Ski & 420 Friendly
- Thread starter howdynnj
- Start date
The short answer is no one knows. But there are theories:
The legend of the Waldos
According to Chris Conrad, curator of the Oaksterdam Cannabis Museum in Oakland, California, 420 started as a secret code among high schoolers in the early 1970s.
A group of friends at San Rafael High School in Marin County, California, who called themselves "the Waldos," would often meet at 4:20 p.m. to get high.
For them, it was an ideal time: They were out of school but their parents still weren't home, giving them a window of unsupervised freedom. They met at that time every day near a statue of Louis Pasteur, the scientist who pioneered pasteurization.
The 4:20 time became a code for them to use in front of their unsuspecting parents, and 420 gradually spread from there -- possibly via Grateful Dead followers -- across California and beyond. It's even the number of a California Senate bill that established the state's medial marijuana program.
What was shorthand for a group of friends can now be seen on T-shirts, in Tinder bios (420 friendly) and throughout pop culture.
And of course, on the calendar every April.
The legend of the Waldos
According to Chris Conrad, curator of the Oaksterdam Cannabis Museum in Oakland, California, 420 started as a secret code among high schoolers in the early 1970s.
A group of friends at San Rafael High School in Marin County, California, who called themselves "the Waldos," would often meet at 4:20 p.m. to get high.
For them, it was an ideal time: They were out of school but their parents still weren't home, giving them a window of unsupervised freedom. They met at that time every day near a statue of Louis Pasteur, the scientist who pioneered pasteurization.
The 4:20 time became a code for them to use in front of their unsuspecting parents, and 420 gradually spread from there -- possibly via Grateful Dead followers -- across California and beyond. It's even the number of a California Senate bill that established the state's medial marijuana program.
What was shorthand for a group of friends can now be seen on T-shirts, in Tinder bios (420 friendly) and throughout pop culture.
And of course, on the calendar every April.
