Don't need permission for everything that you want
Any taste that you feel is right
Wear any clothes just as long as they're bright!
ART-SCHOOL-lyrics-The-Jam
Apparently the nostalgia monster is insatiable and must be fed often, because I'm feeling the need to search for more old photos from the battered old red suitcase where I keep the past. I can date these shots to very late 1979 to 1980, '81 at the latest, because I remember the circumstances under which I acquired my leather jacket. You always remember your first...
I was working for American Express in the fall of 79 at a dead end job, the office was downtown at 55 Water Street, I was a file clerk and it was just as boring & stultifying as the description would imply. One day I got a call from Gatt & Urb who said they were heading downtown to Delancey Street to buy leather jackets along with Okie and I should meet them there at noon, so of course I did & called in sick for the rest of the afternoon from my boring office job. I had completed one year of college away at Hofstra University trying to get a wrestling scholarship but now I was living back home again, not knowing what the future held or if I would ever go back to school, drifting & floating through life like a working class version of the Dustin Hoffman character in The Graduate...
The three of us bought our leather Ramones-style motorcycle jackets in a store on Orchard Street, bargaining with the guy until we got him down from like 150 bucks to 90 bucks apiece, & we left the store of course wearing those suckers & looking good in the process. Trixter saw our new look when we got back to Astoria & by the next week of course he had his own. We went right back to the same store but they were out of the ones we had so he made the guy bring out jacket after jacket & for some reason the guy kept bringing out these half leather/half plastic jackets, pleather if you will, saying in a thick Yiddish accent that they had that leather look. Finally Trixter found just the right one & we were now all set, setting sons, ready for leather weather & the electric night of youth to fill the air with static energy...
1 comment:
Gatt, you have inspired me just with the example of your life and the dignity and courage you exemplify. I think we all feel that way about you. I am so grateful for the positive feedback you've been giving me. It's good to know we're still on the same wavelength after all these years. Thanks for the comments; they're always appreciated and incisive, if not always politically correct!
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