The good ol’ days of pulling horror treasures off the walls of the old video rental stores in the 80s. At my last book signing, I told my attendees about being 14 and 15 and having an “in” at our shop who we bribed with snacks to smuggle us the hardcore heavy horror our parents forbade us from seeing. Thus we would come home with Pieces inside a case marked for The Goonies or Cannibal Holocaust stashed inside a case for Tron. Truly. The good ol’ days.
Image courtesy of the public domain
–Ray Van Horn, Jr.
Roads Lesser Traveled 
Ah, the Blockbuster days.
Good times.
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My own parents gave up early, shrugged and told me that it what I watched gave me nightmares, I was on my own at night and shouldn’t bother them, which took out the joy of smuggling it. Even girly magazines were, meh, see if your great uncle will subscribe for you. Not a pathway for rebellion. But the makeup and black hair… Whoa, grounding time. 🤣
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BWAHAHAHAHA! Hypocrisy rules!
My parents were lenient to certain measures. There were some taboo movies, for which we broke the rules. I poached girlie mags from my dad after they divorced and from a dumpster dive where I found a bag of discards. I wrote a horror story recently about the dumpster diving incident, lol. My mom knew about the mags and was cool, until I daringly pulled out a centerfold and taped it to the side of my dresser next to my bed. My mom let it stay there (I never thought she found it) until we had company and then it suddenly disappeared, LOL!!!
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Nothing like having a girly mags stash you thought was secret until you discover that they knew about it all along. 😂
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Ha, I didn’t have to bribe anyone, I just switched them out myself. For me it was a real Icarus situation, eventually you learn there ARE movies that kids shouldn’t see.
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BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Well-played! I’m a smidge envious.
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Yes,we had saw them all, Jason, Michael And..Return of the living dead, This was Great times,rent video ,one Machine And five guys in the basement And in Czech,bunch od the pirátem copies of movies,dubbed by one man :)And endless days of horror marathon 😉 Thanks fór reminding,Ray,good photo!
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Wish I’d taken the picture, but thanks for sharing those memories. Me and my buddies did the same, piling into one house and grinding out those horror flicks!
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This really took me back! No internet yet so video stores often introduced a customer to great foreign films or weird grindhouse horrors.
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Such joy in discovery, as you said. Spot-on. It felt like getting away with murder, pun intended.
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You can practically smell the acetate!
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Right? God, I miss those days. Streaming’s great and convenient, but ultimately soulless. Economical as hell, though, no denying that.
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