Ink and Changes

Ink and Changes.

I was lying on the couch in my living room this evening when I looked down and glimpsed my hand. On the back was an inked round stamp that said "OK" and another next to it that was a simple red star. I laughed to myself and thought about how often I had seen those and other stamps across the canvas of the back of my hands over the course of my late teens and twenties, also known as the terrible, wonderful 80's. Gather round children and let me entertain you with stories of the days before the wristband was a ubiquitous addition to virtually every event involving music. Yes in those bygone golden days you would pay your cover charge without anyone asking for an ID and get your hand stamped to allow all the appropriate access. If they did ask for ID and you didn't have any, well it was no biggie you could sign a book attesting to the fact that you really were old enough. The stamps differed from club to club with the added bonus that it was after all ink, you and your friends could take turns paying at the different clubs entrance and then going back outside to roll the fresh stamp across your non-paying friends hand allowing them access in a few minutes. If the ink dried too quickly well the person that didn't pay had to lick their hand and hope for the best. The more common ones were the "OK" and "Fragile" shipping stamps or the supermarket price roller type variety clearly meant for other purposes, then there was the whole "Paid" family. My favorites were the clubs that would get their own individual stamps that you could instantly recognize it was sort of a roadmap for the next day in case things got fuzzy. It also was much better then looking like some kind of mental case who got hold of the ink pad at Stop and Shop. Strip Clubs would often use more prolific stamps and let's not pretend that a musician touring during the 80's never went into such establishments. Let’s just say that it was somewhat common for the unique "uncle" and another fav "sicko" on my hands along with the rest of the ink rainbow. OK so I dated strippers, so shoot me, in my defense all I can say is at least I got those stamps for free. In the daily working world the hand stamp was the bane of your existence because the ink was that indelible stuff which would require some type of bristle brush to remove. If you went out with your friends on Monday night, and I often did since a local club had a weekly showcase called “Metal Monday”, you came home with the “club tattoo” right there for the world to see. Needless to say calling out sick on Tuesday and then showing up on Wednesday with either a scarlet letter of stamped evidence or the raw red hand which fairly screamed out "guilty!" just wasn't the way to go up the career ladder let’s say. Unless of course you didn't care or like me you had the kind of a job that encouraged that type of behavior. The round "OK" was one that got used at the Agora Ballroom in West Hartford CT throughout the 80's and the accompanying Red Star was the ticket to the upper level VIP lounge. The Agora was a 2,000 person concert club that had two stages and the best bands in the area. Because of the proximity to the Hartford Civic center it was not uncommon to find the guys playing the arena shows in the Agora’s VIP lounge, especially after hours. In my circle of friends and band mates it was the Gucci watch of stamp combo's and sometimes that would be the only set of ink on the hand in the morning but other times it was just another hue on the daily palette. Too many times I awoke unsure of where, how and with who I would be waking up and I drove home in the harsh morning light looking at those little sign posts more times than I care to remember. Today it is a whole different story that is being told by the telltale ink and certainly a much more G-rated one at that. It's my son Jake lying with his head on my chest and the stamps are from us going roller-skating while he is on school vacation. I even used a floating holiday for the day off instead of calling out on a weekday but tomorrow I will run the office gauntlet once again. Funny how the ink hasn't really changed much but the motivation has and what the heck tomorrow is a half-day anyway.