Volunteering

I often say that my first volunteer job was at Hidden Villa, but it really was at Blacklist Mailorder, which shared a space with Alternative Tentacles on Shipley St. in San Francisco.

My reason for volunteering was selfish. Volunteers packed orders, which involved getting records from shelves, addressing boxes and envelopes, and other similar tasks. While getting records from shelves, I'd be silently amassing a pile of things that I wanted to buy. So yeah, I volunteered so I could get first crack at the records. I discovered a lot of good music while volunteering there.

Come to think of it, my mom volunteered at the Cupertino library for much the same reason. Great minds think alike, I guess.