When I was 18…one of my first bosses Matt and I worked together at National Record Mart. I was a sales associate and peddled cassettes in the ONLY record shop in town. It was located in the shopping mall and it was the place to be if you were a teenager. There wasn’t much to do in my small town of Johnstown. I loved the heck out of that job. I had the most fun ever and met so so many hot guys. But I digress…HOT GUYS make me do that.
Anyway….Matt was amazing. He was in his late twenties when I was only 18. I saw him as “older” and more “respectable” than myself at that time. He was living on his own and was married to his wife Kelli already. Over the years Matt and I have kept in touch. Not quite close contact but in touch. His wife sends me a Christmas card from both of them every single year. I think Matt has a soft spot for me because he too did not get along with his mother and my mom kicked me out of the house while I worked with and for him.
To this day when I hear a B-52’s song or any song by the band “The Fall” or “Daniel Lanois” I insistently remember my 2 years of working peddling records and I instantly remember Matt and how much fun we had working there. There was a large crew of employees and yet only Matt and I have kept in touch. It’s a nice chapter of my past and I always get a bit sentimental for it when I hear any of those tunes since Matt had those 3 albums (and I do mean RECORDS) on constant rotation. That was the time before CD’s. In fact the last year I worked there, 1991 was the first year we began to sell CD’s. Crazy eh? I knew a world when CD’s were expensive and cost more than cassette tapes because let’s face it cassette tapes were total crap.
Today I wrote out a card for Matt & Kelli and thought about all the years I’ve sent them a card in return. I didn’t act in time to send a Christmas card since I’m a bozo and never got to them….but I sent a New Years card anyway because some people are forever.
