Noted with bemusement

From A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead by Dennis McNally:

“Jerry and Sara were married on April 27, 1963, at the Palo Alto Unitarian Church, with a reception following at Rickey’s Hyatt House that included the music of the Wildwood Boys. It was the sort of wedding, several friends later observed, where the groom’s friends could be found stuffing their empty bellies at the food line, while the bride’s family members soothed their shaken nerves with drinks at the bar. The wedding was ‘tense,’ Garcia later recalled. ‘As far as the parents of my girlfriends… I’ve always been like Satan.’ Sara ‘was such a delicate fawn in my jungle.’ His best man was David Nelson, who felt scruffy around the Ruppenthals, although Willy Legate trumped him by attending in a T-shirt….

“[Phil Lesh] took the bus to Palo Alto, staggered into Kepler’s, then landed at the Chateau, the only refuge he could imagine, just a bit before the wedding.

“Five days after their ceremony, Jerry and Sara played together at the Tangent…. Sara had a good voice and they blended nicely…. Two weeks later the Hart Valley Drifters, with Garcia on banjo, Ken Frankel on mandolin, Hunter on bass, and Nelson on guitar, performed at the Monterey Folk Festival in the amateur division, winning Best Group. Garcia was also awarded Best Banjo Player….”

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Um, yes, that was Jerry Garcia who got married here, back in his folk musician days, but that does not mean we are going to decorate the church in tie-dye. And I admit my disappointment — I was kinda hoping for a Terry Riley connection, or maybe Jello Biafra.

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