Call it stoner folklore if you want, but by now most people have heard the tale of how the term “420” originated.
In the ’70s, a group of five friends from San Rafael High School, who called themselves the Waldos, would meet up daily at 4:20 p.m. to light up. By 1990, a mysterious flyer promoting 420 began circulating at Grateful Dead shows, and in 1991,High Times published the text from that mysterious flyer—forever cementing April 20 (4/20) as the highest of holidays.
Fast forward four decades, and the entire 420-Waldos-Grateful Dead tale has come full circle.
Just this month, while attending a Dead & Company show at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, Steve Capper, Mark Gravitch, Dave Reddix, Larrry Schwartz and Jeffrey Noel—the original Waldos—received a special invite to meet with Bob Weir.
“Leave it to a bunch of Marin [County, California] DeadHeads to reinvent Tea Time,” Weir told High Times. “My hat’s off to ’em. Seems like our fans were always inventing ways to stay ahead of authority, and so much of what went down, still exists today.”
Thankfully this iconic convergence of cannabis culture was captured on camera. Here’s the photo to prove it!
