My story stems from when my two buddies and I made the trek to Plattsburgh for the Clifford Ball in '96. This was the only show we saw all summer, so we took our time getting there, taking the scenic route through the Adirondacks. We got to Plattsburgh a day before they were letting people in, so we found a local campground. 

This place was right on Lake Champlain, and it had a beach. There was a smattering of phans there, but it was not a teeming, overrun campground. When I think back upon it, it reminds me of how small and different the whole scene used to be. The most interesting people at this campground were these kids from New Jersey who were camped right next to us. 

That night, we sat around their fire and shared our herbal wares. We all ended up super lit, and we went and ran around on the beach and gazed at the stars. The fact that we were right across the lake from Burlington, VT made me feel a strange sort of aura, as if I was in the land that gave birth to the music. It especially reminded me of Squirming Coil "..tried yesterday to get away, and hitchhiked to the beach.." 

Among the Jersey kids, there are two who I clearly remember. One was a guy named Eric who sort of looked like "Jay" from "Clerks" and the other movies from that series. This was funny because those movies take place in New Jersey. The other was a girl, and I forget her name. I do remember her dark tan skin and her tight golden curls. She was gorgeous. 

Her attire threw me for a loop at the time in that she wore "Fresh Jive" tear-away warm up pants. I remember wondering at that time if Phish was the force that would eventually unite ravers and hippies under one beautiful groove. The real meat of this story comes a year later, at the Great Went. 

My buddies and I once again made the trek to New England for the tour-closing show. We arrived at the base the day before, right around 4:20. We found a spot big enough for our tents and threw down our gear to rest a spell. As I looked up, I saw someone walking in between tents towards our spot. I looked at his face and it was him! Eric, the guy from Jersey who looked like Jay! 

There may have been 70K people at the Went, and 75K at the Clifford Ball, but at that moment, it felt like a very small world. The funny thing is that if you want to find someone in a crowd like that, it's damn near impossible to locate them. Yet without trying, you'll run into people from all over the country whom you've met exactly a year before. Crazy strange cool stuff.

 - Ben Shooner