Do you younger dudes realize how lucky we all are that the dead's taping policy left us a mighty legacy of shows to enjoy today? Without that, much would have been lost forever.
Another additional thing for the younger folks to understand is that to a large degree, before In the Dark, the Dead were not that big a deal. Like for instance, if you showed up for the Roosevelt shows, it would have been no problem to buy a ticket to get in. Probably was not sold out. Lots of tickets to buy out side the venue, or pick up a ticket at ticketmaster on the way to the show. The concept of a miracle ticket had probably not been realized yet, because anyone who wanted one could get one.
Yep, time marches on, and yes we were lucky enough to have the GD in our experience. And I do not know if you could possibly relate to this, but the Dead did three tours of the east coast yearly. It was not an issue of "if we were going to see the dead" it was more like, " how many shows can I get to this tour". And among our friends, the question was not "are you going to see the dead?" rather the question was "which shows are you going to?"
And again, the Roosevelt shows were magical.