Things you wish you had never learned

I have to give a hat tip to Amuirin for capturing this graphic as it is just perfect for what I had already planned to write about today:

Earth Day is tomorrow. Does anyone else have an idea of why Yahoo went green with a sprig of leaves next to it on April 20th? Anyone? Bueller?

Ah, this is one of those things I’ve learned courtesy of DS1 that I was oh so blissfully ignorant about until that fateful weekend in 2002 when I abandoned my house on a weekend in April to participate in my first breast cancer 3-day. Now before I go on to these lovely stories about 420 and it’s impact on *my* life, let’s go over a few things that I should probably share with DS1 to set him straight on the origins of this day’s significance.

I was told that 420 was the Calif Code for possession or use of marijuana. Turns out to be false. Here is a great, quick read that debunks all the seemingly cool originators of the date/time: What is 420?

So it’s not a Calif police code, or the date Jim Morrison died or the number of chemicals in the celebrated weed. No, it is most likely some random tradition started somewhere on a high school campus amongst the users. Even without the internet, these kinds of sayings and rumors fly around pretty quickly and easily! In fact, here is the an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Although many diverse theories exist to explain the origin of the term, one central root of the phrase stems from a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California in 1971; the teens would meet after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke cannabis at the Louis Pasteur statue.^[3][4] The term became part of their group’s salute, “420 Louis!”,^[5] and became popularized in the late 1980s by fans of The Grateful Dead.^[6] Many North American cannabis users continue to observe 4:20 as a time to smoke communally. By extension April 20 (“4/20” in U.S. dating shorthand) has evolved into a counterculture holiday, where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis.^[7][8][9] In some locations this celebration coincides with Earth Week.

So now that we have the facts vs rumors, here’s my two stories.

4/20/2002 – Still naive – I went innocently on my 3-day walk leaving DS1 at home for the weekend. Unfortunately, a parent free house, a 17 year old + 420 falling on a Saturday with kids who use the MJ was not a good combination! I came home to utter and complete disaster AND random kids still sleeping in various places in my then rented townhouse. How the devil police were not called in such a tightly packed community of town homes, I do not know. Unless of course the neighbors were happy to turn their heads and  participate 🙂 Anyway, that was the year I found out and since then I am on a mission to warn ALL you parents out there – Lock up your kids on 4/20!! Or, certainly don’t let them go to a party that night. Make sure if it falls on a week day that you kids GO to school! Interesting reading the first article I found that there have been repeated problems with ditching that day. Heh.

Fall of 2005 and the august moms are in San Fransisco taking a really awesome Haight/Ashbury walking tour. The tour guide periodically ‘tests’ our knowledge of the area and history and legends around it. Squib was the total teacher’s pet and answers most of the questions 🙂 Which was kind of funny since she was the youngest one there! I redeemed myself though. Oh so proudly let me tell ya! We get to the corner with the infamous street signs. Attached to the sign is a clock. (I would have loved to post a picture of the clock here, but the only image I could find on the whole WWW in my limited search time was this flickr image which is copy right protected so I am being a good girl and simply linking to it). Said clock is permanently frozen in time – at 4:20. The guide poses the question to us if we know why. “Uh…(cough cough) yeah…um…that’s the time of the day when you are supposed to burn some weed.” Huh Huh (think Beavis and Butthead there please). Woo hoo! I knew something! Weee. Thanks DS1.

The really funny thing is that the significance of the day drifted in and out of my brain throughout the day yesterday. Yeah, like wisps of smoke ;-> Thankfully though it was a quiet, uneventful, non partying day. IOW all you parents out there – they DO grow out of it!!! But the stuff they teach you along the way..well…be prepared.