Grateful Dead

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Thank you Tony Dodds and Dead heads from Pomfret School!

How could I forget this show. My first time at the Hartford Civic. Thanks to GD Radio.net I'm enjoying a playback of a great soundboard recording of this show in the 21st Century. It can help me fill in the blanks created by the cordial reception I was given by the Hartford Steroid Security and Police force which made me miss ElPaso to Women R . Spring '82 was my first Grateful Dead Tour. During the shows opener "Minglewood" we had somehow easily slipped right down to a empty floor section of seats (next to the soundboard). The 4 of us immediately sat down and started sharing our different party supplies. When I was done blocking the view of my buddy Scott, chop,chop, chopping' some rails I stood-up and proceeded to dance at my aisle seat. As the Sugaree was playing I had moved into the aisle a few times soaring with the guitar highs that Jerry was creating. This caused security / college football player to run up to me and in as few syllables as possible he told me to stay out of his aisle. A few mins later I strayed again into "His" aisle and I could see him pushing some heads out of his way, to get to me quickly. This guard from way-up at the stage, 3 sections back from his patrol area and was yelling at me to clear the aisle. I mean was this his first show? The Dead were into song # 2 , I'm from Philly, on - tour.....Are you serious? Apparently so. I was put into a head-lock and pulled up n out of my seat and over Scott (now in the aisle seat) and dragged to the backstage area. There I was handed off to about 8 Hartford motorcycle cops. They proceeded to stomp on my legs just before I was tossed head-first thru some metal doors and onto the concrete sidewalk in the bowls of the civic center loading-dock area. As I woke-up I limped up to street level and tried to get back inside using my ticket for the 2nd show. I just ripped the ticket a little where the day was printed and kept my thumb over it. I immediately went to first aid to report the injury to my ankle and to get ice for it. I then made it back into the concourse just as Women R Smarter was finishing and quickly found my gang dancin' there. They were all wanting to know what happened and found me another ticket for face value to replace the ticket I burned because of an over-zealous football team/security force. Hartford started getting a bad reputation for being rude and violent to the dead-heads among others and I believe the band boycotted Hartford for a while later on because of concert experiences like mine.

So, I was a freshman at the University of Bridgeport, and learned that the school activities committee (or some such moniker) had tickets available for UB students. Woo-Hoo! I immediately went and scored a ducat for each night in Hartford. So, I get a ride up with my dorm-neighbor (I can't remember your name! You lived down the hall from me in Schine Hall, on the top floor!). Turns out the event staff thought our tickets were counterfeit (maybe they were?). He had a load of trouble getting in, and in fact may not have, but I can't recall. I was turned away at the first gate I tried to enter, but just kept going to the next one and in I strolled, for a night that would re-define how I experienced this amazing band. These would be my first shows outside of New York. And WOW! What a trip! I came away from this show vowing to see as many more as I possibly could from that point on (this was my 7th show), in as many locations as possible. The next night was just as good, and stranger too... Ex