The Dead Are Coming!!

[this story will be the beginning of Becoming Me. imagine telling a story after a few glasses of wine where you segment off to million other things. that's how this series is going to start off]

In my younger days I was quite the little tree hugger. And after working a couple summers at Camp Bernadette as a counselor I forged some amazing friendships with some very special people. Working at camp was one of the best experiences I ever had. A good amount of the people who worked there had spent their entire childhood years at this camp. I was most definitely coming in as "a stranger". For whatever reason Camp and I were meant to be and it was as if I had been going there my entire life. During my stint at Bernadette I became great friends with Mary Gruetzke and Margot Messier.

Now that you know all of that irrelevant information let me tell you about the time I borrowed my dads car to go see the Grateful Dead.....

Me - "Dad! Can I borrow the car to go see the Grateful Dead with Mary? They are coming up and we are going to drive down to see them together.

Dad - Sure

Our plan was that I would leave on Friday drive down to Rhode Island hang out at her house and we would leave early Saturday morning to drive down to Baltimore, stay overnight and leave early to drive back to Rhode Island and New Hampshire Sunday. As I'm preparing to leave on Friday:

Dad - "So, I'll see you tomorrow night?"

Me - "No, the show is tomorrow night, today I'm driving to Rhode Island and then we are driving to Maryland."

Dad - "WHAT???" "I thought you said they were coming up?" "Maryland is not coming up!"

Me - "Well, they are coming up to Maryland. Its not that far."

Dad - "Its 13 hours away!"

Me - "Can I still use the car?"

Dad - "grumblegrumblegrumblegrumblegrumblegrrrrrrrrrrrrr yes." "You need to be careful! Drive safely" "Don't let the car overheat!!" "Call me if anything goes wrong".

So off I went. The drive down to Rhode Island was completely uneventful. The drive to Maryland was another story.

I-95 will take you any place you want to go on the Eastern Seaboard. Our bags were packed and our tickets were in hand. We were off to see The Dead...until suddenly as we were about to cross the George Washington Bridge the car started to over heat. I saw a Citgo station right off the exit before crossing over and made an abrupt turn off the highway.

I blindly turned my car into the Citgo station and said, "I'll be right back." I trotted over to the attendant in my hippie skirt and long hair and said to the very large black man behind the bullet proof glass [how odd] that I needed a gallon of anti-freeze. No response. "Excuse me, sir? May I please purchase a bottle of anti-freeze?" As he stood there looking right at me with no response I suddenly saw in the reflection of the window 5 large black men. All in aviator sunglasses one with a beret`. One of them spoke to the man behind the bullet proof glass and then to me as I very slowly turned around and tried very hard to stop myself from pooping like an infant.

"What is it that you need Miss?" I ahhhhhh just need a bottle of anti-freeze. What was taking place in my head was. "Holy crap Jesus please get me out of here. I have no idea where I am. I think we are going to die. I'm pretty sure they don't want my Grateful Dead tickets...where gonna die....where gonna die.....where gonna die......

The two men corresponded back and forth in some other language and then Mr. Beret guy said to me. "Twenty Dollars". Sure here....here is Twenty American Dollars for a $2.99 bottle of anti-freeze. Yes sir here it is please take it and please don't kill me in the process...are they carrying guns??? WTF? Its broad daylight? Where the hell am I??? Don't look, don't look, don't look just hand the money over try not to have shaky hands and hope to God above that I get that bottle of anti-freeze. The man behind the bullet proof glass unlocked the window and slid it back just enough to jam the bottle through and immediately slammed the window shut.

[insert loud PTHTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!! noise here]

I took the bottle of anti-freeze and turned around to the Mr. Beret man and thanked him for helping me. He replied with this. "You are welcome Miss. Now hurry up! You have less than five minutes to put that in your car and get the hell out of here. Any longer than that and I cannot be responsible for what is going to happen to you." "You must be nuts to pull your car into the middle of the Bronx Miss. Hurry up and get out of here."

What transpired next is a bit of a blur. Jamming the hood open, the sound of a clock ticking in my head. Mary freaking out in the car. Trying to get the key into the ignition and having no idea how to get back onto the highway. It was like having a target on the car. HEY LOOK AT US!!!! WE'RE FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE!!!!! Mary telling me to hurry up and get us out of here.

Oi! I don't think we stopped the car that day until we got to the hotel. But we made it to the concert and it was amazing! It is the only show I ever went to where they played Scarlet Begonias. In fact below is the set list from the entire show!!

Capital Centre, MD

March 16 1990

Let the Good Times Roll

Touch of Grey

New Minglewood Blues

Peggy-O

Queen Jane Approximately

Loser

Black-Throated Wind

Bird Song

Blow Away

Scarlet Begonias

Estimated Prophet

Ship of Fools

Man Smart/Woman Smarter

drums

The Other One

Stella Blue

Sugar Magnolia

This Could Be the Last Time

 We experienced what all Dead Heads experience at a show. It was awesome and I'm so glad I had the chance to experience it with Mary. I will never ever forget it. And neither will my Dad as he still asks. "Hey Ren! Are The Dead coming up?" aaaaaahhahahahahahaha. Thanks for the car Dad!

On Deck - Borrowing "the car" to go to Reggae Fest in Vermont....Holly?