We had almost 80 club members, and unless you know a lot of people, you just pick a table and sit down and everyone introduces themselves. All very friendly. So, I end up at a table for 4, people I never met before, and we get to talking. One of the guys says how when he was 19 or 20, he would just jump on the bike and think nothing of going almost any distance for a weekend for any reason. He cited a concert that he went to down south somewhere. One of the other guys said he took his daughter to that final Soldiers Field show because he wanted her to have a real Grateful Dead experience before Jerry was gone. More talk and it turned out that one of the guys was also at the 9/3/77 Englishtown show, which for me was maybe the best I ever saw! He looked at me and deadpanned: "I thought you looked familiar."
I was stunned, though. Think about all of the things that had to happen just exactly perfectly for us to end up sitting together and getting to that in the conversation. I mean, we were all probably in our 50s and not groomed or dressed like heads, so, it wasn't like a tie dye shirt started the conversation. Anyway, to me it was one of those minor amazing things that happen sometimes.
