And sure enough, it had its own website, which looked like it’d been created in the late nineties and then quickly forgotten about. It’s exactly the sort of online presence that a music store selling eight-tracks as a viable audio format should have. I sent an e-mail to Bob, requesting an interview. I mentioned MTV, which I doubt would’ve impressed him all that much, and made up something about a story I was working on, about record stores and their continued vitality and cultural significance, or something. Would he be interested in talking to me about the colorful history of the Record Swap, and how his store prevailed when so many others, including his own brother’s store, had crumbled to the ground like ancient civilizations? Also, speaking of his brother . . . No, no, I’d get to that part later. I wasn’t sure how or when, but it felt like a secret I had to protect, at least at first. Tip my hand, and I could easily have this door slammed in my face.
