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SUMMARY: There are some photos that go along with this story. Go to www.williamhrdina.com to see them. The story is still good without them- but they're important- sadly Sffworld stories don't support images.

"The Hippie Photo of Doom"
William Hrdina


There is a photo hanging in my kitchen. It sits nestled just above the thermostat in the narrow space of wall between the bathroom and the office.
<<PHOTO HERE>>
Here's a picture of the picture.
As you can see, it's in a nice flat black frame with complementary blue matting. I gave the photo to my wife Vickei on our first married Christmas together.
I know- that's all very cute. But why, you ask yourself, would I want to sit and read a story about some guy's Christmas present?
Well you wouldn't, unless you're one of those people who like that kind of thing- but I personally am not one of those people. Trust me, there's more to the story- and it's not particularly Chistmas-ey either.
Anyway, Vickei and I first came across the photo while we were puttering around on the Internet- looking at old concert photos and promotional posters. Vickei and I are both Deadheads and so we were, predictably, looking at the Grateful Dead stuff in particular.
Just in case you cannot help yourself- feel free to insert your favorite Dirty Hippie Joke Here.
Still, you have to give the Dead credit- they appreciated the craftsmanship behind a really solid concert poster- and the philosophy behind the transmission of legends via both art and music. Most bands are lucky to have a single iconic image attached to them- the Dead have like 20- Dancing Bears, the Steal Your Face, the Terrapin Turtles, and Bertha the Skeleton. Indeed, the linking of sublingual images to...
Sorry about that- sometimes a philosophy degree is more trouble than it's worth.
The point is, when Vickei saw the photo she recognized it immediately from when she was on tour. There was this one particular vendor she kept seeing in the lots as the hippie nation made its way across the country who had this exact same picture for sale. All tour long Vickei wanted to buy it, but she was characteristically too broke to buy anything larger than a garlic grilled cheese. Nothing out of the ordinary there- being broke is just one of the downsides to touring when you're not drawing your money out of a trust fund.
When she saw the picture Vickei grabbed my hand and pointed at it- pulling it out of the clutter of images filling the screen.
"I know that photo." She said, tapping directly on the screen, "See if you can make it bigger."
I clicked on it and a slightly larger, but still too small image popped up. Because the site we were looking at was selling the photo we couldn't make it any bigger or save it to our MyPictures. We tried different tricks for a minute or two to accomplish this normally simple goal, but finally gave up.
I knew immediately I would be purchasing this picture for her for Christmas so I clicked away from the page as quickly as I dared and did my best to get her to forget we'd even seen it. Thankfully this was in April so she had plenty of time for it to slip her mind.
The photo shows people dancing at a Grateful Dead concert. For my wife, this photo captures the essence of a Dead show better than any other she's seen.