Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Hello followers! I’m Rick Keffer, high school friend of Andy’s and a classmate since fifth or sixth grade.

One of the many things I loved about Andy was that he wasn’t afraid to step up and lend a hand. I can think of a lot of examples but one that stands out is our quest for tickets to see the Grateful Dead in the spring of 1977. For younger folks reading this, I need to explain how the concert ticket process worked back in the day. Our options were the Grateful Dead mail order or Ticketron (now Ticketmaster). The band’s mail order program wasn’t well defined at that point and had a 4 ticket limit anyway. We had six people in our crew (Bill B., Carl M., Paul D., Brother Tim, Andy & myself) so the mail order was out. Ticketron also had a four ticket limit per person so we needed two people to buy tickets.

At that time, the local Ticketron outlet was located at Montgomery Ward at the Belvidere Mall, a few miles away from Waukegan East High School where we were somewhat diligently completing our senior year. To get six tickets I not only needed a person to stand in line with me—I needed that person to skip at least two classes (maybe more!) on a weekday morning. I bounced it off a few of the gang and true to his nature Andy agreed to come along.

Andy and I arrived at the mall on the appointed “on sale” date with our cash in our pockets. Our hearts sank as we walked into the store and saw a line that snaked through the store and spilled out into the mall. We joined the queue and very slowly made our way to the customer service desk as the patrons ahead of us got their tickets. During our wait I noticed that the other customers appeared to be a little older and didn’t quite fit the Deadhead stereotype. We shrugged it off and after a good while waiting we approached the service desk. When I requested tickets to the Grateful Dead concert the lady behind the counter looked surprised and told us we were the first customers for the Dead. All the customers ahead of us had come to get Elvis tickets that went on sale the same day!

Yes, that Elvis.

At this point our heads were spinning but to our delight she told us that when she opened that morning she expected the crowd in line was for the Grateful Dead and had printed four tickets (the limit) as soon as they were available on the store computer. We were ecstatic to buy four seats in the fourth row of the Auditorium Theater! Since we needed six tickets, we had to buy two additional tickets elsewhere in the theater. Thankfully the concert wasn’t yet sold out and we were able to get two additional tickets in the 3rd balcony. Thanks to Andy’s willingness to help out (and his readiness to skip class) we achieved the mission!

The saga of going to the actual show in Chicago is a story for another blog. But we all enjoyed it and most importantly, all made it home safe and sound. In case anyone’s interested in the show, the date is May 12, 1977 and it appears in its entirety on the box set May 1977: Get Shown the Light.

Here is a photo of Tim, me and Andy around the same time as the Dead concert.