If you’re approximately my age (in other words, old) perhaps you remember the name Boz Scaggs. Boz had a monster hit of an album in 1976 called Silk Degrees that included the single Lido Shuffle among other hits. Boz also released an earlier album in 1969 that featured a 12 1/2 minute song called Loan Me Dime, about which I have a little story.

In my hometown of Whittier, CA, there was a record store called Lovell’s that I spent a lot of time in. Lovell’s sold new and used LPs as well as posters and assorted music-related ephemera. I’d wander through the overstuffed bins of used records a couple of times a week when I was a high schooler. Lovell’s also had a very attractive young woman who worked the cash register for much of the time that I was a regular customer. She was a few years older than me, and her presence in the store did a lot to enhance the record-shopping experience.

One day I was in browsing in Lovell’s bootleg album bin when a guy looking a little like a rock and roller himself came into the store and went straight to the Boz Scaggs bin, pulled out the 1969 self-titled Boz Scaggs album, took it over to the register and set it on the counter. The young woman looked at the customer, then looked at the album, then dramatically put her hand on her chest, took a deep breath, and, let out an audible sigh as she cooed to the customer “Oh man, Boz Scaggs! Loan Me a Dime.”

Even someone as inexperienced with members of the female persuasion as I was could tell that the store clerk REALLY liked this album and that song. I recall thinking that if the buyer had invited the clerk to listen to the album with him, she’d have hopped over the counter, flipped the “Closed’ sign in the window and been gone. But to my surprise, the young man simply paid for his album and walked out.

Fast forward a month or so. I’m back in Lovell’s, thumbing through the Grateful Dead bin for any old Dead album I don’t already own. I am about to head to the counter and pay for whatever album I was buying that day when something compelled me to stop at the Boz Scaggs bin. And sure enough, buried in the bin was a used copy of Boz Scaggs’ 1969 album with Loan Me a Dime on it.

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I grabbed the album, carried it to the checkout counter with my other purchase, set them both on the counter, and stood back just a bit, trying to look cool and older than I was as I prepared to receive my own breathy sign and focused attention from the attractive young clerk.

The young woman looked at my first album, then picked up the Boz Scaggs album. Looking directly into my expectant eyes, she said these words, which I shall never forget: “That’ll be $7.50 altogether. Do you need a bag?”

I was crushed. No hand on the chest, no deep sigh, no breathy praise for Loan Me a Dime.

I may not have been the sharpest note in that music store, but I immediately realized that the pretty young female clerk’s reaction before had less to do with Boz Scaggs and more to do with the purchaser of that album. I slunk out of Lovell’s that day feeling both disappointed and a little silly. It is some consolation that the album is really good and Loan Me a Dime is really a great song. Don’t take my word for it; you can see Boz perform it live on YouTube.

A little coda to the Lovell’s story. A couple of years ago, Wendy and I went to Whittier to spend Thanksgiving with my extended family. We had a great time and, with a little free time on our hands, paid a visit to Lovell’s. Not only is the store still there, but it’s still owned by the same guy, who now lives in a little apartment above the store. The pretty young female clerk was, sadly, nowhere to be seen.

Tom Tyner of Bainbridge Island writes a weekly humor column for this newspaper.