the man who brought me here
...is charles buxton, who runs a pet store in arlington now, but for 25 years, under four different companies, ran a record store at 6393 camp bowie, which i came here with him to open in the fall of 1978...30 yrs ago this september (october?). he had employees that stayed with him for 10 or 15 years, which is _unheard of_ in retail, but then again, he's not your typical retail management dude. far from it, in fact.
i met charles when i went to work at peaches at cole and fitzhugh in dallas after working for one day laying pipe in the woods in irving, and almost ran him over with my '71 torino the first night i knew him when i saw him coming out of faces on lemmon avenue, where i was going with my crew of noo yawk expats to see the fabulous thunderbirds. after about two months, some friends from long island came through town on their way west and i bagged the gig to go down to the gulf with them.
when i'd run through the last of my traveling money, i went back to dallas to plead for my job back. charles told me he was coming to fort worth to open a store, and i signed on as an assistant manager. i worked at peaches in fort worth for maybe a year before i quit to move down to austin and thence to colorado.
when i was back in the fort, spring of '80, following a failed attempt to start a band in aspen, i slept in my car in front of charles' old house on pershing and met him going to work to ask for a job...again. by that time, peaches had folded and sound warehouse had taken over the store at 6393 camp bowie. i worked with him there (and briefly on berry street) before i made an ill-advised move to memphis in the fall of '81 to be an assistant manager at a store that was opening there.
i wound up getting shitcanned from the memphis store in january '82 (some dude hit the till on my shift and skipped town and i guess they needed a scapegoat) and joined the air force, but when i was back in the fort _again_ after leaving active duty and separated from my future ex-wife in the fall of '93, charles hired me yet again, this time to work for blockbuster music. i worked for him until may of '95 that last time.
when i think about all of the good things that have happened to me since i came to this town, and realize that it was always charles who gave me a place to land when i'd fucked up (or gotten fucked over), it becomes pretty clear that he's had as big an influence on the direction of my life as anybody, and that i owe him more than i can ever repay.
i met charles when i went to work at peaches at cole and fitzhugh in dallas after working for one day laying pipe in the woods in irving, and almost ran him over with my '71 torino the first night i knew him when i saw him coming out of faces on lemmon avenue, where i was going with my crew of noo yawk expats to see the fabulous thunderbirds. after about two months, some friends from long island came through town on their way west and i bagged the gig to go down to the gulf with them.
when i'd run through the last of my traveling money, i went back to dallas to plead for my job back. charles told me he was coming to fort worth to open a store, and i signed on as an assistant manager. i worked at peaches in fort worth for maybe a year before i quit to move down to austin and thence to colorado.
when i was back in the fort, spring of '80, following a failed attempt to start a band in aspen, i slept in my car in front of charles' old house on pershing and met him going to work to ask for a job...again. by that time, peaches had folded and sound warehouse had taken over the store at 6393 camp bowie. i worked with him there (and briefly on berry street) before i made an ill-advised move to memphis in the fall of '81 to be an assistant manager at a store that was opening there.
i wound up getting shitcanned from the memphis store in january '82 (some dude hit the till on my shift and skipped town and i guess they needed a scapegoat) and joined the air force, but when i was back in the fort _again_ after leaving active duty and separated from my future ex-wife in the fall of '93, charles hired me yet again, this time to work for blockbuster music. i worked for him until may of '95 that last time.
when i think about all of the good things that have happened to me since i came to this town, and realize that it was always charles who gave me a place to land when i'd fucked up (or gotten fucked over), it becomes pretty clear that he's had as big an influence on the direction of my life as anybody, and that i owe him more than i can ever repay.
posted by stashdauber at 1:15 AM
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