When Push Comes to Shove; Real Life on Dead Tour; The Journals of Hollie A. Rose

This Glossary of helpful terms has been devised to give you a touchstone for words and phrases you may not know, or may not have seen used in this manner before. It appears on the website for two reasons:
1 – so the listeners of the Audiobook can access it
2 – to give website visitors an indication of the themes, people, and concepts encountered in the book

A

• American Indicans – a term Corvette and I invented to refer to our circle of Tourheads who were always deeply focused on smoking indica, not a universally known name in the scene
• bake/baked – stoned, high on cannabis; the act of getting high on cannabis, occasionally it might actually mean putting something in the oven

B

• BFD – Big Fucking Deal
• BGP – Bill Graham Presents
• bitch handle – gathering one’s hair on top of the head, resulting in a pineapple top look
• the boys – a term of endearment for the collective band members of the Grateful Dead
• Break – the intermission between sets at a Grateful Dead Show or any other concert
• buds – cannabis for smoking, selling, trading, etc
• bunk – not legit, not real, bad quality, a bad deal, perceived as a bad deal, not acting in good faith, not treating someone well, a person who does these things
• bunked – getting screwed, ripped off, being treated poorly, not getting what you expected
• busted – arrested

C

• cake – often means money or cash, occasionally it means a baked treat – baked like in the oven, not baked like getting stoned
• Clubs – Club Cabaret ungummed rolling papers. The only rolling papers worth smoking. No taste. Leaves no ash when burned. Thin as a butterfly’s wing
• comp – a concert ticket that has all zeros in the price area, a ticket not meant for resale
• comped – being given a ticket labeled “Complimentary”
• coke – most often in the text, cocaine
• cop shop – Police Station
• counterfeit – a fake ticket that looks real, a fake ticket that has been sold as real
• cruised – wandered a place in order to check out the scene
• CSN – Crosby, Stills, and Nash

D

• DEA – Drug Enforcement Administration
• door pop/gate pop – a guarded or unguarded door, or any other entrance, is opened from the inside of a concert venue, people outside, near the door, take this opportunity to gain entrance to the show (this is not the same as later years when gates were plowed down by concertgoers)
• dose – a hit of LSD, to ingest LSD, or the act of giving someone a hit of LSD
• dosed – high on psychedelics, took some LSD

F

• face – a ticket priced at face value, exactly what it says it costs on the ticket, a ticket sold with no markup in price
• fattied – smoked a fatty (see “fatty”)
• fatty – an overlarge joint (marijuana cigarette). It is no exaggeration to say that fatties are at least the size of your thumb and often bigger than that. Really. I promise. That’s not an exaggeration. The plural is often spelled fatties
• Fatty Circle/Fatty Zone – Any gathering of American Indicans for the main purpose of getting stoned
• fatty smoker – like a cigarette holder, but made of blown glass and sized for a Fatty
• feds – Federal Drug Agents or agencies
• the fish – this is a uncontrollable body movement sometimes experienced by persons ingesting N₂O. Basically, they fall and flop around like a fish out of water. Not pleasant.

G

• gate pop – (see “door pop”)
• GDP – Grateful Dead Productions
• gopher – a backstage worker – “go for this” “go for that”
• The Grapes – a Grateful Dead cover band in Atlanta, GA
• Graphics – a particular brand of glass bong
• the Greeks/the Greek – The Greek Theater in Berkeley, CA
• groundscore(d) – an item, likely dropped accidentally, found on the ground, the act of finding such an item
• groundscoring – going for a walk specifically to see what might be found

H

• hallway – This most often refers to the scene in the venue’s halls during a Show – The Hallway is a living entity. The Hallway is home
• Hog Farm/Farmer – a venerated intentional community of like-minded hippie-types who took their name from an actual hog farm in southern California where they lived in the 1960s – still (in 2024) active in many hip cultural activities, especially in northern California where the Farm is currently located – the Hog Farm is the sort of entity that speaks – i.e. “The Hog Farm says…”
• homescum – this refers to my hometown friends. They gave themselves this name “Hey don’t worry about us, we’re just the homescum.” It stuck
• hot – in regards to a person it would mean that the police are paying attention to their actions, in regards to a scene it means the exact opposite of a cool scene, in regards to a show, a performer, or a song, it would mean it was a damn good one, finally it might just mean temperature
• hubbas – the drug called crack

