Layman House, a store I managed for a while. this time of year makes me miss it so. It was a vintage shop kinda, we had really nice vintage stuff in the front , back to the 20's with handmade costumes in the back like Victorian stuff all made by our seamstress and goth extrodinaire..we had a 70's room and more modern stuff by local designers too..It opened in '73 by our boss a Garcia look a like Les. The stories he tells from the beginning are priceless. He started out with just old denim mostly and vinyl and the staff was the coolest people he knew that would snort coke off the counters and party all day...
I first shopped there in the late eighties and was young and shy. The girls that worked there were all tattooed and intimidating to me. There was thge first girl I ever saw sleeved and they had cases of body jewellry which was very expensive and hard to find then (as it was still kinda underground) I used to gawk at the chicks and the weird steel rings and wonder what the fuck it was all about.
I started to work there years later and became one of those girls. By the time I started there were these young things that would come in with their moms who were the first customers and both ladies would find what they were looking for , which is rare and neat. The staff is really what made it happen.
This time of year would of course be the busiest and best. We would work 12 hour days and therefore Les would let us toke or drink or whatever it took to make it like a party so people coming in couldn't resist having fun and bringing their friends. We had a DJ on staff, and me, and Gwen (tank girl look a like sooo hot) and Andria, the hippy .... good times.
We dressed bands for shows, videos, porn people sometimes came in, goths, metal heads, hippies, ravers...just about every genre of outsiderness...We were encouraged to dress windows weekly that would make people stand in awe or in fear hahah, I remember one I did with a nurse sitting down and her head was up a nuns habit...in a sub dom postion , that one was fun...
When it closed in '02 I bought that mannequin and some furniture and other odds and ends to remind me of that time I got to be there and just be who I was .....
I just decorated for halloween here at the house, and I dressed Lucy (the mannequin) in an old fifties dress that would suit Lucille Ball if she were goth....made me think of the girls I knew form there and the fun times we had....
I first shopped there in the late eighties and was young and shy. The girls that worked there were all tattooed and intimidating to me. There was thge first girl I ever saw sleeved and they had cases of body jewellry which was very expensive and hard to find then (as it was still kinda underground) I used to gawk at the chicks and the weird steel rings and wonder what the fuck it was all about.
I started to work there years later and became one of those girls. By the time I started there were these young things that would come in with their moms who were the first customers and both ladies would find what they were looking for , which is rare and neat. The staff is really what made it happen.
This time of year would of course be the busiest and best. We would work 12 hour days and therefore Les would let us toke or drink or whatever it took to make it like a party so people coming in couldn't resist having fun and bringing their friends. We had a DJ on staff, and me, and Gwen (tank girl look a like sooo hot) and Andria, the hippy .... good times.
We dressed bands for shows, videos, porn people sometimes came in, goths, metal heads, hippies, ravers...just about every genre of outsiderness...We were encouraged to dress windows weekly that would make people stand in awe or in fear hahah, I remember one I did with a nurse sitting down and her head was up a nuns habit...in a sub dom postion , that one was fun...
When it closed in '02 I bought that mannequin and some furniture and other odds and ends to remind me of that time I got to be there and just be who I was .....
I just decorated for halloween here at the house, and I dressed Lucy (the mannequin) in an old fifties dress that would suit Lucille Ball if she were goth....made me think of the girls I knew form there and the fun times we had....
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And no, Tony isn't the manager of Call the Office, but one of the managers of Phil's in Waterloo. He's seriously quite the peach, and his girliefriend is my love Nancy aka DJ Fancy Pants. [Cutest DJ name ever, no? haha]
Hang outs in the near future! Drink and smoke alllll you like.