GRATEFUL DEAD ON FOSS HILL: UNTOLD STORIES

Just read your mention and University Archivist Leith Johnson’s account of the Dead concert. What neither of you mentioned and what kept it from being an even more memorable moment and what also contributed to the smaller-than-expected crowd was that the concert’s start time was publicized for early afternoon, but the band arrived several hours late.

The irreversible problem was that a large number of us spectators who were timing our psychedelic experience to coincide with the Dead’s arrival found ourselves on the downside rather than peaking. It remains my favorite Foss Hill moment, but the Frisbee tossing and the merriment as we waited were as memorable as the concert itself.

John Haury ’70, Bloomington, Ind.

 

 

I too entered Wes in the fall of  ’71. But, as a Middletown native I was lucky enough to have attended the Dead concert. I was not able to stay to the end of the show, however, as it ran very late and my high school girlfriend had a curfew!

While at Wes I was part of a class with John Frazer that made a student film called Beyond ‘The Wizard of Oz’. We used some archival footage of the Dead crowd from that Foss Hill concert in our film. Last year, when University archives was looking for information about the concert, I donated my copy of the film, because they were not aware this footage existed.

I do remember at least one concert in that spot during our undergrad years. I believe the featured act was Norman Greenbaum of “Spirit in the Sky” fame.

David Bickford ’75, Los Angeles, Calif.