I lost a good friend just recently, which is the reason for reminiscing about the past here.
A little backstory:
In March of 1998, I was growing tired of the Pizza industry. I had been making pizza just over four years at this point of my life across two different chains.
"Senor! We must not go any further. Looooooooooooooooook!"
What I didn't know what an interesting opportunity would come up and inadvertently lead me to my current job. A new Blockbuster Video opened up not far from my house and I decided to give it a shot. What the hell, I liked movies. And amazingly, after another rough Saturday evening rush, I got a call from the store manager, asking me to interview. I went for it and was hired after my interview. My new boss and I got along very well and I knew this was the change I needed. Oddly enough, a week or so after putting in my notice, I got fired from the pizza joint I worked at. It was a pay cut, but I was ready to change.
Sure enough, a few days into the new job, I was already taking on some responsibilities and enjoying the fact that I didn't have to make pizza anymore. Still had busy Friday nights though. At this time, our store still rented VHS tapes. DVD had not quite strangled them out of existence but that was going to change really quick.
I found myself getting along with everyone at my new job and found a lot in common with many of the workers. Soon we were all hanging out after work, talking, laughing and enjoying each other's company. I even dated two of my co-workers.
One night after inventory (about 3:30am), we went to the grocery store next to our store, bought a bunch of steak and eggs and had the best breakfast ever at my house.
We would go to the roof, where we were not supposed to go and throw AOL Online discs at people. We all dressed up and went to the premiere of Star Wars Episode I.
For those that were not around at this time, it was a huge deal because there hadn't been any new Star Wars properties in 16 years.
I waited 16 years for this. You'd be mad, too.
Also, the second Austin Powers movie came out and, believe me, that was also all over the place.
The jokes just wrote themselves.
The summer of 1999 was also one of my favorites as while I had dabbled in music in the past, my first real band with my brother formed and we played our first show in June of 1999 followed by recording of our EP. Quite frankly, it was one of the best summers of my life.
No wonder these guys never went anywhere.
Around this same time, we hired a new guy in a position I had started in and he and I began to talk a lot since he wanted to work late to help pay off his wedding. He began to tell me about his day job and told me I should apply because they needed people. At the time, I was content but questions about my future now. What was I doing? Where was I going? Was music my future? And quite honestly, Blockbuster didn't pay that much. I did make Employee of the Month three times though. Still, I gave it a shot, sent in a resume, got hired and suddenly, it was my time to leave Blockbuster after only 17 months. I am still at that same company today, 25+ years later. Guess it was the right move at the time.
This leads me to the photo below. This picture shows the team at our peak. The Video Store Empire of 1999...kinda like Empire Records. Shouldn't be hard to pick me out and the guy next to me was my boss that hired me.
A good moment in time.
There are a billion more stories I could tell but ultimately, the reason I am writing this is less fun. I learned just yesterday that the guy diagonal down right of me, Jeff (holding the chihuahua), had unexpected passed away. Jeff was immediately accommodating to me when I started at Blockbuster. The first day he worked, he and I talked about Alien vs. Predator and if there'd ever be a movie with them both. At the time, it didn't seem possible.
Oops. Guess we shouldn't have put that out there. You can blame us.
One of Jeff's best friends, Rodney, also worked at one of the sister stores and the guy had the best damn impression of The Rock this side of the Mississippi as this was prime time Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW. (Coincidently, my brother, my son and I recently ran into Rodney). Jeff orchestrated our quest to get tickets for Star Wars and we camped out in front of the local(ish) AMC all night to get them. Jeff and I also went to an exclusive showing of the movie, Orgazmo and later, BASEeketball. South Park was just starting to blow up then, also. Jeff and I had way too many South Park quotes.
We repeated this scene to each other way too often.
I'm also pretty sure it was Jeff that brought this back to the lexicon of America (and a frequently traded barb whenever the other would mess up):
I still say this to my kids.
Jeff was even so kind to let me borrow his drum set so my brother and I's newly formed band (just before the band image above) could play our first live show on Halloween 1998 (as seen below). I made him late for work that night. Not sure I ever apologized for that.
I haven't played drums before or since.
Jeff was a unique character, often loud, but always caring. While the gang never got back together too much after the Summer of 1999, we kept in touch through Facebook and stuff like that. I missed and thought about Jeff a lot. We had a lot of goofy inside jokes and overall, he was a genuine human being that I am certain made lots of people happy. I offer my sympathy to his family in this dark time and hope they know that their son left a lasting impression on me and many others.
Rest In Peace, Jeff.
Jeff and Rodney, fairly recently.
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