THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 11, 1995 TAG: 9508110459
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
The mood was one of celebration more than of mourning at a Norfolk gathering of Grateful Dead fans Thursday, the night after guitarist/avatar Jerry Garcia's death.
About 50 Deadheads, many of them longtime followers who had traveled across the country and overseas in the rock band's wake, came together at Mr. T's Tacos in the 1000 block of 44th St. in Norfolk. The restaurant has hosted a regular Dead night since 1979, when it was called Speedy's, said owner Dan Chavez.
The fans sipped beer and soda while a tape of the Dead doing Johnny Cash's ``Big River'' blasted over the sound system. A few listeners moved in time with the music. One, who negotiated the narrow space between the bar and its opposite wall, was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with cartoon heroes Calvin and Hobbes: ``I'm still walking . . . so I know I can dance!''
Outside, near an Econoline van stickered with several familiar Dead logos, two veterans of the scene stood talking intensely.
``The times we had! We had some times!'' said Graham Sheeron of Norfolk, who previously managed Mr. T's Dead evenings. He speculated about Garcia's cosmic whereabouts.
``He and Elvis are fighting over a copy of the National Enquirer. He and Brent are sippin' Heinekens.''
His friend Beth Mazur of Norfolk, who said she had seen 99 Dead concerts in America and Europe, remembered an encounter with the Dead's leader last year at Florida's Epcot Center.
``He was on a ride we were in line for. We ran around the back of the ride and waited for him to get off. He was with his new wife. We got his autograph on the back of our Epcot Center ticket stubs. He was pretty nice. I think his wife was a little irritated. She wasn't used to it yet.''
Mazur, who left ``the road'' in 1991 and is now a student in international studies at ODU, and Sheeron agreed that the band is unlikely to continue in the wake of Garcia's passing.
Mazur said she doubts that side projects, such as fellow Dead singer-guitarist Bob Weir's group, would inspire quite the sense of community and circus that was a hallmark of the Dead's tours.
``It's a different thing,'' she said. ``I don't think that essence, that spirit like that, will be found again. There's a hole that can only be filled by memories and music and reflection.
``My life didn't revolve around it, but it was a big part of me.''
Seemingly mourning what Sally Mason, a Deadhead inside the restaurant, called ``not the end of an era (but) the end of a lifestyle,'' Mazur recalled the friends she had met while ``on the bus.''
``I know these people. I only see them four or five times a year. I only know them from the road. I don't know how to find them. I don't know their addresses. They may be gone to me.
``I think we all knew it was comin','' she said. ``But I think we thought we had a year or two left.''
And she laughed. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
TAMARA VONINSKI/Staff
Sally Mason joined the gathering of about 50 Deadheads at Mr. T's
Tacos on 44th Street in Norfolk on Thursday.
Graphic
GARCIA TRIBUTE
A drum circle in tribute to Garcia is scheduled for 9 o'clock
tonight at Half Moon Music, a store specializing in Dead
memorabilia, at 16th Street and Pacific Avenue in Virginia Beach.
For information, call 428-4072.
by CNB