The story continues. Working at OSB starts with the music. I mean, that's why most of us were there. The other was to see friends. The more times you went, the more friends you made. Also, you tried to hook up too. I mean, who wouldn't? But as a freshman in college, I was careful. And a virgin. So, I guess, girls have to look at this different. You just don't rush into things. A girl had to protect herself. In the 50s, it might have been her repretation. In the 80s, it was AIDS. The BIG A. Condoms, the pill, that could help from getting pregnant. But AIDS was just something that was this big depressing all-bars-stop to most casual sex. It made a person think twice about being intimate unless you knew someone well. Or maybe, that was just me. I wasn't a wallflower, but yeah, no actual all the way. That does come later in the story.

But working at a club, the beat of the music, the smoke in the air. There was no law against smoking indoors at the time. People just got used to having that smoke smell in your clothes when you went out. And when I started working there the Summer of 87, I was working as a DJ at KSJS, the local university radio station too. I worked in promotions there and as a very, late night DJ. So, I was getting to know the alternative scene music then. Strawberry Switchblade, Susie and the Banshees, The Smiths, Cocteau Twins, Aztec Camera, Style Council, The Housemartins, Tarzan Boy, Voyage Voyage, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Bauhaus, Human League. These are just a sample of what I'd hear on a night. 

The club was owned by two Brits that were bringing over the new romantic movement and new wave craze that had happened in England only a few years before. It was morphing into an alternative underground scene that was being supported by the college radio stations in the SF Bay Area. Here I was, in the heart of it. You think Wednesday's dance on Netflix was cool? I got to do this every night. Wear black and watch people dance like her, because that was the scene. All that is left now are the odd YouTube videos, but back then, it was Halloween everyday.

SO, I'm probably just breaking all writing words by telling and not showing. Maybe I should take you through the front door. A typical thing that would be my day would be to arrive for my coatcheck or cashier job for the night at 8:30pm, half hour before the club opened. Sometimes, if I was working in the office, I'd go home for dinner and come back and work at night too. But mostly, I'd need to get there a little early to set up my drawer or prepare the coatcheck. On weekday or slow nights, I'd have to work both areas. They were connected in the same area of the club, and I'd just walk between them. In the club itself, they were two separate windows. One for entering, and the other, right after you came in so I could take your coat. Don't forget to tip too, because all I got was minimum wage at this job. At the time, that was $3.75 an hour. $2 Tuesdays doesn't sound so cheap now, hmmm?

If you were coming to OSB, you'd probably call up the club to ask for directions. I would be the one to help you. I had to know how to get there from all directions of the SF Bay Area. Annoyingly, sometimes guys would try to hit on me too. Couldn't figure why. I was just there to tell them directions, tell them the bands playing or the cost, not help them get off. I'd get paid more for that. LOL But as a college student, it was a night job. So, I could got to school during the day and work at night. Worked really well to pay my way through college. 

People would get dressed up in their club clothes, basically all black, white face, black hair spiked or quiffed in different directions. Style was everything. Piercings were mostly multiple on the ears. Boys and girls wore makeup. Black tule skirts were the rage, and I wore them to work, with black leggings under them. The one thing I never did was dye my blonde hair black. I was always a rebel, and this probably made me stand out more.

People would start being let in at 9 pm, and there would be a rush at around 10pm to about 11:30pm. The first hour could be slow, depending if a band was on or not. Then, by midnight, most people that were going to make an appearance for the night were there. Some of the most crowded nights were New Year's Eve and popular band nights. Two people would work then, one as a coatcheck and one as a cashier. Dee, the other owner, would often cashier on the busy nights like Friday and Saturday. I'd take coatcheck on those days. Working there, you became part of the Goth family, and I met a lot of friends and some of them, not the best for me. I met my first love and my bad boy ex-. I still know people from there and connect on social media. To look back now, it was the best time to be working a job like that. Nothing better than to have those memories now. Mostly because, I'm happy I survived it. 

More on that later.