This undated, provided photo shows the 1939 school bus called Furthur parked inside a barn on the Kesey family farm in Pleasant Hill, Ore. For the first time since 1969, the bus that became a symbol of '60s counterculture will be on public display as part of a Grateful Dead-themed exhibition in San Francisco.
Courtesy of the Kesey Family
In 1964, Oregon author Ken Kesey and a group of friends, known as the Merry Pranksters, embarked on a cross-country road trip from California to New York aboard a 1939 customized school bus.
They painted the bus in psychedelic colors, added a rooftop platform and made other modifications. The bus, known as Furthur, became a symbol of the countercultural ethos of the ‘60s, from protesting the Vietnam War to ushering in the LSD-tinged anthems of the Grateful Dead in San Francisco.
And now, for the first time since 1969, Furthur has left its home at the Kesey family farm outside Eugene to open a new generation of hearts and minds.
As first reported by the New York Times earlier this month, the bus is returning to San Francisco as the centerpiece of “Forever Grateful, Golden Gate Park, a Grateful Dead-themed exhibition in San Francisco opening on Sep. 5.
The Oregon nonprofit Furthur Down the Road Foundation has been working for years to raise funds to restore the bus, which it hopes to start after the exhibit ends in late October.
Ken Kesey’s son, Zane, joins us to discuss Furthur’s legacy, the plans for its restoration and what lessons he thinks this countercultural icon can offer us today.
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