when my friend Julie and I were driving to Veneta in '82, somewhere on HIghway 5 in the boonies of South Oregon we came upon a remarkable scene. Traffic was moving at a crawl, because a pony had somehow gotten loose from his trailer and was running wild on the freeway, the side of the road, etc. And, with their cars and vans off to the side, half a dozen random Deadheads had spontaneously joined the effort to get him to safety. It was a truly endearing sight.

I think it's true, though I never saw any East Coast shows. Particularly in the days before the scene got huge and crazy, there were some really nice scenes out here. Hell, it was even sorta cool camping in the horse barns in Ventura.

also, we had Bill Graham out here, and it cannot be exaggerated what a difference that made. E.g., the 87 Red Rocks shows were Barry Fey, and as I've posted elsewhere, his security seemed heavily recruited from the local chapter of Young Nazis and I'll never forget seeing them pull some hippies out of their van and start beating them. Several days later were the Telluride shows, and they were Bill's. (He had a house there.) Not only did you have Bill running around in his usual manner taking care of biz, you had Clide Williams, who'd been flown out for the occasion so everyone would Have Their Tickets Out and Ready. (Actually, half of BGP had been flown out for the occasion. It was really old home week.)

Sigh. I miss Clide. Even if he did have a great funeral.

the Bill memorial in the park was an amazing good scene too, considering the sadness of the occasion.