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Volume 3, Dec - Feb 1997 Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997
To: deadfile@dead.net
From: Carl Eckrode
Subject: Greetings and other random commentsHello,
Greetings to all, both in and out of the consensual (sp?) mutual hallucination of the 'net.
I chanced upon your web site today (being an infrequent visitor), and noticed a new (to me, anyway) section called "Deadfile". After reading for a bit, I felt the need to add my own entry. While not as expressive or articulate as some, I hope my meaning and feeling comes through.
Thanks for sharing the music, the images, and the good feelings that I have come to associate with the Grateful Dead. In both good and less than good times the sense of community that I receive from fellow Dead Heads is a constant, and their (your) positive outlook and humor have provided me with smiles, laughs and a little inspiration.
Health and Peace,
Carl
Date: Sat, 4 Jan 1997
To: deadfile@dead.net
From: Richard & Cheryl DeBois
Subject: EnvelopesDear Eileen,
I really loved the envelopes and would love to see more of those beauties! I'm sure you have many more to share with us, I for one miss the envelope decorating and anticipation of the ticket process. But that's just a thread of the GD experience I
miss, there was the music and much more. Thanks for all those years of service from a dedicated ticket reciever! P.S. I still have the first newsletter in my scrapbook! Best wishes for 1997.
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997
From: SmlnCldyDy
To: deadfile@dead.net
Subject: thanks !I wrote this letter August 25, 1995 but never sent it, thanks for listening now!
So many times I've thought about writing but knowing I was 1 in 10,000 who came for the show I always figured it would be pretty overwhelming if we all wrote. Okay, so now that there are many more thousands coming for the show it feels like it is important for me to say these words to whoever is willing to read them.
Your music changed my life and I will be forever grateful to everyone who made it all possible.
I was 17 and on my own when I was "adopted" by a bunch of Deadheads. They treated me with incredible kindness, like I was their little sister. I felt loved, cared for and safe in ways that I had never experienced before. That summer a friend asked if I wanted to hitchhike to Iowa. I said "sure what for?" He said "to see the Grateful Dead!" I had never heard of the Grateful Dead but I was willing to have an adventure. We never made it to Iowa, but on June 18, 1974 we did make it to Freedom Hall in Louisville Kentucky. "The bus came by and I got on that's when it all began".
After a few shows another friend asked "Do you like the Dead or do you just like tripping?" I didn't know so I agreed to go to the next show straight.
That's when I discovered the mind altering affects of dancing and gave up the drugs. That same summer another friend inspired me to stop smoking when he put on Playing in the Band and pointed to the cigarette in my hand while singing "I can tell your future just look what's in your hand!".
If it hadn't been for your music and those Deadheads, people may have been saying "What in the world ever became of sweet Jane?...all a friend can say is ain't it a shame" about me. After that summer I thought of you as vitamin GD. Whenever I felt deficient, as in life was getting to hard, I just got myself to some shows and let my body dance. Your music saved my life.
Now 21 years later I've joked about being a bad Deadhead because I don't know how many shows I've been to, I haven't saved my ticket stubs, and I've never written down a set list.
Years of going to shows and being around Deadheads has taught me so much about loving each other and helping each other on this long strange trip.
Once in awhile I've been shown the light in the strangest of places cause I looked at it right. Strangers have stopped strangers because of tie-dyes, Dancing Bears and bootleg tapes. Your music became the sound track for my life.
I know that you will never know what it's like for me being a Deadhead just as I will never know what it's like for you playing in the band beyond description. I can't imagine what my life would have been like without you.
Now I've noticed the band's all packed and gone. But I keep on dancin' cause the music never stops. When I get confused I still listen to the music and I greet the morning air with song. So I'll keep on dancin'. You keep playin' on. And know our love will not fade away!
Date: Tue, 07 Jan 1997
From: Yapburg
To: deadfile@dead.net
Subject: Old newslettersHiya Eileen,
Happy & Healthy New Year to you and yours! I just wanted to drop you a line thanking you for posting the old Deadhead newsletters, especially for putting St.Dilbert on the site!!! This cartoon is onbe of my earliest Dead memories as my bud's older bro was the one on the Deadhead list way back when. We used to read those St.Dilbert cartoons over and over for cosmic inspiration, but as I was a kid at the time it didn't really register with me. I'm a bit older now, couldn't find my friends old newsletters for the last few years, and now I find them on the homepage!!!
Thanx again & I hope we keep seeing stuff from your files showing up!!!
Gene
To: deadfile@dead.net
From: Jeff and Laurry
Subject: Passing ThoughtsDear, kind people:
Passing thoughts take me back to October 27, 1973...a young man in a black t-shirt and blue jeans gently and most sincerely singing "...a broken angel sings from a guitar..."
