You have to be basically living under a rock to be unfamiliar with the term 420. You hear it on the radio, movies, television. Everyone knows it's a drug reference, more specifically, a marijuana reference, but few of us know where it comes from. It came up in conversation recently when Blackstone and were at a concert sitting on the lawn. No where is it more apparent how common pot smoking is, than when you're sitting at a concert on the lawn on a glorious summer evening and the sun sets. You can almost get high off the fumes.
I've never known exactly where the 420 reference came from. I'd heard that it might be a police code for drug usage or that it might have something to do with when Bob Marley died. None of that is actually true. It actually began with a small group of high school students in CA in 1971. You can read all about it here.
Now Blackstone just assumes I know the origin of such things from my party days. I don't. I was practically a girl scout when it came to putting illegal substances in my body. Well, not entirely, but almost. And my party days were practically over by the time I graduated high school. I didn't learn about 420 until I moved there, literally. For four years my address was 420 High Street, in a little village with peace in the name of it, no less. I learned the significance shortly after we moved in. Not everyone understood the hilarity of my address, but every once in a while I'd give my address to someone and they'd look at me and laugh. "No really, what's your address?" they'd ask, like I'd just told them my name was Seymour Butts. "No, really, that's my address. I can show you my driver's license if you want." My students got a real kick out of that when somehow my address became common knowledge. They all wanted to make sure I got it. It was very thoughtful of them, really.
Now my address is much more boring, but I'll always have those . . . um, what was I talking about? Never mind. Anybody got any chips?
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