pt. 2: kickin' it college style!

After my senior year, I took a job as a Customer Service Assistant, i.e,. bagger, at the HEB located near my home at Parmer Lane and Burnet Road.  Sadly, I don't have any romantic escapades to share from this job.

My brother Tim worked at a nearby Safeway, in the bakery.  His girlfriend, and now wife, worked at the HEB and was kind enough to help me land a job. 

My brother Tim and I were pretty tight.  I followed in his footsteps pretty closely back then.  Except for growing my hair long.  We were definitely MTV's children. 

 

 

This is pretty much vintage Tim.  Shirtless, except for the occasional green golf blazer.  When he played in his cover band Identity Crisis, I made him a jean jacket.  By "made" I mean sewed on some animal print fabric, cut the sleeves off, added some charms I found at Jo-Ann Fabrics, and then painted his likeness on the back in metallic paint.  He says he still has it.  Sure.

 

But back to me. As I worked away at HEB, I couldn't help but notice the cute gift shop that had opened up next to the Radio Shack in the same strip mall.  I worked there some that summer as a cashier, and then off and on through my sophomore year of college.  Like I have mentioned, I had many jobs. 

 

The Gracy of Gracy's Gifts was a happy Asian mom who owned the shop with her husband.  It was filled to the hilt with greeting cards, giftwrap, balloons, stuffed animals and tiny crystal figurines displayed quite beautifully in a mirrored, revolving tiered case on the counter.  Whatever you could possibly want that was made in China and could be given as a gift, we had.

 

I found I needed a co-worker to pass the time between blowing up balloons and curling ribbon, and asked Gracy to hire my bestie and college roommate Jane Sterriker.  Here's a picture of Jane and I on one of our better days.  We were really kickin' it college style!

 

 

Jane and I had a pretty good routine worked out for working the cash register.  We would take shifts with one of us ringing up customers, and the other taking a nap on the floor behind the cash register.  We worked a lot of weekend shifts, which cut into our late night dance schedule.  So we had to use the time at work to sleep.

 

Two of Tim's bandmates, Dave and George, lived in some apartments along Red River, close to our dorm at Concordia College.  They have now been remodeled and renamed Mint Urban or some such thing.  Back then they were the Red River apartments.

 

The four of us regularly would hang out. Jane and I would braid their long hair for gigs, and they would take us out dancing at Hall's, where we enjoyed 50 cent Cuba Libres and earnestly critiqued the gay world's nightclub fashion. 

 

Dave and George supposedly took us out so that we could teach them to dance.  We made up bizarre dances to the sounds of Human League and Dead or Alive, way before Cirque de Soliel.  Our friendship with Dave and George was strictly platonic; they had the band to think about of course. 

 

Dave drove a vintage car, and as I can't tell you what make or model it was, I can tell you that the doors opened towards one another and it was long and blue. 

 

While most of our dorm mates were winding down for the night, we would begin to get dressed in rhinestones and long strands of fake pearls, applying make-up and our best tight dancing skirts, then wait for Dave and George to pick us up around 10.  We would come home when the clubs closed at 2, having done our cardio work-out for the day.

 

I know you are wanting to hear about my boy crush during this period.  I will not disappoint.  There was a guy in my neighborhood named Kelly Dyke who rode my school bus, and I found him quite amazing. He had ginger hair and big brown eyes and a mesmerizing smile, a younger man by a year.

 

He worked the register at the Jack Brown Cleaners next to Gracy's.  As was my style, we barely talked, but I loved knowing he was on the other side of the wall, with his polo collar flipped up, talking about starch and stuff.

 

The job at Gracy's came to an end when Gracy received a huge inheritance. She left the country for a few weeks, came back wearing a fur and jewels, bearing gifts, then promptly closed up shop.  No more glittering crystal foxes or penguins in that space, just a dark hole that was later filled by a small Italian restaurant. 

 

Life was moving on, and so was I.

 

Next up, my internships and severe heartbreak.