Grateful Dead

dead.net the official site

I just glommed onto this thread from reading about Dick Latvala in an article in New Yorker Mag.http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/11/26/deadhead Here is a story of my Reno show... I was hanging out with some of the crew, including Dick, who was a good friend by then. Dick had been nagging the band about what his 'job' should be. He was kinda the archivist then but he wanted something legit to do with them to justify his presence with them. He was such a great and kind-hearted man... loved those guys so much... and wanted to be useful, as he said. So, they decided to let him be the chauffeur and see how that worked out. His first day to do this was the Reno show. Dick offered to also drive me to the show - but he didn't mention his new job... So we started out for the venue and when I got to the car, there were Mickey and Billy and Phil. I got in the backseat with the drummers, kept my mouth shut and off we go. Except after a while (TOO long... like 20 minutes or something), I noticed the mountains coming up in the distance real fast. I quietly leaned over to Dick in the drivers seat and said - I think we're going the wrong direction... we're out of town.... the city is behind us... I think we missed a turn or something... The drummers went nuts! Yelling and flogging at Dick... getting hysterical and shouting about missing the show... complaining about giving him this 'job' in the first place - it was a little in jest but mostly NOT. It was like 20 minutes before show time when he turned the car around and headed back into Reno... with constant berating by all on board (except me)... we got to the venue and he could't get to the backstage parking area so we just stopped by one of the venue's stage doors, the band members got out and RAN to get inside while Dick and I found a place to leave the car. We had a great time at the show... Dick mostly in the audience to avoid more bashing backstage.. and him being terribly angst-ridden about his stature in the group now. At the afterparty, there was a lot of good humor kidding etc and the announcement that Dick was no longer the chaffeur (! well DUH!) but had to stick to his task of archivist... and BOY! didn't he do a hell of a job with that! His passion and precision about the music is still legendary. Miss him so much... just like the band he 'worked' for. XO

I Think it after this show we went to circus circus and saw Merl

I should of known I was in trouble when I was in the parking lot before show and I couldn't understand why there was so many cars from California!....hmmmm, 60 shows later(and many JGB shows) and I still have that smileon my face!