August [from September] Part 1

So here we are in August once again [well now September]. August for me, has always been somewhat of an eventful month - not only because I was born on the 20th in the early seventies - but it usually has been a time of change: My family has moved several times during this month (from and back to California); when I was 13 I found a new path at my local record store; I've fallen in love and traveled across state lines - and have searched and found new directions - and now, I always wonder what each new August will bring.
The first eventful August I remember was back right before I turned 6 year old. We were living in Huntington Beach, California - not too far from the beach - and soon we were giving that up and moving to Illinois, close to the St. Louis area. My mom had grown up in Wood River, IL and my parents decided to move to nearby Alton, Il. - which is right on the Mississippi River about 45 minutes north from St. Louis. We had lots of family in the area, on both sides of the river - and two of my aunt's and their families lived on our soon-to-be street. It seemed to be all right to me, but I still can remember being sad that we were leaving California - I think I was just old enough to realize that something big was about to happen.
What I do remember quite well is the trip across the country to Illinois. My parents, my new baby brother and I were going to be driving all our belongings down along old Route 66 while my sister's were going to be flying with our two dogs. We had a motor-home which would be towing a little Mazda, and a U-haul moving truck which would be towing our yellow van. I was looking forward to it and took keep me occupied along the way my parents bought a little cassette player and a bunch of kids books on tape. I remember everything loaded up and we said goodbye to our neighbors and I rode first with my dad in the truck.
We took around 5 days to cross the country. We stopped in the KOA campsites along I-40 to sleep at night. We also stopped at the different trading posts along the way - and in the Southwest there are a bunch of them - and by the end I had a whole bag of loot from all the stops. I remember watching the desert landscape roll by, and then the flatlands of the Texas panhandle, and then into the hilly country of Oklahoma, and finally into Missouri - with its green trees, hills, cliffs, and fireworks stands.
What I remember most of all was the last day - when the drive was almost over. We had passed around St. Louis, crossed over the Missouri River, and then had the more difficult crossing over the Mississippi. The bridge over the Mississippi River that lead directly into downtown Alton was an old, narrow two lane bridge that looked like it could use some restoration - it was a little rusty - or so it seemed (it has since been replaced). My mom was driving the motor home and we were leading the way for the moving truck - it was in the afternoon - and my mom was nervous about crossing the bridge with this huge vehicle. I remember being told to stay quiet so she could concentrate on navigating in the narrow lane - and it took up just about the whole space. Finally, though, after moving slowly across the bridge for several tense minutes, we made it safely across, and with a sigh of relief made our way through town to our new house.
It was August 16th as we drove down our new street and down this good size hill where our house was at the bottom of, and pulled into our new driveway. We noticed that our new neighbor was outside her house in the driveway crying. My Aunt who was with us for the trip and who lived at the top of the street and knew the neighbor went and talked to her and found out that Elvis had died.
A few years later, in August, we moved to Ohio - just outside of Cleveland. We stayed there for a year and the following August we packed up our stuff again and moved back to California. On the way back we were on the road for my birthday and we stopped off in Amarillo at the Big Texan - which is a famous place - mostly because they have signs all up and down I-40 for hundreds of miles trying to get people in for their steak challenge - which is if you can eat a 72 ounce steak and the baked potato and vegetables within an hour, you get it for free. The steak is supposedly a good one (as seen on the Travel Channel) but I just can't imagine eating that much meat. When we stopped off that time for my birthday I had steak and lobster which was my favorite meal at the time - and I remember it being good. A couple days later we rolled up to our new house back in Huntington Beach.
By the beginning of the following year we moved a little further inland, still in Huntington Beach, and close to that first house that we moved from when we left California in 1977. There was a lot close by: grocery stores, pizza places, Mexican restaurants, a donut store - and, as I would soon discover, a record store. Camel Records was up the hill and not too far away - it was an easy bike ride through an undeveloped part of town called the "Green Hills" where we would ride our bikes through the trails. It was right next to a Round Table Pizza where a lot of school events would take place and so I started venturing over when I was about 12.
Camel Records was a unique record store. It was independent first of all, and they only sold new wave, punk, experimental, and stuff outside the mainstream - no classic rock, no metal - and I loved it. I started heading up there a lot on my bike and check things out. This one time I went in there, a couple weeks before my 13th birthday and I heard the clerk playing In The Flat Field by Bauhaus from the live, Press The Eject And Give me The Tape Album. It was a sound I really hadn't heard before: I heard the feedback guitar, the primal drums, and Peter Murphy's voice - and I was hooked. At a time when I wasn't all that comfortable about asking questions to store clerks, I went up asked just what was being played. He told me and I noted it down, and I knew that I had to have it.
A couple weeks later I went up there to buy the tape with the money I had saved from my weekly seven dollar allowance, and asked to buy it. The cassette ended up being a little more than I expected since it was a double album tape and an import from the UK, and I ended up not having enough to get it. But luckily, one of my older sister's friends was in the store, and he loaned me the two dollars or so - and I took the tape home and blasted that thing for days.
Following that, I would make weekly trips to Camel, spending almost all of my allowance money for the better part of a year. Discovering that store kept me on the look out for new music, music that wasn't played on the radio or on TV (although 120 Minutes on MTV did introduce me to several bands - but that was when MTV played music videos and that show was a good one) and it started a shift away from the mainstream influences.
Soon I started reading the music magazines and looking things up in the library. I enjoyed researching bands, finding out what they were about and where they were from - who they were influenced by. It became sort of like an investigative game - which is definitely easier now because of the internet. All of that information greatly expanded my music collection - and, I guess, my music knowledge too.
Unfortunately, the owner sold Camel Records and it became more of a typical record store. The stock expanded - and maybe a little too much. It ended up lasting only a couple years more and then closed down, and I head to go search for records elsewhere. I miss that place - I picked up a lot from there.

[So as you can see, I'm not too good about writing on a monthly basis, when there's lots of time to pass, and it's hard for me to stay focused and get all the thoughts down. It's a lot easier said than done - for me anyway. So hopefully I'll get another entry up here soon.]

Thanks for reading,
yours truly,
Jeremiah

New Blog...

Hey there -
just a quick note to say that a new blog is coming soon. I've been thinking about what to write - and August has always been a transitional month - so I just have to get figured out what I want to put down.
Also this week I get to do a short road trip up the coast to Paso Robles, CA for a gig on Thursday night, then Saturday down in Orange County in Santa Ana at The Gypsy Den in the Artist village - which is also my birthday - and then back to the Cinema Bar on Sunday night where I'll be joined by my friend Dan Janisch - it's going to be a good week - or at least I hope so.
yours truly,
Jeremiah