Spring Break
Lifting The Haze From 'High' Holiday Myths
Alyssa Carroll
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Focus
According to Steven Hager, editor of High Times, the term 420 was shorthand for the time of day the group would meet at the campus statue of Louis Pasteur to smoke pot. "Waldo Steve,'' a member of the group who now owns a business in San Francisco, says the Waldos would salute each other in the school hallway and say "420 Louis!'' The term was one of many invented by the group, but it was the one that caught on.
"It was just a joke, but it came to mean all kinds of things, like 'Do you have any?' or 'Do I look stoned?' '' He said. "Parents and teachers wouldn't know what we were talking about.''
The term took root and flourished. It spread beyond San Rafael with the assistance of the Grateful Dead and their dedicated cohort of pot-smoking fans.
The Waldos decided to assert their claim to the history of the term after decades of watching it spread, mutate and be appropriated by commercial interests. The Waldos contacted Hager, and presented him with evidence of 420's history, primarily a collection of postmarked letters from the early '70s with lots of mention of 420. They also started a Web site, waldo420.com.
"We have proof, we were the first,'' Waldo Steve said. "I mean, it's not like we wrote a book or invented anything. We just came up with a phrase. But it's kind of an honor that this emanated from San Rafael."
Contact Alyssa Carroll at
Alyssa.Carroll@UConn.edu.
"It was just a joke, but it came to mean all kinds of things, like 'Do you have any?' or 'Do I look stoned?' '' He said. "Parents and teachers wouldn't know what we were talking about.''
The term took root and flourished. It spread beyond San Rafael with the assistance of the Grateful Dead and their dedicated cohort of pot-smoking fans.
The Waldos decided to assert their claim to the history of the term after decades of watching it spread, mutate and be appropriated by commercial interests. The Waldos contacted Hager, and presented him with evidence of 420's history, primarily a collection of postmarked letters from the early '70s with lots of mention of 420. They also started a Web site, waldo420.com.
"We have proof, we were the first,'' Waldo Steve said. "I mean, it's not like we wrote a book or invented anything. We just came up with a phrase. But it's kind of an honor that this emanated from San Rafael."
Contact Alyssa Carroll at
Alyssa.Carroll@UConn.edu.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Psilly Psymon
posted 4/18/08 @ 1:10 PM EST
Interesting history of 420, Alyssa. Coincidentally enough, LSD was discovered by Albert Hoffman (now 102 years old) on April 19th, 1943, but was actually ingested at 4:20 pm. (Continued…)
Wait, I've seen this before...
posted 4/19/08 @ 12:49 AM EST
This is largely plagiarized. I've seen pretty much the same exact article online for years now, set up in the same structure. The article online gives the same exact reasons, and same solutions nearly word for word. (Continued…)
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