There was a time not so long ago when 420 was a legitimately secret code — not entirely top secret, but still “secret-ish” in the way that widespread inside jokes could be before the internet effectively revealed most of these half secrets. But when 420 was still semi-concealed from the mainstream consciousness, even those who knew the secret code mostly had no idea why they were smoking at 20 minutes past 4 o’clock or on that day in mid-April. Few people outside of San Rafael, California had ever heard of “The Waldos,” the true originators of the 420 holiday, so even if a person did have some vague idea about the origins of 420, it was generally wrong.
