09/04/2024
Here is the real story of where '420' came from
So we all know the number 420, but none of us are really sure where the number came from.
There was a CBS news reporter who said number started in Berkeley, California when students at the University would meet at the quad at 4:20 in the afternoon to get high.
Problem is that that is not the truth!
So we have to think and look at history to find out where that number 420 possibly could’ve come from.
The answer has been in front of us since August 9, 1995.
it just so happens that the lead singer of the Grateful Dead Jerry Garcia died on August 9, 1995 at 4:23 AM.
In 1995 police officers did not have Internet - they did not have cell phones. All they had were walkie-talkies.
Well hippies also had walkie-talkies! When a group of hippies get together in Golden Gate Park with their guitars and herb to party and be mellow, the police in San Francisco had to find a way to notify the fellow police officers that were a bunch of hippies in Golden Gate Park, breaking the law.
They had to do it in such a way that the hippies with their walkie-talkie would have no idea that the police were about to come down on their great evening of hanging out.
So the police will get on the walkie-talkies and say 420 in progress and then fellow officers knew it was time to join up and catch the group of hippies, breaking the law by playing music and getting high.
Of course, this number 420 would go a lot further than just Golden Gate Park! The police and the rest of California started using the number 420 and then it started going east Texas, Arizona, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, New York, every city and state in the nation. The police on the walkie-talkies would use the number 420.
That’s how the number 420 became a national term for being cool and excepting getting high as something that everyone does.
In this day and age using the number for everything and everywhere - go on dating sites 'I’m 420 friendly'. Now, everyone looks at their watch and it’s 4:20 in the afternoon - time to take a break from work to go take a smoke - - time to be cool .
No one would think that from the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia in 1995 iy would be close to 30 years later and a simple word like '420', a simple number 420 is still widely accepted in use today but once again how many people really know that this number came from Jerry Garcia
