Charlotte Donlon.jpg

Charlotte Donlon sold a ticket to see the Grateful Dead in Birmingham in 1995 to finish a college assignment. (Courtesy photo)

Story by Hannah Hammitte



Seven minutes away from Virginia Goodwin Residence Hall, a dormitory at Birmingham-Southern College known for its microscopic living quarters, the Grateful Dead opened up a sold-out show with the sweet, melancholy words of "Stranger" in 1995.

As Jerry Garcia sang, Charlotte Donlon sat in a panic back in her box of a dorm room writing her English paper that was due the next day.



Donlon was a sophomore majoring in pre-med. She scored a ticket to the show and was thrilled to soon be experiencing her first Dead show. However, her Dell computer had other plans for her night.



Shortly before the show, Donlon sat at her desk in the corner of her dorm room and proceeded to print her English paper and begin getting ready for the night's adventures.



"As I went to print my completed paper, the screen just went black," she said. "It had crashed. There was no fixing it. I had to completely rewrite my paper."



Donlon's grade in organic chemistry was vital as a pre-med student.



Unfortunately, her grade was struggling and there was no way she could afford a bad grade in another class such as English. With this in mind, she gave her ticket away and rather than singing "Ramble On Rose" at the top of her lungs, she rushed to N.E. Miles Library to rewrite a six-page paper in silence.



"I just didn't see any way around the situation," she said. "In the moment I was trying to do the right thing, but knowing what I know now, I would have made a different decision."



It has almost been 20 years since Donlon had the chance of a lifetime to see the Grateful Dead in one of their last shows with Garcia. Of course, she didn't know it was a chance of the lifetime then. Four months after the band's April 1995 shows at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center, Garcia died of a heart attack while at a California drug rehabilitation facility.



"I remember the disappointment of not being able to go," Donlon said. "I was even more disappointed when I found out Jerry died. At the time, I just didn't know it would be a once in a lifetime experience."



The news of Garcia's death came as a shock to Grateful Dead fans all over, but for Donlon it hit a little closer to home. As she looks back on the night, she realizes how much of a special show she missed out on.



"I understood the cultural significance of the show," she said. "Though I wasn't a huge Deadhead, I wish I could have experienced the show as one of their typical concert goers."



Since Donlon's ripped jeans and ragged sorority shirt days, she changed her major, graduated, got married and had two kids of her own. She said if her kids have the opportunity to go to something such as a concert, she won't let a paper get in the way of their experience.



"Say my daughter had the opportunity to go see U2 in concert, I would want her to go," she said.



However, there don't seem to be any more Grateful Dead concerts in Donlon's future despite the band's scheduled "Fare Thee Well" concerts in Chicago this July.



"I can't put my mind around what a show would be like without Jerry," she said. "I just don't have it in me to recreate it."



Twenty years later, she spends the majority of her time caring for her two children and working part-time for Red Mountain Church as the Community Group Coordinator. But she can still remember as if it were yesterday when she traded a night with the Grateful Dead for a night in at the library.



"By the way, I made a D in the class."