No. 622 – Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)

Performer: Squeeze

Songwriters: Chris Difford, Glenn Tilbrook

Original Release: Argybargy

Year: 1980

Definitive Version: None

From 2003 to 2006, I had almost no extra money for new music, so during that time, I was rediscovering a lot of older things that were floating about here and there. I’d go to visit Scott and take a look at his voluminous CD collection tucked away in a closet and think, oh yeah, I want this one … and this one …

This is one of those songs that I kind of liked when it first arrived but didn't really listen to—or certainly fully appreciate—until this time. I had this one with me when I moved to Chicago and was listening to it a lot during this time.

I didn't have a job when I moved, so looking for one became my full-time job. I certainly had the time for it, but I didn't have the access. Laurie didn't have cable, and I didn't have the money for high-speed Internet. When it came to sending email and doing a little Web browsing, dial-up was sufficient, but for a full-fledged job search, I needed more bandwidth.

I started by going to the local library—the Sulzer—in Lincoln Square. It had Ethernet access, which was instant on and—best of all—free. The problem was the library had only three stations, which were filled often, because it was starting to transition to Wi-Fi, which my computer was incapable of accepting without modifications I was unwilling to make. So, what to do?

The good news was there just happened to be a major university nearby to which I just happened to be an alum who had donated some money to over the years. Surely, I would have access to Northwestern’s library.

I visited on a weekend to kind of just scout around, and although the person at the desk told me that it was just for students and professors—not the general public, even alumni donors—I could go in that day.

But what she also told me was more helpful: If you arrive before a certain time, no one checked for a student ID, so anyone could go in. They just had to leave after a certain time.

Well, it didn't take me long to realize that no one ever checked for identification after the fact. As long as I got to the library before a certain time and just kept to myself and looked like I belonged there, I'd essentially be treated like a student—obviously an older grad student, but a student nonetheless. The only drawback: I couldn't leave the library for any reason until I was done for the day, because I wouldn't be able to get back in if I left. Fair enough.

I suppose the whole library now is Wi-Fi, but back then, a couple of rooms on the main floor—the reference room was one of them—had Ethernet connections ringing the exterior walls. All I needed was a long enough cable, which I brought with me, to reach the outlet while I sat at a nearby desk. A couple of keystrokes, and I was open for business.

For the next six months, the Northwestern Library was more or less my place of work. It was nearly 20 years after I had graduated, and in some ways, it felt as though I’d never left.