Grateful Dead - Cincinnati Gardens 1973
Jeff drove us down to Cincinnati in his stripped to the bone, unheated, windowless van. It was kinda strange climbing into a cold metal box in one town and getting out in another. My old brother-in-law said that was how he got to Viet Nam (although his stripped to the bone, unheated, windowless metal box actually flew).
For some reason the show started late. A crowd of hippies shuffled about for a couple hours. I bought a hit of acid from a crazed looking red headed hippie. Finally the Dead hit the stage. They played probably the shortest Dead set ever & upon exiting the stage, Bob Weir told us we would have to talk to management if we wanted more music. The lights went up and somebody told us to leave. Folks were not happy. Outside the building people were getting kinda ornery. We weren't sure what to expect from the Cincinnati crowd. We piled back into the cold metal box & sat in icy darkness for an hour or so.
When I got home, I walked into the downstairs hallway my dad & I had just wallpapered. The pattern was pink ribbon cascading vertically between vertical blue stripes. I was horrified to find the pattern sliding down the wall and onto the floor. I went to bed expecting to find plain beige wallpaper in the hallway the next morning and I had no idea how we were going to get the damn pattern back on.
Somehow, things worked out just fine.