Main Piece

OK so pretty much what the story of the Waldos is the story of how four twenty became the stoner time as well as the stoner number. And pretty much, there was this group of high school students in San Francisco that every day- well like a small part of San Francisco- where every day at 4:20 after school they would meet at this one statue to smoke weed and shit. And that was just because like that was the most convenient time to like go home, get your stuff, come back, and smoke weed with your homies. And pretty much because of the Deadheads that were following around the Talking Heads? the Grateful Dead? and stuff at the time pretty much they met those kids and picked up that lingo from them, and it got spread across the entire country. And now 420 is the stoner time. Congratulations, you now have a piece of stoner folklore.

Background

The informant is well-versed in stoner culture, to say the least.

Nationality: American

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Context

I was talking about the collection assignment and they had talked to someone about it before and wanted to tell me their favorite piece of folklore.

Notes

This is a textbook legend, and a really fun one at that. It’s obviously taking place in our world, because you have the Grateful Dead and the Talking Heads, but it’s unclear if it’s true of not. Would those huge bands ever really have the chance to talk to some high school kids long enough to pick up their lingo? Who knows, and doesn’t matter!