Dawn of the Dead...for me

I was playing Wiffle Ball with the Lads on the Hockey Courts near the Parkie House on 79^th street and Shore Road……icey cold can of the world renowned Budweiser Beer in my hand……still a few years shy of the bayridge drinking age of 13, but me and my Band of Brothers were  very mature for 11 year olds……we were certainly chatting about the Metropolitans baseball Club and perhaps the upcoming Bicentennial Celebration for our beloved Nation and all pomp and circumstance that was about to descend on the shores of South Brooklyn, and then like being struck by lightning I froze in my tracks, turned towards the benches were a group of lads and lasses were gathered round a radio and I strained my ear to hear a sound I had never heard before. I stood there mesmerized for a minute and change and asked my Compadre Steve Mcevoy  “WHO is THAT” ?....to which he replied “ The Grateful Dead”………(Sugar Magnolia to be exact…still my favorite song of all time to this day)…….I didn’t grasp the intensity of the moment, but my Life was about to Change….the very next day I emptied out my Chock Full of Nuts Coffee can bank and walked up to 86^th street and the Whole in the Wall Record store to purchase American Beauty…..I played the Album in its entirety, both sides without leaving the room, I would never look at the World the same way again, and then embarked on a lifetime Journey Down that Golden Road with Jerry Garcia and the Lads…….97 Grateful Dead Concerts, 100 more of solo shows and various collaborations in the post Jerry years Countless Cities, Motels, Road Trips and adventures on the Road…….through my days in the Navy & Wall Street, from Brooklyn to the Jersey Shore and everywhere in between, the DEAD have provided the soundtrack to my Life…..and on this day August 1^st,  what would have been Jerry Garcia’s 72^nd Birthday, I am eternally Grateful.

*** The Radio in question was actually a cassette deck and it belonged to Kevin Woods, I remember it as if it were yesterday and yet somehow I can’t remember what I had for Breakfast, Thanks Kev.