A large building that, just a bit earlier in the year had hosted prized horses and probably doomed farm animals on their way to people's dinner tables was now dominated by "The Wall Of Sound", five, sometimes six artists on an oriental rug, and many people who came to experience the show...transformed into a sacred place, filled with the energy of who know's how many chemically and musically expanded consiousnesses.
God bless all of you, and further bless Dick Latvala for providing what you have for me.
Peace and Love to all,
Jeff and Laurry
Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1997
From: Corinne Mynatt
To: deadfile@dead.net
Subject: cmynatt@sprynet.comI was just writing to tell you that it is really cool how you set up this site. Jerry Garcia would be very pleased. That is so cool how you put all the stuff about Grateful Dead on the net. Now people can talk to other Grateful Dead fans, order CD's etc. Thank You for putting up this internet site.
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 From: Peter
To: deadfile@dead.net
Subject: Its never too late I hopeHey,
I didnt really know where to send this but you all seemed the best place. So my girl friend got me listening to the dead about a month ago. I had always shunned them, never opening up and taking the time to actually listen to the music, words, ideas, SO when I finally did, it struck me, that I had wasted a lot of time avoiding a band I knew nothing about. So I figure its never too late...I mean for me I've got a lot of catching up to do, and this dead.net has been a huge part. Thanks...
Peter Rodrigues
Boston
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 97
From: "Emmett Grogan" <PartyISAnoTHerName@msn.com>
To: deadfile@dead.net
Subject: Brent's RigHey now!
I'm not really sure where to direct this question so (like all other confused heads) i'm sending it to ya'll! Ok, here's the big Q: Can anyone give me a listing of Brent's equiptment? Like his whole rig; organ, synths, processors. I have to say that as a musician, Brent has inspired me more than anyone else and i would love to be able to work with "his" sound. Three words: Brent on "Brokedown." That's all there is!
Well, i hope i sent this to the right "department" and if i didn't, would you please forward it on to someone who can answer it for me? I can't tell you how much I would appreiciate it! In advance, THANK YOU! :-) :-) :-)
All Brent out of shape,
Virgil Trucks III
The Woodruff Mill Project
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997
From: "Sara Elisabeth Jacobsen"
To: deadfile@dead.net
Subject: gd speechHello fellow Deadheads!
I just wanted to write, because I have been thinking of the Dead quite a bit of late. I am a 22 year old college student who is taking a Human Communications Class, and one of our assignments is to write an informative speech. Our professor told us that it must be something that we are 1)well informed and 2)passionate about. For me, it was no question, and I decided to base my topic on "How to be a Deadhead".
I became a fan of the Grateful Dead in my seventh grade year. I was basically the outcast or "ugly duckling" and found that the tunes that the Dead were belting out were really something that I could relate to. I was twelve years old then (it's hard to believe that I have loved the Dead for 10 years!) and my being a deadhead was just one more thing to shut me out from the rest of my classmates. However, when I was in eigth grade, the Dead suddenly made a revival, and no one teased me for my passion for the band. I hate to think that the Dead were just what was cool at the time for most of those kids, but that was also in the time of New Kids on the Block (sick and wrong) and they had an amazingly strong following! I continued to follow and almost worship the Dead, and by the time I was in tenth grade, most of the notoriety had worn off for most of the kids I knew. I was not going to give up, however. When I turned sixteen, I plastered my birthday present (a new car) with dead stickers, much to my parents disgust. But at 16, I had yet to see a show, and that wouldn't change until I turned 19.
When I was 19, the Dead came back to Seattle, WA after being on hiatus for 20 some years. I was so excited, I ran out and bought tickets to both shows. Having been to many other concerts, I thought I knew what to expect, but apparently, I was wrong.
The show was the best experience of my whole life. The people, the music, the aura - it was unbeatable. I quickly made a vow to follow the band, starting in the summer after my 20th birthday.
When the Dead came back to Seattle the following year, I bought tickets to all three shows. Next stop on the tour was Portland, Oregon, then down through California and Nevada. However, this was the summer that Jerry played his last show, so my touring days were cut short.
When JG died, it really felt like I had lost a member of my family. When I tell people that, they look at me like I'm strange. After all, he was only a singer in a band. But what they don't understand is that he wasn't just a singer in a band, he was a pushing inspiration for a outcast little 12 year old who could find no sanctity in the rest of her world. He showed a compassion and appreciation for the people who loved him and his music. There aren't many close people in my life who can do that for me, much less people of Jerry's status.
Now that Jerry is gone, I keep his memory alive by listening to his music and studying his life and impact (even in college!). I drive a beat-up 1979 Volvo Station Wagon, and the windows are so covered with colored GD stickers it looks like stained glass!
Many thanks
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