Reflections On The Garcia

In 1995. August 9, a good friend of mine died…

I heard the news on the radio… I was working at a bar at the time and was getting the place ready for its opening.

“…Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia died today due to…”

This news affected far deeper than I had expected. Jerry and I, while never ever having bad words, had drifted apart over the years due to vast differences in lifestyles.

At the time I was just learning to use a computer (Windows 3.1) and the writing program Word.

I had been wanting a stream-of-thought topic to use to practice the program so I decided to write down some memories of my old friend and musical companion. I had the idea of keeping the result as an archive for my clan and as a documentation of my friendship for those who might be interested. But I had no intention of sharing it with the world.

This took me several days and during my second rewrite my boss asked me what I was writing about with such focus. When he found out what it was he asked to read it.

I expected him to give it a cursory scan and make a polite comment and give it back. After checking on him in an hour or so I couldn’t help but ask him what he thought.

“Mesmerizing” he said….

So I did a third editorial rewrite January 4, 1997 and printed up copies gave it to some friends and e.mailed it to others.  I had a couple of other blog sites I’d posted it on but they were unsatisfactory to me.  The sites messed with my text and it wasn’t until I discovered PDFs that I found a good way to present  it.

I thought perhaps maybe ten or fifteen people might show a little interest and, long story short, it has been read by hundreds of folks…

I first offered it here as a PDF download in 2008 when this blog/website was first set up.

This ‘final revision’ version was edited in September of 2009.  Cleaned up a little punctuation and added a few minor lines for clarity…smoothed out some of the awkward spots …tried to in any case.  I pretty much kept the integrity of the original piece I think…
…the email address on the PDF is incorrect, however

It’s offered free because Jerry believed in doing things for free from time to time.

He would like the idea I think.

Please download and enjoy…

Reflections on the Garcia – Final Version

One man’s string of memories made upon the passing of a friend…