Easy Access

While reading a post on BigDubb's site about walking home from school, my brain accessed a memory I had not thought about in years. It involves porn.

From 4th to 8th grade I lived in Los Angeles and attended a private Catholic school about 10 miles from my house. There were no school buses for us private school kids. I took public transportation. In the 80s I was refered to as a Latchkey Kid. I loved it, it was total independence. So on my way to and from the bus stop I walked down Washington Blvd, which is basically a concrete jungle of liquor stores and various bars. On the corner of Washington and some street I can't remember the name of, there was a samll grocery store. You may have seen it in Jane's Addiction's video for Been Caught Stealing. Yup, it's the same one. Well, in front of the store, on the street corner, was a line of newspaper stands. Not the manned kind, the coin-operated kind. There were all sorts of newspapers, including a porn paper called something like "Hollywood Honeys" or something like that.

Every afternoon on my walk back from the bus stop to my house, there would be a trail of Hollywood Honeys staring up at me from the sidewalk. Somebody, on a daily basis, would put in their 25 cents, open the door & scatter Hollywood Honeys all over the sidewalk. My poor innocent eyes would never be the same. Did I mention that I was in 6th grade when this first happened?

I have never seen a coin-operated news stand with porn in it since that day. Although until this day I have never really looked that closely. I certainly haven't seen them in Portland. Maybe when I go to Vegas in March I'll spot one. Chaces are pretty good.