Rock n' Sports is a tiny, dark cluttered and cramped place. Most of the music to be sold is the sort of stuff you definitely wouldn't play for your grandmother. One would have to come up with some seriously lame excuses as to why you were listening to it if Jesus was looking over your shoulder, which, incidently, He is --always.
There's a CD player on the counter for background music or for customers to hear what they're getting before buying. I didn't catch what CD was in the player, but the case had the parental advisory warning on it. I glanced around and a lot of the case-fronts I saw bore warnings of one sort or another. Hedonistic ugliness abounded. I wanted to look for Christian stuff quickly and get out. At least I didn't hear anything warning-worthy. The store obviously caters, for the most part, to a worldly, unrestrained-by-any-moral-rules under-30 crowd.
Now you might be wondering what got me into such a place to begin with. My son, who's on his own and practicing restraint-avoidance to an extent, knows my interest in Christian music. He mentioned he'd seen some Christian CDs there, and that I ought to check it out.
I went down there one day while on break, and spotted several Project 86, Skillet, Tourniquet, Petra and Bride CDs on a very quick browse. That showed me the store might have potential. Here's my problem: If I patronize the place, I help it stay in business selling all that other junk, but I also help keep used Christian music available to those who might not otherwise hear it.
The next time I went in, I picked out some Tourniquet and I asked the guy at the counter if he knew what it sounded like. The guy was Nolan, the owner, and a most-helpful and friendly sort. I wasn't trying to quiz him, I honestly didn't know about Tourniquet. He didn't know and he asked if I wanted to hear some. He popped the CD in the player and let me have the controls. After a few sound-clips, I bought one. He asked if I wanted help finding anything else. I took the bait.
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