14. Jamming

Well, it’s been “return to campus” week for the university and I’ve picked up many a drunk student that I was afraid would puke in my car but no real interesting stories to tell.

 

A few young ladies came out of frat houses shirtless, escorted by young men who were pantsless. Picked up a few drunk guys who were hitting on drunk girls who were not as drunk as the guys hoped and managed to leave the guys behind with a smile. There was a ride with a few drunk guys who were trying to one up each other with homophobic slurs, clearly demonstrating their own insecurities and sexual uncomfortablity. I wanted to speak up but remember the last time and kept quiet. As long as they were just commenting against each other, I figured it would one day end up with them waking up naked next to one another.

 

I discovered the bar of choice for those attending the university is a place called “Dirtbags”, which I would think is a place to avoid, but then remember I had a theatre company in Denver called “Dirtbag Theatre”, so who am I to judge. I picked up and dropped off a number of people from this location.

 

My final ride of the night was a gentleman in his late 50’s - early 60’s. He was flying out of the state’s main airport, so I was in for a 90 minute ride (and back). He had the face of an old prospector and the attire of an old hippy. He got in the car with a generally grumpy attitude but hey, it was 3am, so I could see that.

 

On these long rides, I have driven a number of people to this airport, I ask passengers if they have a music preference. Most like to sleep, which is fine by me, and so I’d rather find something they like to listen to. I like most genres and really only have issues with two types: reggae (due to a bad personal experience) and late 60’s/early 70’s rock (which I was inundated with in college).

 

He told me he was ok with anything.

 

Well, then he said old R&B.

 

But then again, 80’s would be fine.

 

He then said how about 50’s.

 

I was ok with any of those choices.

 

And then he said, “No… I’m a big fan of jam band music. You got any of that?”

 

Sigh. From his attire, I should have figured.

 

“You know, like the Grateful Dead.”

 

Yes, I know. One of those 60’s/70’s bands I loathed.

 

But he was the passenger and so I put on my Hippy Mix, which had the Moody Blues, late Beatles, Blues Traveler, ELO, Jefferson Airplane, OAR, Santana, Allman Brothers, Phish, Big Head Todd, Chris Robinson, the Doobie Bros, Hendrix, Joplin, and, of course, the Dead. Not my favorite mix, but the passenger is king.

 

He was quiet at first and then started the customary “how long have you been driving?” questionnaire.

 

I answered politely and it went on with “are you from here” followed by “where have you lived”.

 

When I told him I had lived in Denver, he perked up. He had lived there for years. It was where he grew up and lived there through the 90’s. When I mentioned familiar places, places like the Tattered Cover, Larimer Square, Red Rocks, Cheesman Park, and Chautauqua he was on fire.

 

He told me his life story in Denver. How much things had changed from when he was a kid in the late 60’s. The overcrowding of Cherry Creek. The gentrification of downtown around Empower Stadium. The problems the tech bubble caused.

 

But he really lit up when he talked about the shows he had seen. Many at Red Rocks, as well as a number of shows in Boulder. And the focus of those shows was the Grateful Dead. He had seen them almost every time and been at every performance in the Boulder/Denver area.

 

After Jerry died, he still went to see any incarnation that featured Bob Weir and Phil Lesh. He preferred seeing them in smaller venues and even travelled out to Ithaca to see Dead & Company play at Cornell earlier this year.

 

But he was getting older and any time a show required a lot of walking, he had issues. Bad knees, a bad hip… they had made him have to miss some shows. He had tickets for a three night gig last year but didn’t go on day two because of the pain. But he still went to day three!

 

He talked for the whole ride. He was a bachelor who moved here n to take care of his ailing mother who passed away last year and he stayed after to handle her affairs. He had always planned on retiring in here as the Denver cold was taking its toll on him and his bones and so he decided it was time to retire. He had worked for decades in electronics and computers in Denver, having worked through the tech booms and bubbles bursting.

 

As we got closer, he asked me about the music venues in the city. I told him I had moved there during the pandemic and had not had the chance to go to any. As a ride share driver, I saw them all from the outside and could only gauge them by their customers, but not from the inside.

 

He told me of a theater that he had gone to see plays. He liked plays. I said it was near where I lived but hadn’t seen any shows there yet. He said that I really needed to get out and do things besides drive. He wasn’t wrong. He told me that the theatre was doing a play that was kind of raunchy… a two person play about a domineering director and an actress… he couldn’t remember the name.

 

I said “Venus in Fur”?

 

He said “That’s it! You should go see it!”

 

At that point, we reached the airport, and I dropped him off.

 

I felt like he was a man who had not spoken to anyone in quite awhile, and really had a lot to say.

 

Maybe he hasn’t talked much to anyone since his mother passed. I was happy to listen.

 

He was right, though. I should go see a show. I‘ve been told that there is a good one playing not too far from where I live.