I

• in/inside was/wasn’t – inside the venue during the show, “he was in”, “she wasn’t in”
• Indica – a type of cannabis with higher THC levels as compared to the generally available marijuana of the previous decades, Indica is common now, in the 21st Century, but it was special, unique, and still sort of new in the time period covered in this book
• Indican – see American Indican

J

• JGB – The Jerry Garcia Band
• Jokeland – Oakland, CA
• jones – the addictive need for a substance or activity – (not necessarily white powder) i.e. – basketball or a Grateful Dead Show
• Jonser – someone who pines for white powder drugs
• Jonesin’ – someone looking/wishing for any particular thing, or the state of over-indulging in white powder drugs
• Josephine – the name of a house in Atlanta, GA
• Junkie – someone addicted to heroin

K

• Keef – as we used the term, is a high THC substance made up of the crystals that have been collected off kind buds, usually by shaking buds on a screen and collecting the dust that falls through
• kidnapping – kidnapping was always done with the full cooperation and interest of the kidnapee, “I’ll kidnap you” meant “I will take you with me.” “Kidnap me” meant “Take me with you”
• kick/kick down – “give it up”, “give over the good stuff”, “hand it over”, “give it to me”, “share it with all of us” – sometimes freely given, but often a demand
• kicked – gave
• killah – really really good
• kind – if used as a descriptor for anything – songs, clothes, food – it denotes the best of the best, otherwise: kind buds
• kind bud(s) – especially sticky, stinky, green marijuana

L

• Ladies – in this text, ladies are usually marijuana plants
• laminate – a more permanent type of backstage pass usually worn around the neck on a lanyard, reserved for workers and upper level guests
• LBC – Luther Burbank Center in Santa Rosa, CA
• “losin it”/”lost it” – freaking out via temper tantrum or via psychedelic and/or psychic meltdown, also the wavering of one’s moral compass
• “the lot” – a parking lot, grassy field, or any area where cars park, or people congregate to create a happening scene before, during, and after Grateful Dead concerts – In the 21st Century this place is called “Shakedown” or “Shakedown Street”
• LSD – lysergic acid diethylamide, a hallucinogen

M

• “the Mall Crawl” – walking the downtown Mall in Santa Cruz, CA. The Mall was severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake
• MSG – Madison Square Garden in NYC

N

• N₂O – Nitrous oxide. Laughing gas. Nitrous is a dissociative anesthetic used by dentists for sedation and pain relief. Also used as a propellant for whipped cream and/or a cheap high for hippies
• Narc/Narcing – a person who rats out another person, anyone working in the capacity of a narcotics officer, or other officer of the law, an action of cooperating with law enforcement, or pointing fingers at someone for illegal activity which causes that someone to get in trouble with the law, often done by a person who hopes it will save their own ass from the law
• NFA – Song – Not Fade Away

O

• onion – Western Union money transfer services, or money transferred via said service, i.e. “Gotta get an onion”
• OR – (Capitalized) someone might be released after arrest on their Own Recognizance, no bail or bond is needed and they merely promise to appear in court
• outta hand/outta control – outrageous (see “raging”)

P

• Pack-Check – a box truck provided by BGP for folks to stash their backpacks during the show
• P-bud – a particular strain of marijuana from Colorado at a time when buds with names were a rarity
• pages – LSD infused squares of paper perforated with smaller squares – in this text, interchangeable with “sheets”
• “got picked up” – got arrested/caught/busted by law enforcement
• “got popped” – got arrested/caught/busted/picked up by law enforcement
• psyched – pleased! thrilled! excited! looking forward to it!
• puppy – usually an actual baby canine, but sometimes a young male Deadhead

