Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Four Hundred and Twenty

420. Four-twenty. If you are under the age of 40, you probably know how this seemingly innocent looking number relates to cannabis. Since I am not under the age of 40, I do not know the origin of it, but I do know that it somehow relates to cannabis. It is my belief that it stems from the 70's in either a movie or a book where a group of kids would meet after school at 4:20 to smoke pot. I even have an inkling this group of kids was called "The Waldos." Okay, that's all I know. I plead innocent of anything else.

.....

Today my innocent special needs son, aged 21, asked me at least 15 times in the first 45 minutes after I arrived home from work, "What's your plan?" This is his favourite question. He cannot comprehend the answer. "I have no plan. I am tired. I am going to kill time. I am going to go to bed. The end."

After the 15th time I said, "Make me a plan. You decide. I'll do it." As a result we spent an hour in Value Village tonight. Oh yay.

On the way home, he asked me, "Mom, what did you do on April 20th?"

"What?? I'm not a frickin' calendar. I have no idea. I don't even know what day of the week that was."

"I flew to Vancouver to see B&K on the 19th. I was at their house on the 20th," he says to me. "I saw a lot of cops that day. Were there lots of cops and sirens around here that day?"

"Not that I remember. There's always more cops and sirens in Vancouver."

"No, Mom!" he says in a very you-old-idiot-you-don't-know-anything tone. "April 20th is 4:20 day."

Like I said, I'm over 40. What do I know.

1 comment:

mari said...

420 is the area code in some parts of Toronto... But those Eastern counterparts don't celebrate april 20th the way some Westerner's do. My friend Lily lives there and when asked about 420 had no idea it was a "code" for cannabis and the such..

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