High There

What 420 Means: The True Story Behind Stoners' Favorite Number: "had nothing to do with a police code -- though the San Rafael part was dead on. Indeed, a group of five San Rafael High School friends known as the Waldos - by virtue of their chosen hang-out spot, a wall outside the school - coined the term in 1971."

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In 1970 and 71 I lived on San Francisco Bay in Marin County, complete with dock and boat , and remember well that Marin was one of the hot centers of my generation's universe. I can't explain exactly why it was, but it was - maybe because the whole world had been looking at San Francisco for a number of years, waiting for some new sign of the apocalypse or some cool sci-fi solution to everything or a new drug as a consolation for not finding one.

And Marin County delivered: gorgeous weather, unmatched beauty in its woods, around its lakes, on its bayshores and seashores, in it's small towns. We had the peacock feathers, Lucas Ranch, coke on the tabletops, and the highest number of stoned musicians-per-square-inch in the known world.

In 1971 San Rafael had about 30,000+ people and was not yet yuppied-up with lacquered barstools and leggy blondes. We guys still called our girlfriend our "old lady" and we accepted the granny-dress as she prepared the oh-so-cheap lentil soup and put a tie-dyed patch on our jeans.

420 was not widely known for many years, but now it is a small gift from the past, reminding everyone who cares that we did exist and that we did change the universe and that we did do it as it needed to be done.