#677: Summer 1978

It's the Summer of 1978 & I am moved-out of my parents' house for the first time ever, living in a 2-story townhouse-style apartment in Boise's "Sergeant City" with my best friend in the world, Don Vincent.
We pulled together the little money we had, found a place cheap, & within a couple days we are moved in. Immediately we start making the place over into something that's "ours." The rock&roll & fantasy posters immediately go up on the walls. We start "fumigating" with incense & scented candles in almost every room. & as soon as the stereo gets set-up in the cave-like living room downstairs, we start playing Strange Music at every opportunity.
For Don it could be anything from Aphrodite's Child to Keith Jarrett to Chick Corea to Chuck Mangione(?). He leans toward some pretty-out-there jazz. I'm just discovering that King Crimson might be Good. Mostly I fall back on some old favorites -- middle-period Genesis, Gryphon, Providence, Renaissance, Kansas, Queen, Boston.
Boston's DON'T LOOK BACK comes out & we argue about its qualities -- we agree the good stuff is really good, but the album's only half-finished.... Journey's INFINITY is a subject of some debate: At first I think it's bland Stadium Rock; then I'm caught by "Feelin' That Way/Anytime," & another sale gets made. Genesis's AND THEN THERE WERE THREE is released & I read reviews that compare it negatively to The Moody Blues ... & that's all I need to hear; the good stuff is good -- the try at a hit single sucks. Gentle Giant's GIANT FOR A DAY is issued, & Don & I wonder if it's The Worst Album Of All Time....
Other buys: Gryphon's RAINDANCE, TREASON and MIDNIGHT MUSHRUMPS, 1st U.K. album, Happy the Man's CRAFTY HANDS, Camel's BREATHLESS, Caravan's BLIND DOG AT ST. DUNSTAN'S, Renaissance's A SONG FOR ALL SEASONS, Gentle Giant's FREE HAND and GIANT STEPS, Todd Rundgren's SOMETHING/ANYTHING?, Incredible String Band's THE HANGMAN'S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER, THE GREATER ANTILLES SAMPLER (the first place I hear Nick Drake), & probably dozens more I've forgotten....
Out of all this music, the fantasy posters on the wall, & the optimistic atmosphere of the place, I start writing a long, winding heroic Middle Ages fantasy -- 40+ pages, something to fill-up my spare time -- which turns out to be Nothing Special, just a standard LORD OF THE RINGS-style Other World with some pretty lightshows along the way. It never really gets finished.
Just around the corner from the apartment is The Musicworks, Boise's friendliest record store, where I end up working a year or so down the road. Whenever I'm bored, & especially on Laundry Day, I haunt the store for HOURS, listening to the funny, hip, cool, with-it clerks trade rock&roll stories -- who they've seen in concert, who they helped haul gear into a gig for, which huge-hyped albums bombed the biggest.... These guys are hilarious -- I can listen to them talk for hours. & then go back home without buying a thing....
Don is Attached at this time, but he introduces me to his old girlfriend Tina, who I've heard of but never met. & at the end of our first meeting she kisses me briefly on the lips & I about fall over. It's been MONTHS since I've been close to anyone. We start spending a lot of time on the phone, & then a lot of time together. She will eventually, briefly, move into the apartment with us.
A few months later, our old buddy Jeff Mann will move in, & things will get even crazier. At one point every sleeping surface in the apartment is filled, & stereos begin duelling to try to cover-up the sounds of sensual delight leaking out of the bedrooms. At one point our friends Melissa & Thom briefly move into the closet-sized third bedroom, hang around for meals & camp-out on the living-room couch. Melissa is heading back to college, & we try to talk Thom into moving in -- but he wonders if the neighbors will mind him practicing violin eight hours a day ... & finally he drifts away.
Now & then my old girlfriend Allison & her new guy Richard arrive unexpectedly for a visit -- it gets to be a pretty crowded apartment at times. There's a lotta nostalgia in the air.
When Jeff arrives the music gets louder, though I don't remember him ever entertaining any dates overnight. I DO remember hearing him throwing up in the bathroom night after night, after coming home from his new party-hearty lifestyle. He introduces us to AC/DC, Ted Nugent, REO, LOTS of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, & much more. He calls the sometimes-twisted stuff I listen to "mindfuck music," & that starts a lot more marathon musical arguments....
Tina adopts some of my music & starts wearing headphones almost constantly while listening to a mix tape of some of the best of Renaissance, Genesis, Camel, Boston, Journey, Barclay James Harvest, Mike Oldfield....
I get fed-up with my job & stupidly give my 2 weeks' notice. I end up unemployed for the next 6 months.... I hang on for a couple more months in the apartment, & out of the stress of unpaid bills & strained friendships I write my first published short-story. & then move back into my parents' house before Christmas -- where I'll be trapped for the next 14 months.
Don & Jeff keep it going for another year -- then Jeff moves back to Texas, where his parents have moved after his highschool graduation. Don loses his girlfriend in a car wreck, goes through two VERY bad years, then finds a new love.
1979 turns out to be the worst year of our lives, up 'til then. But even in the middle of my worst year ever, The Musicworks hires me part-time & suddenly I have my Dream Job, & even offer to work for free.... I find my way back out of my folks' house early in 1980, & move with Tina into the world's smallest mobile home -- so tiny that there's no spare room on the walls & the rock&roll posters have to be stapled to the ceiling....