Laverty Music

My brother in-law Don Rakestraw worked at Laverty Music in the 1970's and 80's. He took a shining to my sister Jennie while giving her guitar lessons.  Somewhere along the way he began giving kissing lessons too.  They soon started dating and eventually married.
Don sold guitars and sound equipment.  Laverty had a lot of it to sell.  My brother Brook eventually started teaching guitar for Laverty Music somewhere in the mid-seventies.

Other people I knew eventually worked at the music store.  Dan Noojin got a job at Laverty repairing guitars.  He too became a brother in-law.  David Creel worked there. He's still a buddy of mine. He used to repair electronics. David was usually in the workshop soldering wires.
Going to Laverty Music was always fun.  There was always someone there I knew.  I'd also see plenty of interesting folk come in to check out the wares.  It was one of my hangouts after I learned to drive.  There was always something going on there. Don once hired me to do custodial work.  I worked there for about a month...until Don's boss discovered I was working for him. I didn't know that I wasn't on the payroll.

It was amazing how much dust accumulated in that place.  Custodial work at a sound shop, dusting was the biggest part of the job.  There was also the nasty bathroom with the nasty toilet.  I'd clean it one day to come back another and find it nasty all over again.  The coffee pot looked almost as nasty as the toilet.  They'd leave the pot on all the time and cook the java juice in the bottom of decanter.  They'd keep making more coffee and cooking the remains of the day until someone like me came along and chiseled the mess out.  I was a busy guy when I briefly worked at Laverty.

So anyway, I found out I wasn't on the payroll.  Don just told me to take my pick of any of the used guitars on the wall as payment for my work.  I chose an old Yamaha FG-180 they had hanging up there.  I was more than satisfied with my payment.  I still have that guitar today.  It was kind of Don to allow me a means to acquire an instrument I desired to have.

Somewhere around '76 or '77 Don asked me to come up with a t-shirt design for the guitar and sound shop.  He gave me the general idea of what he wanted, something medieval  something featuring a Les Paul and Marshall amps.  This was my first t-shirt design. Everyone seemed very pleased with my handiwork.  It felt good to see folks walking around wearing my art.  This old T made it's way back to me a few years ago. Now I cringe a little at my crude handiwork.
My daughter claimed it when I showed it to her.  She wears it in spite of the holes.  The shirt brings back memories.  It's older than she is.  I was  younger than she was when I did the design.