A staple of any high school experience is your first job. My first job was working at a local mom-and-pop sporting goods store downtown in my hometown. it was conveniently located next to a hippie store and just down the block from an old-fashioned record store. Hours were flexible, it was easy, and one of the perks was that I got to work with many of my friends. My friends and I often worked the shift from 4 to close. We were never really busy and mostly got our "checklist" done early. To say it was a local version of Empire Records may be a bit of an overstatement, but it definitely felt like that to me. One of my fondest memories of working there was the small CD player that we would break out when the owners were gone for the evening. The small sporting goods store suddenly turned into our own radio studio.
Mind you these were the days when all of my friends were driving and having a CD player in your car was essential. We all had those massive binders with the clear pages that you would insert your CDs. You guarded your CD collection with your life. Just think about it, you had hundreds of dollars invested in those small, circular discs. Today we worry about our phones or computers being stolen out of our cars, but back then it was your CDs. We all would bring in our CD binders from our cars and listen away. These were also the days before you could custom make mixtape CDs using a burner. Once you popped in that compact disc, you had to roll with it from to track 1 to track 14. In these days of streaming, how many people really know every track to a newly released album? My guess would be not many.
One of the perks of working at this mom-and-pop sporting goods store was that former employees would come back and work on their college breaks. We had several of them. The benefit - college trends and college music. If you wanted to be a cool high schooler - the easiest way was to figure out what was cool in college. I remember working on these breaks and just soaking up all of their information like a sponge. I suddenly had to have Birkenstock sandals and vintage t-shirts. I wasn't going to the normal stores in the mall anymore, but to Hot Topic for the latest concert shirt. I was engrossed in Rusted Root, Ben Harper, and a new artist by the name of Jack Johnson. I would go home and immediately download as many of those songs as I could on Napster. Like I've eluded to in previous posts, you're always trying to find where you fit in during adolescence. I felt like when I discovered that music it was exactly what I had been looking for.
I have many great memories of working at that sporting goods store. It was therapeutic in many ways. Our own little version of Empire Records. We really didn't get a lot of work done there, but it was a chance for us to talk and lose ourselves in the music of the time. Everything from Stone Temple Pilots to Matchbox 20 to Nelly and Bob Marley - it was all there. I still have all of my CDs from that time and consider them treasured possessions. I'm also very grateful for those that were older than me and exposed me to music I may never have come across. I have been listening to a lot to Rusted Root's When I Woke recently, and it just brings back so many great memories. It definitely defines what I feel is unique about my generation. I feel like we're just all chameleons that could blend into any environment. At least that was always my goal.
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