In the stacks

Dan Haynes, 55, is a shy and soft-spoken man, but he overcomes his timid nature when talking about two things he loves: music and St. Vincent’s. Haynes volunteers at St. Vincent’s Thrift Shop, 500 E. Fourth St., organizing and pricing the store’s music stock on “The Wall,” as he affectionately calls it. Haynes moved St. Vincent’s crated records into record store-style bins, complete with ornately decorated genre labels he made with a wood burner. The more valuable records are arranged artistically on “The Wall,” with detailed signage indicating the album’s value and bits of trivia. “It’s like having my own record store but without all the headaches,” he says. He called RN&R when he noticed the music donations running low. Call 322-7073.

How did you get into music?

When I got out of the Navy, I moved to San Francisco, to Haight-Ashbury, and that’s where I started getting interested in music. … You had the Fillmore, the Avalon Ballroom, the Family Dog and Winterland. And also you had free concerts in Golden Gate Park, where groups like Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane would all come and play for free.

What was that like?

It was 1967, and it was just a real crazy time. There was a lot of music going on, and plus there were a lot of feelings about the war, and the colleges were rioting, and there was just a lot going on at that time politically. Music was a good release for everybody.

Why Haight-Ashbury?

I think just the freedom. Because after three and half years in the Navy, of being under authority, you just wanted to be free.

Why did you start working here?

I have health issues that I deal with, so I’m not working, so I just thought I needed to volunteer and start helping people. And also because this place helped me. … A lot of the people here, they all put their heart and soul into St. Vincent’s. … It’s not really what we own that determines who we are—it’s what we give away.

What does your job entail?

I dig through all the records to see if there are any valuable ones and also to check the condition of them. Then I clean them up, too, with alcohol [to] take off any dust. I listen to most of them at home. The other morning I had to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning and listen to, like, six Beatles albums, until noon.

Oh, that’s a really hard job!

I know! [laughs] When you just wake up and you have your headphones on and you’ve got the Beatles going, it’s pretty neat.

What kind of records do you sell?

We get a wide assortment of records, but we haven’t been getting them in lately. … If I put them on “The Wall,” those are the ones that I’ve personally listened to, and those I’ve looked up in a book, so their price fluctuates depending on how valuable they are.

Any last words?

I think the community is really lucky to have [thrift shop managers] James Baker and Donna Casler working for them, because they never get thanked for anything, and they’re the ones that really run this whole place, and they help the community an awful lot. … I also think it’s important to note that the people of Reno are really generous people. … Sometimes the people of Reno should pat themselves on the back.