THINKER'S ALMANAC - April 20

There are a lot of stories about the meaning behind 4-20, but what is the true story? 

Subject:  Epistemology - Urban Legends

Event: April 20 - 4/20

The most outrageous lies that can be invented will find believers if a man only tells them with all his might. -Mark Twain

This day is purported by some to be the day that Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin died, but don’t believe it. Although all three of these celebrities shared a background of drug use and rock ‘n roll, each died on a separate day other than 4/20.

Other stories claim that the Los Angeles police code for “marijuana use in progress” is 420, or that the number of chemical compounds in marijuana is 420. Both of these claims are untrue.  There’s even one urban legend that says that when the rock group the Grateful Dead toured, they always stayed in Room 420.  

An urban legend is defined as a story that is “too good to be true” by Jan Harold Brunvand, a professor at the University of Utah and the world’s expert in collecting and analyzing urban legends. Brunvand says these stories are told, “as if they are really true, attributed to a friend of a friend.” Each time the story is told, the basic elements (or motifs) are the same, but the setting and other minor details change.

For example, a friend might tell you a story he heard from a friend of a friend that goes like this:

There’s this man, see, and he dresses up like a little old lady and accosts unsuspecting women in shopping malls. Usually, he waits in the car. When the owner of the car shows up, bags in tow, the stranger pleads fatigue and asks her for a ride home. Then the driver notices her passenger’s hairy legs, the wig and, oh yeah, the knife!

This is an example of a story that was reported in the Seattle Times on May 4, 1983. It was reported as a rumor that was running up and down the shores of Puget Sound, and no doubt, a story that had appeared in various parts of the country if not the world.

Even in modern, urbanized society, people still love to tell stories. Maybe this is because we were telling stories long before the invention of writing. Urban legends allow even strangers to connect with each other. Another bonus is that they can be easily reconstructed from the basic elements of the tale and don’t need to be told exactly the same way every time (1).

Urban legends come under the category of folklore: songs, legends, beliefs, crafts, and customs that are passed on from one generation to the next by word of mouth. An adjective that is frequently used to describe urban legends is apocryphal. The modern definition according to the American Heritage College Dictionary is “of questionable authorship or authenticity.” The roots of the word are from Greek, meaning secret or hidden. The word was used in Latin to describe the books excluded from the canon of the Old and New Testaments, and these books are still identified today as the Apocrypha.

To find the source of the truth about how this day became associated with drug use, you might consult the fact-checking website Snopes.com.  The true story begins in the fall of 1971 with a group of five students at San Rafael High School in northern California.  The story goes that the group would meet at 4:20 pm after they acquired a hand-drawn map showing the location of a marijuana crop northwest of San Francisco.  The meeting spot was a statue of Louis Pasteur on the high school grounds.  The group met several times and made several attempts at finding the crop, but never were able to find it.  The term “420” became the group’s shorthand slang for their meetings at the Pasteur statue (2).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is an urban legend, and what is the truth behind 4/20?

Challenge - Tell the Tall Tale:  Do a bit of research on urban legends.  Select one that you like, and write your own version of the story, providing enough concrete details about the specific setting, characters, plot, and dialogue to make it sound true.

Sources:

1– Jordan-Smith, Paul. “It Happened to a Friend of a Friend : CURSES! BROILED AGAIN!” Los Angeles Times 17 Dec. 1989.

2.”The Origins of 420.”  Snopes.com.