One Last Walk with Lou Reed

I only have one Lou Reed story, but it's a memory that makes me smile to this day.

When I was a senior in high school and for a year or two after, I worked at a department store called Grand Way. It was later taken over by K-Mart, and it was basically the same type of store. There were a lot of kids all about the same age working there. It was a time of being able to drink at age 18, it was a time of smoking a joint during break time, it was a time of not much responsibility, it was a fun time.

Anyone who's ever worked in retail knows what it's like. The best time to work in a store is before it opens and after it closes, especially if you worked with a group of people just like yourself. We had a General Manager, Mr. Boyle, with shoe polish hair and not an ounce of humor. And we had an Assistant Manager whose last name I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure his first name was Dave. Well, Dave was the polar opposite of Mr. Boyle. He looked more like David Johansen than Lou Reed, but he was just a few years older than us and he was a cool guy. As soon as the store closed, he would turn the Muzak off and turn on the rock.

One night after closing, as we were finishing up, Dave turned the music on. A few minutes later he was riding the escalator going up. On either side of him were two of our co-workers, One was Cheryl and the other I can't remember her name. They were both black. With Lou Reed blasting throughout the store, he's riding the escalator singing the lead to "Walk On The Wild Side," while the two "colored" girls on either side of him sang "Doo do doo, doo do doo, doo do doo."

Priceless.

Now this was only visible to a small section of the store. I was one of the lucky ones able to enjoy it. Forty years later, I still do.

Easy Journey Lou.