Q

• QP – a quarter pound of kind buds

R

• The Rads – band, The Radiators
• rage/raged/raging – going overboard/crazy. It can be good or bad, and is indicative of wildness in dance, work, play, or a place – like the lot or a party. It could also mean – the hippest new thing, or doing/needing to do lots of fast business. Sometimes it means running a snarky monologue about a pet peeve, or screaming and having a tantrum
• raking/raked – making money, lots of it, or maybe cleaning up leaves
• rippin’ it up – generally refers to smoking a fatty, also can be applied to Jerry’s guitar playing
• rolled over – (see “narcing”)

S

• scam – pull a fast one on anyone, in any place, in order to get what you desire – getting in to the lot, getting in to the show, getting onto the floor. We consider our scams to be mostly harmless
• scammed in – getting in to a concert, without a ticket, by any means that isn’t quite legit
• scamped – camped where we weren’t allowed to, or didn’t pay to camp in a campground
• score/scored – acquired, found, managed to find what you seek for a very reasonable price, or against the odds. If used as an exclamation it conveys excited surprise and pleasure in finding what you seek
• SEP/SEP field – from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, it means ‘Somebody Else’s Problem’. As in, when a cop sees the Van he thinks “that’s somebody else’s problem”. Belief is 90% of making this tactic work
• sheets – LSD infused squares of paper perforated with smaller squares – in this text, interchangeable with “pages”
• Shows – the preferred term for Grateful Dead concerts
• “the Shuffle” – walking Haight Street in San Francisco to see what’s going on
• shwag – low quality marijuana
• singles – individual tabs/hits/doses of LSD
• sketchy/sketched/skitched/skitzed – feeling jittery, freaked out, paranoid, or a scene or person that conveys such energy
• skinny – a small, or normal sized joint (marijuana cigarette)
• slEasy8 – a play on the name of a hotel chain
• snagged – grabbed, took, got
• spaceshot – a stoned, forgetful, person, not doing so well keeping a handle on details
• Spinner/Spinners – a group of religious-minded Deadheads who worship in the hallways of shows by spinning like Whirling Dervishes, often possessed of magic Show tickets when such things are hard to come by, seen by some as high holy hippies. I consider them American Indicans
• Spinoffs – Deadheads who hung pretty tightly with the Spinners but never quite converted to their lifestyle completely
• stash – a private stock of drugs or anything considered precious, a place to hide such things, or the act of hiding something away
• state’s/state’s evidence – most often “turn(ed) state’s” – means a person is cooperating with authorities and will, or has, provided testimony against others. The benefit of turning state’s might be reduced charges or less time in prison, a lesser charge for a crime, or even immunity from prosecution
• stubbed down – getting someone into a better/closer concert area/seat by using someone else’s ticket stub, possibly multiple times
• stylin – living the good life! elevated in design or experience, doing things or enjoying things in/with style
• swinging – selling drugs
• SSDD – Song – Sunshine Daydream

T

• Telegraph – Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, CA
• tix – tickets
• tweak – to have or feel a bad scene, bad energy, to have a meltdown induced by drugs, or to have a tantrum of sorts

U

• undercovers – law enforcement officers masquerading as Deadheads for entrapment purposes, often these people were very obvious to us

V

• a vial – sometimes a small, glass container filled with liquid LSD, sometimes a plastic film canister with beads, jewelry, or kind buds inside

W

• walked in – when an employee or friend of the venue, or of the band, takes people (singular or plural) through the front gates or back doors, telling door guards, “They’re with me”. No ticket required
• went down – got caught/arrested/taken into custody by law enforcement, might mean “something weird happened”
• White Bird – Volunteer medics staffing an area at Grateful Dead shows. Associated with White Bird Clinic operating out of Eugene Oregon since the 1960s.
• wingnut – crazy person, whack job, babbling fool, off-their-rocker-talking-to-themselves type, sometimes applied to those persons who might be “just a little off maybe”, sometimes the term is used affectionately
• wire/cake on the wire – money at the onion (see “onion”) (see “cake”)

X

• X/X-ing – Ecstasy – the drug MDMA, now known as Molly, indulging in said drug

Y

• yellowjackets – security at a venue. At no point in the text does this refer to insects, but, like the insects that share the name, yellowjackets have a reputation for being aggressive

Z