I found this picture in my collection while looking for something else, and boy did it bring back memories. This is where—about a year after I moved to San Francisco—I sold my entire vinyl collection, because you know, compact discs! And it’s also where I simply left a box of records they didn’t want out on the street for the taking because I wasn’t going to haul them back home.

Ah, the stupidity of youth. Ironic because many years later, after realizing the error of my ways, it was the same location where I started rebuilding that same vinyl collection.

In the intervening years I bought and sold dozens of CDs at the same location as my financial situation ebbed and flowed.

Of course this led me down the internet rabbit hole as I attempted to find out what had happened to the store in the years since I left The City.

Apparently the store closed in 2016. The building (including two residential units on the upper floors) were renovated in 2019.

Now it’s a hair salon. ????

And speaking of places long gone where I spent copious amounts of money…

I was unable to find any photos of the interior of the Tower Records store on Market Street and these are the only ones I located of the exterior. I remember when the store first opened it was Mana From Heaven for music junkies like me. After Tower Records closed all its stores in 2006, apparently the building sat vacant for several years until CVS stepped in and the building was completely remodeled. CVS moved out in 2017 and according to Google Street View, it’s now Barry’s, a gym/heath & fitness establishment.

And while we’re on the subject…

The Record Rack was another of my hangouts.

Neil used to let me root around in the back room where they kept all the used stock that they hadn’t put out yet. There were boxes of records stacked on top of each other, loose records spilling onto the floor, unsorted shelves…I easily spent entire afternoons going through the mess and didn’t even scratch the surface.

Speaking of Neil, I present Neil Lewis: The Final Performance

What has this little trip down memory lane done? It’s reminded me that I no longer recognize the city I called home for nearly 20 years. I spent hours on Google Street View over the weekend visiting my old haunts downtown and all the way up Market throughout the Castro, and I scarcely recognized anything. Considering I’ve now been gone from The City longer than I actually lived there, this isn’t surprising. Time does move on, after all. But it’s still a little depressing, and really makes me wish I had taken more photos when I lived there than I did.