Photo: Sam Watson

THE DANCERS

SUMMER MAGIC

"You got any smokes, man?" Robert Hunter asks me. He signals me he's looking for a cigarette and I give him a hand rolled one, marijuana but no tobacco. "It's the best of this year's crop" I tell him. He looks at it like an alien would, holds it, studies it, lights it. "This stuff, heh! The funny stuff." He exhales and takes another toke, and says "OK" and passes it to Jerry Garcia who mimics Hunter, and they're both hilarious. Garcia tokes, "Goofitus!" and another "Smoketitus!" laughing and passes the joint along to Donna Jean. She is in the corner surrounded by people talking to her. When Jerry Garcia passes the joint to her, she holds it a long time without taking a toke. I wait, and  capture a glance of her, and she hands me the roach, and I give her the four leaf clover in the flowerpot I’m holding, and share with her Kaela's story. "On the eve of the winter solstice,  I'm with Mikaela Barrett in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco at the Polo Field where I find a four leaf clover. Kaela, who is five, goes into the bushes and comes out with a digging tool. We cut it out of the ground and repot it at home. Kaela asks me to give the four leaf clover to you Donna". "Were you looking for it when you found it?" asks singer Maria Muldaur. "I found one when I was ten years old, and searched for years after that, but running in The Park this week I stumbled upon this one." "I been looking for one for a long time" Maria says. Awhile later, I found a patch of four leaf clovers on Mt. Burdell in Novato. I brought one to Maria Muldaur after a show at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley one night, reminding her of the one I brought to Donna Jean."

 

For Mikaela´s third birthday we take her to Lake Tahoe to spend a day in the snow, and an evening listening to Bob Weir´s new band Kingfish at the King´s Castle. It is an astounding performance and Bob Weir closes the show with three encores. The next morning we learn the town is snowed in and the roads are closed. That afternoon we go to the local pizza parlor down the street, and continue our celebration of  Mikaela´s birthday. Shortly after we arrive, Bob Weir comes walking through the doorway with his guitar. Someone pulls out an amp and microphone and Bob stands on the floor in the restaurant corner and does a solo show for us. Kaela and her older brother Robert are on the floor dancing when Bob starts playing. Kaela is jumpin´ for joy that Bob is there to play music for her birthday party. Bob Weir sings the classics, and his country cowboy in the desert snow songs.

Mikaela sees her first Grateful Dead show in Atlanta when she is five. We had seats in the front row. When I look up, just as the band is starting to play, I see Mikaela sitting on stage by herself, to the side, in front of the wall of sound. She stays there for the entire set.

The following year at her birthday party in February,  at The Shady Grove in San Francisco, Mikaela meets Robert Hunter, where he is performing his rock ballet. Kaela and another six year old girl,  Juniper, gather all the kids on the dance floor and they dance to Alligator Moon Suite.

ALLIGATOR MOON SUITE

ALLIGATOR MOON

Record Release Black Friday 2026

Mikaela, when she is seven,  meets John Perry Barlow.

He wears a cowboy hat and a black scarf tied around his neck.

She asks him,

"Are you the one who wrote I Need A Miracle?"

"Yes, I am." he answers,

and says this about his songwriting partner,

"You know that line, It takes dynamite to get me up,

it really does describe him", he says of Bob Weir.

 

 

FRANKLIN´S TOWER

Uncle John, vocals

Music by Terrapin Family Band

with Phil Lesh

Terrapin Crossroads, San Rafael, CA

FRANKLIN’S TOWER

Video recording on Iphone made by my brother Brian,

images shaking as he dances & records