I purchased most of the other Hüsker albums at the Record Rack, a small downtown store that Mercy and I ended up hitting after our fries-and-soda lunches. The inside was shaped like a shoebox with two thin walking aisles staked out by rows of record bins. Cassettes filled one wall. Band pins, patches, and posters wallpapered the opposite wall. I snapped up all the Hüsker Dü pins they had. I bought other pins, too, including bands I hadn’t yet heard if the pin looked cool. But I didn’t have a suitable jacket on which the pins would be the proper accoutrement. My blue zip-up knockoff Members Only coat and my as-puffy-as-a-life-preserver winter anorak were both big pin nopes.

You so fancy

Rides home at the end of our Saturdays often ended with Mercy playfully prodding me to radically change my look, starting with a leather jacket.

Like the Fonz. Is that reference old enough for you?