Still a teenager at 19 years-old, I was struggling, working to make a buck and going to school. Much to my father's disappointment, I got a job working with a janitorial firm, Gunther Hagel Maintenance. It was a large company by my standards.

It had a fleet of six or seven vans all outfitted with janitorial supplies, vacuums, mops and mop buckets, floor scrubbers and buffers, detergents, floor wax, cleanser, toilet paper, etc. Mr. Hagel had built the company from scratch and was successful enough to afford a beautiful house where he and his wife reared three kids.

His firm had accounts all over Marin County. One of the accounts was for a building on Lincoln Avenue in San Rafael, California. We had an account on one of the floors of this multi-story building. That floor housed the Grateful Dead, a wildly popular band who thrived in the sex, drugs, and rock and roll era. The floor also housed the New Riders of Purple Sage; popular, but not as popular as the Grateful Dead. As janitor jobs went, I suppose I would have been the envy of many a Grateful Dead fan.

From my experience cleaning their offices I can tell you that their reputation for doing drugs was all true. When I went in to clean up, there were partially smoked marijuana cigarettes (commonly called roaches) everywhere. I recall walking into the manager's office once to empty the trash and there was about ten people sitting in a circle smoking hashish. The room was filled with smoke. I said hello to everyone and someone said, come in and sit down. I had work to do and declined their offer. I think that made them a little paranoid.

Another time, Jerry Garcia was sitting in the manager's office when I walked in. His manager asked him if he had tried this special pot he had. Jerry said, "Yes, but I was too high on acid (LSD) to tell if it was any good." I looked at him when he said that, and he just smiled.

Cleaning their office wasn't a big job. It only took 15 minutes. Since it was such a small job I hoped that it wouldn't be a big deal if I skipped it when I forgot the keys one night. My hopes were dashed the next day when I got to work, and my boss told me we lost the account. Too many roaches in the ash trays I suppose. So, there is my claim to fame. I was not only the Grateful Dead's janitor, I was fired by them too.

Mr. Hagel was mad at me, but he didn't fire me. He probably cut me some slack because it was a small job, and I was a kid he knew from the neighborhood. Still, I didn't last long after that. Mr. Hagel got angry with me again for not emptying a vacuum cleaner when it was full.

To demonstrate why it was important, he put his hands around my neck, not choking me, but that is what it looked like, and yelled at me saying: "If you were filled up with poop, and were stopped up, you would blow up, right? You'd blow up!"

He didn't hurt me, he just pissed me off and since I hated the job anyway, I quit the next day. I stuck it out for three months before throwing in the towel. That incident was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Never-the-less, I still impress Dead Heads today when I tell them I was the Grateful Dead's janitor.

~ Andrew Laufer

Papa Laufer’s Stories: Positive Reflections of Life in America is available on Amazon.