of my colleagues told everyone the bad news. He told one girl- who was wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt- and she gave him a puzzled look and asked "who's that?"

Posted by Stephen Silver at August 8, 2005 09:20 PM
Comments

I also learned of Jerry's demise in summer camp! One of the things i loved about camp was the discovery of hippie music like Grateful Dead and their neo-reincarnation in Phish. Summer camp, always a (miserable) good time.

Posted by: Petitedov at August 9, 2005 10:30 AM

I, too, learned of Jerry's death at summer camp. (I was working there at the time, not a camper.) At the time I was not so much into the Dead, but was (as I still am) a huge fan of Phish. Plus, unlike the girl in the Dead t-shirt, I knew who Jerry was.

Posted by: LilB at August 9, 2005 02:14 PM

Oh my god. Jerry Garcia's dead? For ten years? I guess he keeps making those ties from the grave like L Ron Hubbard keeps churning out crappy sci-fi books.

Posted by: J. Lichty at August 9, 2005 11:30 PM
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