The Music Never Stopped: A Look at Jerry Garcia's Long Strange Trip to Professional Hockey [2/2]

[Gustav 6,407]

Jerry Garcia was born on August 9th, 1998, in San Francisco, California, to two parents who were perfectly normal in every way, thank you very much. 

 

...Well, not exactly. 

 

Eyes of the World: The Early Life

 

You see, despite incredibly improbable odds, both of his parents were conceived at Woodstock, were born in the spring of 1970, and embraced the counterculture movement of the '60s in ways which would make some hippies say "hey, man, let's take a step back here." 

 

"You know, I was never around at the same time as the Grateful Dead," said Garcia, who, not altogether coincidentally, shares a name with the group's all-time great lead guitarist, who died of health complications three years to the day before the defenseman's birth, "But you'd never know it from looking at me or my family. Other kids grew up with The Wiggles; I got 45-minute jam sessions." 

 

At home, Garcia's parents burned incense, smoked weed, and, well, kept smoking weed. "I have no idea how it's possible for anyone to be constantly stoned like that," says Garcia, "but it happened. I remember the first time I tried it, and I was 8 years old in the back of our old station wagon and we were driving from Boulder to Seattle to follow Phish." In this respect, however, the talented young player was quite different from his parents. "I hated it," he says. "I coughed for days on end afterwards and didn't feel much of anything. I decided to never touch the stuff again." 

 

The social dynamics of school proved to be a challenge for Garcia as well. It was a rare day when he did not face the ridicule of his peers for anything from his tie-dye shirts to his organic almond butter and flax seed sandwiches. Despite all this, however, he didn't hate his identity. In fact, he embraced it, picking up the guitar at the age of 12 and forming Grateful to be Alive, a local jam band which played gigs in San Francisco bars from when Garcia was 15 until he turned 18. 

 

At that point, though, he'd had enough. Enough of the counterculture. Enough declining his parents' offers of pot brownies. Enough almond butter and flax seed sandwiches. And though he continues to love their music, even listening to the Dead can wear thin on a 24-hour basis. As soon as Jerry Garcia could legally leave home, he packed up and did it.

 

Truckin': Journey to Houston

 

"In retrospect, that may not have been the smartest decision," Garcia remarked. "I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I didn't know where I was going to live. I'd worked at a local co-op at the end of our block that believed in 'sticking it to the man' and not following any federal laws. As luck would have it, that principle extended to the minimum wage, and my $4 an hour didn't really amount to much in savings." All of which, by the way, were in cash, as his family did not trust banks. 

 

"I fit everything I had in a suitcase and carried my guitar on my back," Garcia recalls. "I needed to get out, so I decided on Phoenix. I didn't really have a reason why I was going to Phoenix. I just wanted to. Anything is cheaper than San Fran these days." 

 

So he did. And as it was the middle of August, it was hot. Not just hot but Phoenix hot. "I stepped out of the car and it was a hundred eight degrees. 108! And it was like that all week. I spent my entire first week walking around a Walmart trying not to be noticed just because it was air-conditioned. Eventually I found an apartment and a full-time job at a rec center, and the very first thing I bought was the nicest window-mounted AC unit I could find." 

 

Eventually, Garcia became settled in with his surroundings, and as part of his job was to do some paperwork and organization for a local junior hockey team, he visited the rink one day to try skating for the first time. 

 

"To be honest, I really only walked in because it was cold," says Garcia. "I knew the manager, and he let me on the ice after hours for as long as I wanted to be there, so long as I resurfaced it afterward. Within a month, I was absolutely flying around the ice and was starting to get pretty good with a puck."

 

Good enough, in fact, that he was invited to try out for the junior team that winter, improbably making it onto the first defensive line a few weeks into the season and attracting scouts from some minor professional leagues. "It was unbelievable seeing this kid," said Alexander Pepper, Helsinki goaltender and general manager of the VHLM's expansion Houston Bulls. "He didn't look like anything special from an outsider's perspective. He really just looked like any other defenseman out there. But the fact that he'd gotten to that point and was competing with very talented players who had been playing their entire lives after just a few months was ridiculous. I put him on our draft board right then and there." 

 

Garcia woke up at 5:00 every morning, going to the rec center's gym before it opened at 8 and working out for three hours straight. And then he'd skate. Whether his team were there or not, if the ice was unoccupied, he was out there. "I kept a printed schedule of all the times the rink was available, in my car, in my apartment, just about everywhere I could. I'd skate for an hour, bring out the Zamboni for a little league game, skate for another hour, bring it out for the beer league, skate again, then practice with the team and put in a bit of extra skating work after that. The manager was great: he let me do all this as long as I had all the paperwork done for him by the next day. I'd do it during games and sometimes I'd take it home at night. Some nights I was up past midnight and I got up at 5 the next morning anyway. I'd take weekends off from skating, and sometimes I slept straight through Saturday." 

 

And when the draft rolled around, Garcia's dreams came true, when he was picked up by the Bulls with the 36th overall pick in the VHLM draft. Garcia has had a strong preseason so far, recording a goal and four assists through his first four games despite maintaining a defensive style of play. 

 

"I couldn't be happier," Garcia says about his arrival in Houston. 

 

Oh, and he still listens to the Dead.

Edited March 2, 2019 by GustavMattias
Headings

[FacebookFighter 67]

Firstly, congrats on your first point in the VHML.

 

Now to the review.

 

Use Bolded headings and separate the paragraphs.

Nice references though lol. Good content and it stood out as something a little different.

Not gonna lie I found myself chuckling throughout the story.

Very good job

 

[DollarAndADream 3,356]

(Not a review)

 

This would look a lot better if you gave it some spacing. Separated the paragraphs, add in a title and subheadings, maybe a picture, etc. Right now it just looks like  wall of text.

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

REVIEW: Ugh, organic almond butter and flax seed sandwiches. I've had both once, as well as other peanut butter alternatives like sunflower butter, and don't plan on having them ever again. I enjoyed that Jerry only grew to love hockey after searching for a way to escape the Phoenix heat. Another personal story, but I was in Scottsdale for work in August of last year. Was 105 when we landed, and after coming back from dinner, I discovered that the AC in my room had stopped working and it was already about 83 degrees in my room. 

 

Overall, this was a very enjoyable and well written story. Good luck on your VHL career and this season with the Houston Bulls! Did you have in mind that Jerry was going to move to Houston in his biography, or did that happen after the fact when you signed with the Bulls?

[Gustav 6,407]

30 minutes ago, flyersfan1453 said:

REVIEW: Ugh, organic almond butter and flax seed sandwiches. I've had both once, as well as other peanut butter alternatives like sunflower butter, and don't plan on having them ever again. I enjoyed that Jerry only grew to love hockey after searching for a way to escape the Phoenix heat. Another personal story, but I was in Scottsdale for work in August of last year. Was 105 when we landed, and after coming back from dinner, I discovered that the AC in my room had stopped working and it was already about 83 degrees in my room. 

 

Overall, this was a very enjoyable and well written story. Good luck on your VHL career and this season with the Houston Bulls! Did you have in mind that Jerry was going to move to Houston in his biography, or did that happen after the fact when you signed with the Bulls?

Jerry would have been very happy with any team, and, as the Bulls kept their interest in him secret, he had no idea that they were the team who would eventually pick him. As such, had he not been selected or signed, he likely would have stayed in Phoenix as it was the only place he could train as long as he wanted for free. 

Good luck with Davos and congrats on your first VHL point!