Some random memories...
When I was in high school I always carried around a box full of 8-Track tapes in my car. It was a 65 Ford Galaxy 100 and I thought it was dopey. I'd give anything to have a Galaxy 500 now. As for the tapes, well there wasn't much in the that anyone in town would want. I mean, I always assumed that my tastes in music were so eclectic that no one in a town as small as Prague would even recognize the names of the bands I love. Most of the ones in that box were pretty much obscure even to me. I'd bought them at Sound Warehouse on 23rd street in North OKC straight out of the cut-out bin for a quarter or half dollar apiece. Sometimes I got lucky and snagged something decent. A lot of the time they turned out to be junk.
These 8-Tracks currently in my box weren't junk but they certainly weren't titles folks would be familiar with. I know my Sparks tapes were in there. I had "Propaganda" and "Indiscreet". I loved both of those. I think my PFM "PFM Cook" tape was among the 20-25 titles. I liked that one a lot, too.
Anyway one day while at school I apparently forgot to lock the front door of the car. When classes were over I went to leave and that's when I discovered that my whole box of obscure 8-Track had been ripped off. I was of course heartbroken. But what could I do? That's probably the first time I've ever had anything stolen...in fact I don't recall that I've ever had anything stolen since then. I could be wrong. I may have had something swiped and just never noticed. I think I had a small bit of marijuana taken from a gig bag while I did a show at VZDs. But I could have lost it. That was an awful night anyway, the loss of weed was like the icing on the cake.
Then again, it's one thing to get stolen from, it's another to be a kleptomaniac taking all sorts of stuff from all over the place. It should be noted that I haven't stolen anything in years. It just isn't me anymore. I don't find it exciting. There's nothing I'd risk being caught for to steal. But there was a time. Oh yes, there was a time. I'll write a lot more about it at a later date.
For now I would only recall being in the seventh grade...the school used to bus us across town to the elementary for lunch. They had a cafeteria there. Most folks ate their meal, got back on the bus and waited for everyone else to finish then they'd all go back to the junior high building. Me, David M. and Kevin A. preferred to walk back to school instead of riding with the others.
Every single day we would stop at Henderson's variety store and steal handfuls of candy. I don't know how we got away with it because the aisle was right in front of the cash register. There was an exit at the rear of the building so we could just go in, say hi, steal as much candy as we could put in our pockets and zip straight on through the back door. I remember the other guys would give me a hard time because I only stole Jolly Rancher sticks...they don't make them anymore, but they were flat "bars" of Jolly Rancher. I don't even know why that was my booty of choice. It's not that I liked them so much. Maybe it was just easier to get at them.
When we' get done with Henderson's we'd move on to the Round House store with the same modus operandi. But we sort of got caught by the lady that worked there. One day we were leaving, pockets full, and she comes out behind us and says "Did you boys take something you didn't pay for?" I'm almost positive I was the one who responded. I took out some of the candy and said, "No, we got these at Henderson's". Which was sort of the truth. A good chunk of it came from Henderson's...the rest from the Round House.
We stopped going to that store from that day on and I don't doubt we quit stealing from Henderson's, too. The incident sort of shook us up.
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