Denise was fifteen in 1978 and had the room over the garage. It was the coldest room in the house and the only one with its own door to the outside. She did not use the outside door. She used the inside one, firmly.
She bought a used bass with babysitting money and learned it from the radio, one song at a time, at a volume low enough that it did not count as practicing. She painted the band name on the guitar case with house paint left over from the shutters. She did not say where the name came from. Nobody asked twice.
She quit in March 1981, two months before graduation. The following week she bought a rubber stamp at an office-supply store on Ridge Road. The rest of the label's history follows from that purchase.
Now. Teaches seventh grade in Parma. Has confiscated, by her own count, about four hundred notes. Has read none of them.