What is A 4:20 Culture

by | Nov 28, 2016 | Ice Cream Consulting

Have you ever looked at 420 or 4:20 or 4/20 as anything other than a date, time or simply a sequential number? Well I haven’t until recently. Not recognizing the code clearly indicates and exposes me for what I am, a non “stoner” or 70’s hippie. I’m a late baby boomer, so for me being at a high plain meant watching All in the Family or WKRP in Cincinnati and eating ice cream.

Over the last several months I’ve noticed individuals labeling themselves as 420 experts or specialists, so in further investigation, I indeed discovered it is was not simply a myth, but still a kind of following or cult that stops momentarily every April 20 at 4:20 in the afternoon. I’m not sure if for that brief moment, the enthusiasts are sipping coffee or toking a bong, but nevertheless paying homage to the students called “Waldos” of San Rafael High School.

I would say the term shown as 420, 4:20 or 4/20 can be a reference code to a number of meanings including a time, a date or a cannabis culture. Wikipedia defines 420, 4:20, or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) as a code-term referring to the consumption of cannabis, especially smoking cannabis around the time of 4:20 p.m. and celebrating cannabis on April 20 (which is 4/20 in U.S. form). However, I suggest The Huffington Post paints a better illustration of the code-term from an article published on 4/20/2010 entitled, The True Story of How April 20 Became Weed Day. 420 was created around 1971 by a group of 5 San Rafael High School friends, known as the Waldos by virtue of their chosen hang-out spot, a wall outside the school.

Here is an excerpt of the article:

It starts with the Dead.

It was Christmas week in Oakland, 1990. Steven Bloom was wandering through The Lot – that timeless gathering of hippies that springs up in the parking lot before every Grateful Dead concert – when a Deadhead handed him a yellow flyer. “We are going to meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais,” reads the message, which Bloom dug up and forwarded to the Huffington Post. Bloom, then a reporter for High Times magazine and now a co-author of Pot Culture, had never heard of “420-ing” before.

The flyer came complete with a 420 back story: “420 started somewhere in San Rafael, California in the late ‘70s. It started as the police code for Marijuana Smoking in Progress. After local heads heard of the police call, they started using the expression 420 when referring to herb – Let’s Go 420, dude!”

Bloom reported his find in the May 1991 issue of High Times, which the magazine found in its archives and provided to the Huffington Post. The story, though, was only partially right.

It had nothing to do with a police code — though the San Rafael part was dead on. Indeed, a group of five San Rafael High School friends known as the Waldos – by virtue of their chosen hang-out spot, a wall outside the school – coined the term in 1971. The Huffington Post spoke with Waldo Steve, Waldo Dave and Dave’s older brother, Patrick, and confirmed their full names and identities, which they asked to keep secret for professional reasons. (Pot is still, after all, illegal.)

The Waldos never envisioned that pot smokers the world over would celebrate each April 20th as a result of their foray into the Point Reyes forest. The day has managed to become something of a national holiday in the face of official condemnation. Read the full story ….

Today the ice cream enthusiast and business person can celebrate the Waldos and 420, by starting a ice cream manufacturing business in one the four states and District of Columbia that legalized Recreational Marijuana and make THC infused frozen dairy and non dairy treats. However, to do so successfully and in a timely fashion, it is “highly” recommended that you hire a ice cream consultant like Darryl, who can get you out of the smoke and into business of ice cream successfully.

Darryl David
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