I have aged a bit since then. I might be mis-remembering parts of those years and, being a Texan I might be prone to embellishment. But I implore the reader to picture if you can, a 7-Eleven with part of it walled off to form a narrow hallway leading to the bathrooms with a line of arcade games along one wall and just enough room in front of them for two players and couple of spectators to stand and almost enough room for another person to pass behind them without disturbing anyone.
Now if you are old enough you can take yourself back to those glorious days of fine Texas gals only a year or two out of high school wearing their Daisy Dukes and halter tops or rock-n-roll concert t-shirts. You're the guy with the hot rod 4x4 truck or the newish muscle car and several speeding tickets.
Of course the guy who got all the gals back then had the Good Times Chevy van with the captains chairs and the bed in back with a bumper sticker that said "No gas, no grass, no ass. No free ride." Or maybe the sticker that came out just before all the Jesus people gained a voice in the Reagan years that pictured a baby boy grabbing something in his crotch with the caption "I found it!" It was intended to mock all those people who were being "saved" by the tv preachers and tent revivalists that used to be common. That's where I grew up. Times sure have changed. A lot for the better. A lot for the not so better too.
That took me back a few years. My Dad's cousin had a 7-Eleven franchise when Southland Corp. still owned them. We could drop in any time and get a Slurpee, Big Gulp, a Tony's heat-em-up pizza, or like he mentions in the video - some nachos with all that chili and cheese. Wow.
The one in my home town was remodeled by the owner after it became obvious that people would be standing around the arcade games dropping quarters all day long if you'd let them. He made it convenient. He added a wall inside the store that led all the people who thought they were just stopping for gas and a quick piss right past the row of arcade games. Many of them stopped long enough to spend a quarter or two more than they thought they would when they stopped there.
Not much to do in that town but make the drag - literally drive back and forth all night on the main highway thru town hoping to attract free beer, lonely women, or some dipshit who thought his car was faster than yours. The pool hall was downtown and the highways in were lined with beer joints and bbq shacks. Pretty good combination when resources were pooled.
From the click-clack in the video I'm thinking his girlfriend Mindy shot the video. I wish I had owned a video camera back in the day. All I have are still photos and memories. Thanks for jogging my memory.
That is just like what I remember. Same time frame too, 1979-1983ish. That is what the store looked like just after school got out for the day and for most of the day during the summer. Young kids jockeying for turns at the machines, pointing out their high scores, etc. I was older than these kids by a few years. Thanks for this!
Now I know you are being hyperbolic.