Things never stay the same. Times change and people change. People wanted more than beers in the parking lot and smoking old cigarette butts out of dirty old ashtrays. They left for college. They left to get sober. They left for the Military…They left!

The scene was dying, hardly any clubs would even host punk shows anymore. The parents were against it, the police were against it, the city council was against it and the fire department was against it.

People just began to hang out less and less as they moved into the work force, had kids or died from drug addictions they picked up during the punk scene.

It really was a tragic end to an amazing five years of shows, parties, hanging out and having a lot of fun.

Responsibility was knocking and many people realizing they were heading towards a dead end just left.

I ran into Greg Graffin one night at the Anti-club and Bad Religion still hadn’t “made it” yet. He was going to school at Ithaca College in New York. We both looked at each other, each with a deep understanding that the scene was over and we shrugged… and then he just walked away and I never saw him again for many years after that.

I was working at a Liquor store after getting out of the Navy and Jay Bentley came in…I walked up to him and started up a conversation with him but I got the vibe that he was there to steal something because he just left after a little bit without buying anything. So, times were pretty tough for Bad Religion there in the late 80’s.

People felt lost…and many questioned their identity because the only identity they ever had was Punk Rock and now that was gone.

These were the dark years…

Then one day a newer generation started to pick up the Punk Rock torch and started bands of their own.

Bad Religion even came out with a new album, “Suffer” and all the kids loved it.
A resurgence was coming that appealed to the masses…Now Rock N Roll was taking a turn at dying because Punk Rock was becoming bigger.

I worked at Sylmar S.H.S. for about six months and when I would look out into the Quad all you could see was Punk Rockers Skateboarding and listening to Punk Rock… It made me feel good to see that Punk Rock was alive and growing again.