Wharf Rats
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The Wharf Rats are a group of concert-goers who have chosen to live drug and alcohol free.
Their primary purpose at shows is to make themselves available to anyone who feels the Wharf Rats may have something they want. They announce their presence with yellow balloons, signs, and the Wharf Rats information table. Their goal is to offer support, strength, fellowship, and hope.
The Wharf Rats began during the 1980s as a group of Deadheads under the name "The Wharf Rat Group of Alcoholics Anonymous". [1] (http://www.wharfrat.org/discus/messages/5/17.html?1019586216) However due to operational differences they soon split off from Alcoholics Anonymous, and are not affiliated with them, Narcotics Anonymous, or any other twelve-step program. The Wharf Rats see themselves as "a group of friends sharing a common bond, providing support, information and some traction in an otherwise slippery environment."
While the Wharf Rats originated in the Grateful Dead world, they now have a presence at Dead offshoot and other jam band concerts as well. A similar group named The Phellowship started up in the Phish world. [2] (http://www.phellowship.org/about_us.htm)
The unusual name of this group comes from the Dead song "Wharf Rat", which contains the self-told story of August West, a down-and-out dockside wino:
- Old man down, way down down, down by the docks of the city.
- Blind and dirty, asked me for a dime, a dime for a cup of coffee.
- I got no dime but I got some time to hear his story.
- My name is August West, and I love my Pearly Baker best more than my wine.
- More than my wine - more than my maker, though he's no friend of mine.
- Everyone said, I'd come to no good, I knew I would Pearly, believe them.
- Half of my life, I spent doin' time for some other fucker's crime,
- The other half found me stumbling 'round drunk on Burgundy wine.
- But I'll get back on my feet again someday,
- The good Lord willin', if He says I may.
- I know that the life I'm livin's no good,
- I'll get a new start, live the life I should.
- I'll get up and fly away, I'll get up and fly away, fly away.
- Pearly's been true, true to me, true to my dyin' day he said,
- I said to him, I said to him, "I'm sure she's been."
- I said to him, "I'm sure she's been true to you."
- Got up and wandered, wandered downtown, nowhere to go but just hang around.
- I've got a girl, named Bonnie Lee, I know that girl's been true to me.
- I know she's been, I'm sure she's been true to me.
References
- Epstein, John and Robert Sardiello. 1990. "The Wharf Rats: A Preliminary Examination of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Grateful Dead Head Phenomena." Deviant Behavior, 11: pp. 245-257.
External links
- Wharf Rats website (http://www.wharfrat.org/)