Almost let it pass by
This past weekend, January 18th, marked the 15th anniversary of my first day at Peaches. If you met me there, you've now know how long you've known me. And fuck, we're old.
And yes I remember the exact day because it was the day ZZ Top's Antenna album came out. Everyone who worked that day got a T-shirt to wear except me since it was my first day and I wasn't there when the rep brought them by.
My first customer came to me because Manager Dave, who was kind of annoying, never looked a girl in the eye (Hannah can verify this), but when you worked with him, you never had to work, anyways, he was going through my training list when he had to go do some manager stuff and had me work the floor for a minute. This foreign guy came up to me and said he was looking for a Led Zeppelin album. Perfect, I know Led Zep, they only put out 8 records, this should be simple.
"Which one?"
"Um, Down on the Farm".
Oh ok, wow, let me look that up..wait they don't have an album called that.
"Oh yeah, it's a bootleg."
Just what you see on the menu pal.
15 years, holy shit. I peaked too soon.
And yes I remember the exact day because it was the day ZZ Top's Antenna album came out. Everyone who worked that day got a T-shirt to wear except me since it was my first day and I wasn't there when the rep brought them by.
My first customer came to me because Manager Dave, who was kind of annoying, never looked a girl in the eye (Hannah can verify this), but when you worked with him, you never had to work, anyways, he was going through my training list when he had to go do some manager stuff and had me work the floor for a minute. This foreign guy came up to me and said he was looking for a Led Zeppelin album. Perfect, I know Led Zep, they only put out 8 records, this should be simple.
"Which one?"
"Um, Down on the Farm".
Oh ok, wow, let me look that up..wait they don't have an album called that.
"Oh yeah, it's a bootleg."
Just what you see on the menu pal.
15 years, holy shit. I peaked too soon.
posted by Richard at 10:40 PM
4 Comments:
god, i remember that day. sort of. not because it was your first day or anything that catastrophic (hee hee), but because of those ugly gray t-shirts that i refused to wear because of the ugly...
no, he was a boob watcher. dave, i mean. probably richard too, girls, don't get me wrong. but dave was the best manager because as richard says, you never had to work so long as you wore a low-cut shirt and just sat around looking pretty. i weasled out of mopping those floors so many damn times by just wearing the wonderbra (not that i needed it, with tits the size of china) and batting my baby blues at him. you would to because mopping those floors sucked, it was this cold, hard mexican tile...
that is a shockingly long time. i was old enough to buy cigarettes (thank christ) but not alcohol. gas was less than $1.50/gallon, cds still came in those long paper boxes and we had a whole wall of cassettes. as in cassette tapes that you play in a recorder and have to rewind and fast forward. with buttons. bobby dombo still worked out back, looking hot all the time, and tim bought the 12 inches with his stupid headband. we carried around clear, see-through purses so that the bosses could see what size tampons we used and how little money they paid us. people would come in looking for directions to the florida mall (which was across the street. with a big ass sign) and i would give them directions to disney. out of spite. because i was cool like that hey, i work in a record store. so f*ck off. good times.
OMG...Hannah you cracked me up. Wish I could have worked with you both back then, sounds like good times and great memories.
Can't believe you didn't say anything to me about this. hmph
kg: i try. i also forgot to mention my very first snooty-i-work-in-a-record-store-and-am-cooler-than-you-will-ever-be experience:
customer: 'hi. i'm trying to find a rush album.'
me, to myself: christ, here's another idiot.
me: 'awesome! which one?'
customer: 'er, aqualung. by rush.'
me: 'aqualung? by rush? yeah, we don't have that.'
customer: 'what? why not?'
me: 'because we have aqualung, by jethro tull. not aqualung by rush. sorry 'bout that.'
customer, surly and snarky: 'i'll take that one then.'
me, smug: 'thought so.'
i'm not defending myself, trying to tell you that this behavior was acceptable or even non-termination worthy because it so is. i'd bitch slap the idiot who treated me in this manner now. but i'm 34 now and responsible and courteous and all those things i never wanted to be when i was 19 and just hoping to make enough money to get a moon-over-my-hammy at denny's before heading to the punk club with my peeps once work is over. (and quite frankly, i'm now paid more than $4.25 an hour which buys an awful lot of kindness and consideration on my part.)
ah, the times. they were good. not as good as now, but still.
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