Is Jerry Gonna Be There?

Because this is my blog I can blog about whatever I want. Even if that means a one-liner joke from my husband’s former boss at a summer work party several years ago.

This man is a top ranking Chatty Charlie. I may never meet another like him. I know a few: my mother, I have two older sisters, and best friends who live out of state I spend hours on the phone with. Years ago my dad declared this state The Chat Blackout. So. This former boss, let’s call him Ed, can CHAT. When I was introduced to him, we bonded instantly over our love of music: he saw Led Zeppelin in high school and Led Zeppelin is the first band I ever loved: eighth grade; he told me about seeing The Dead when he lived in Paris and it started to snow as they started “Morning Dew.” We talk about hippies and eating acid. During COVID lockdown he and I started an email thread, chit-chattin’ the blues away, mostly about nonsense and nose swabs. But it all started with the Jerry Garcia licorice quote:

“Our audience is like people who like licorice,” Jerry Garcia said. “Not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice really like licorice.”

Ed saw The Dead many times. But after Jerry died in 1995, he no longer saw the point. “I was invited to see them by a friend,” he told me, “and this was later in the 90s and he had great seats. And I asked, Is Jerry Gonna Be There?”

He laughed. I laughed. It makes no sense to anyone and it’s a specific punchline to a meaningless story and it’s become a one-liner my husband and I reach for all the time any time the name Jerry comes up (or The Dead). And when I bought this Jerry shirt during lockdown (hey! we all have our coping mechanisms) that I actually just sewed up an armpit hole because I love it so much. It’s a t-shirt that’s become a uniform to me, one of a few shirts I wear to feel exactly like myself, like I cannot be stopped. It’s armor. And every time I wear it, I proudly announce: Jerry’s Gonna Be There.