Loved your story, also. My High School best friend was (and still is) a fantastic drummer. In the 1970's, his dad owned a Music Shop in town that rented instruments to Junior High and High School students, plus sold a complete line of guitars, bass guitars, drums, and PA systems. It was located in the downtown of the sleepy little East Tennessee town I grew up in, right on Main Street where weekends were spent "cruising" up and down the street all night, showing off your car and your girl. Many, many, Friday and Saturday nights were spent jamming live in that Music Store -- unless it was gig night which took up two to three weekend nights each month. We used to love watching the cars go by outside the store front glass windows, as the car passengers in turn cheered at us like we were rock stars, LOL. Simpler times.
His dad sold me my first "big boy" stereo system when I turned 14. A Kenwood KA-9100 Integrated Amp, Dual Turntable, Kenwood Tuner, Kenwood Tape Deck, and ElectroVoice speakers. I wish I still had that system, but alas, it was a victim of a home burglary in 1991.