From 1980 to 1981, I owned and ran a home video store in the midwest. I sold and rented VHS movies and Atari video games, and the store was open 9am to 7pm Monday through Thursday and 9 to 9 on Friday and Saturday. I worked the place alone, but after a few months, the strain of being there so much was beginning to grate on me, so my mother volunteered to take over on Saturday nights, so I could go out with friends and generally take a break. We also sold vcrs, and I had a TV set up with movies playing constantly while the store was open.

Now, due to zoning laws, we didn't carry any porn. We carried X-rated fare like MIDNIGHT COWBOY or ANDY WARHOL'S FRANKENSTEIN, but no hardcore adult films. However, we did carry some "saucy" hard-R titles. One Saturday, the UPS delivered a box of new movies and among them was the Joe Sarno flick CONFESSIONS OF A YOUNG AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE. I slid it into the vcr, and within 10 minutes, had to eject it because the sex scenes were borderline porn.



At 5:00, my mother showed up to take over the last 4 hours of the Saturday shift, and I was eager to get out of there. As she put her purse behind my desk, she asked me what new movies had come in. She looked them over, because she usually like to watch a movie while she worked the counter. I got ready to leave, but before I did, I told her that under NO circumstances was she to put CONFESSIONS OF A YOUNG AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE in the vcr and play it on the TV. I told her there was too much nudity and sex for it to run in the store. I said goodbye and left the building, then walked to my van (yes, I drove a customized van which saw more sex than Kinsey). I was going to the drive-in that night with a friend of mine. Suddenly, I stopped and realized I had forgotten to give Mom the key to lock up, so I turned and quickly went back inside.

There, blazing on the TV, was CONFESSIONS with my mother staring intently. "Mom!" I shouted, startling her, "I told you not to run that in the store!"

"Oh, did you mean THIS movie? I thought you meant another one," she said, smiling.

I tossed the key onto the counter, shook my head and left again, wondering if Dad was in for a rough time that night.

What brought about this memory? I saw on DVDPlanet today that COAYAH is about to be released on dvd. I may have to buy a copy and send it to my mom as a reminder. lol



Now, on a related topic, my store was in a small town, and was divided into 3 sections: the front, which was bordered by a long counter, was were I kepted the tapes for rental; the middle, which was where I had my desk and filing cabinet, and the back, separated by a wall, which was a large, dark, empty space next to the restroom. As I became more aware of the underground gay life in that town, I decided to install partitions with doors and drilled glory holes between them (my mom asked why I installed those and I told her they were for storage—lol). I let a few gay buddies in on what I was doing, and soon the word began to spread. Men (some gay and some married) would come into the store, look around, then ask if anyone was "in back". If so, they'd wait until the store was empty then mosey back for some fun. I eventually put a tip jar back there and made some extra profit. Sometimes there were more people in the back than in the front!

JBK