Met my wife in 1985 in the Licorice Pizza record store in Santa Barbara, CA where I worked when I was 19 (I was the LP buyer!!!). She roller skated into the store and my heart went pitter-patter :). I’d never approached a girl/woman before...obviously I was a virgin...yet, I mustered the courage to approach her at the 45’s rack and ask if I could help her find something. Crickets. Stood there like a doofus for about a minute before walking off, dejected and forlorn. She roller skated out of the store and out of what I thought was the rest of my Life. Next day (Friday) I get an invitation at work to a party in Isla Vista, the campus housing community for UCSB. I go. Guess whose apartment it is...Roller Girl! Turns out that when she was in the store the day before, she was just being the wing-girl for her roommate who had a crush on one of my co-workers who she wanted to ogle in the store...oh, and she had been high on acid...which had made her mute to my overture in the store. The party was a front for her roommate to seek to initiate romance with my co-worker. That never worked out. Anyhoo, she comes up to me at the party and explains the aforementioned and then asks me if I want to meet Mr. Wizard. I say "sure", not knowing what that meant. Mr. Wizard was a bong. I ended up staying the night. We went to the People’s Park the next morning to hang out on a blanket drinking beer (she was 21!) and smoking doobies watching the annual People’s Park May Day Concert. Headliner was X...an awesome 80’s LA punk band. During Exene Cervenka’s awesome belting out of the chorus of Under the Big Black Sun, Roller Girl tells me to "close your eyes and stick out your tongue". I do. She doses me with liquid acid. It’s an awesome concert. I woke up the next day not a virgin. Same for Roller Girl. And we’ve been together faithfully ever since. And she’s always loved every version of our stereo, from the double stacked AR3a’s powered by 4 Dyna Mark IIIs to the near world-class system that we are so lucky to have today. Haven’t been many weekends when we don’t played vinyl. And let’s just say we look forward to May Day all year long!
mic drop