A slacker microhistory home video with mozzarella

April 7, 2014 4:58 PM

2:30am at a 7-11 near Disney World - 1987 [SLYT]
posted by One Second Before Awakening (29 comments total)

Mozzarella on pop-tarts?!
posted by spiderskull at 5:14 PM on April 7, 2014

This was surprisingly enjoyable.

Kind of reminded me of Clerks, only not mean-spirited, and with better dialogue and camerawork.
posted by Atom Eyes at 5:23 PM on April 7, 2014 [15 favorites]

Pop-tarts, popcorn, popped collars... It's all poppin'.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:26 PM on April 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

I know of a 7-11 near Disney World. I threw up in the parking lot after drinking my way around the world pavilion.
posted by Ruki at 5:31 PM on April 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think the takeaway here is take some 360-degree panoramic video now of everyday situations -- walking through Walmart, outside a concert, hanging out at the airport, etc. Not sure what sort of lens and projection you would need to capture 360 degrees onto one frame, but I'm sure it's already doable. In about 10 or 20 years you'll be able to drop that into whatever the future equivalent of the Oculus Rift is and be able to whisk people back to 2014, almost like being there. I bet people would pay good money for it if you had a stockpile you could tap into.

"Daddy, what was it like in 2014?" "Funny you should ask.. here, put this on."
posted by crapmatic at 5:31 PM on April 7, 2014 [4 favorites]

Just watched Clerks last night for the first time in years. Great to juxtapose with some footage from the other side of the counter. Thanks for the perspective 1sec.
posted by stinkfoot at 5:56 PM on April 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Heavy Metal Parking Lot (Maryland, 1986)
posted by Flashman at 6:01 PM on April 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

1987: Where the cigarettes are in front of the counter and the Slurpee machine is behind it.
posted by triceryclops at 6:08 PM on April 7, 2014 [18 favorites]

I heart perms
posted by roger ackroyd at 6:29 PM on April 7, 2014

Okay I have a serious question. Does anyone else notice that in the 80s we all looked a bit different in the face? It jumps out at me every time and I see it in old photos of myself, friends, family. It's hard to put your finger on but it's to do with a fullness in the face and skin that looks like it was more oily somehow. And not just due to youth, because I don't see the same thing in young people now. Like people had more subcutaneous fat, maybe? And assuming I'm not completely imagining it, what could account for that? Some difference in diet?
posted by HotToddy at 6:31 PM on April 7, 2014

I kept waiting for something bad to happen, but I guess this is still cool
posted by wheelieman at 7:03 PM on April 7, 2014

This has been surprisingly popular on 4chan for months now, along with a mall video set in the same era. I would have thought there would be much sneering about the hair (okay, the hair ... yeah, sorry about that, we probably punched through the ozone layer the size of Texas in 1986 alone with the spray), but no. The btards talks about how friendly and open people appear in these videos as compared to now, with a tone of mild wonder. Eventually some of the oldsters show up and answer questions. I am always tempted to scan in portions of my yearbook and upload them for their amusement.

7-Elevens used to be one of those near bulletproof investments, like the way people talk about McDonald's franchises going out of business. The addition of convenience stores to pharmacies and gas stations has taken down at least a few near me, most notably the 7-Eleven my then girlfriend and I would visit on the way home after nearly every date. Thank you, convenience store, for having the foresight to have available a rose I might buy after sleeping with her for the first time.

Strange to watch something like this.
posted by adipocere at 7:20 PM on April 7, 2014 [8 favorites]

That one guy made a beeline for the cheese danish like he'd been dreaming about it all night.
posted by orme at 7:39 PM on April 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

It's odd how every single person, from the french blonde, to the clerk, to the balding manager, could have been a character in an eighties sitcom. Maybe it wasn't just the style of TV, maybe that's what the eighties actually were like?

America really is a weird and wonderful place.
posted by cacofonie at 7:46 PM on April 7, 2014 [4 favorites]

I really enjoyed this. Ken was channelling classic Letterman.
posted by davebush at 7:58 PM on April 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

The btards talks about how friendly and open people appear in these videos as compared to now, with a tone of mild wonder.

That is super-interesting and it makes me wish you could link to it.
posted by hap_hazard at 7:58 PM on April 7, 2014

The YouTube comments are also strangely in awe of the friendliness.

I would love to see a 2017 anniversary comparison for science.
posted by oceanjesse at 8:08 PM on April 7, 2014

I think it's pretty interesting to see how differently people reacted to video cameras in those days. Now it's so easy to place a video on YouTube where the whole world can see it, so pointing a camera or your phone at a stranger is often taken as an affront. The people in this video don't expect that anyone but the videographer and his friends will ever see it so they're totally cool with it. I don't think this dynamic will ever work the same way again.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 8:34 PM on April 7, 2014 [10 favorites]

how friendly and open people appear in these videos as compared to now

Films like this will breed a false sense of nostalgia for an 80s that never existed. In the same way the Happy Days of the 1950s never existed until it was invented in the 1970s.
posted by stbalbach at 8:47 PM on April 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Happy Days is somewhat similar. They were both filmed before a live studio audience.

This doesn't breed a false sense of nostalgia for me, though. I can't place it at all without a cheesy soundtrack or a dated star with massive hair or at least a fashion-forward lead with the sense to be wearing something contemporary. To me it looks like it was filmed in 1976, or 1998, or yesterday.

"It's a magical night in America, and I'm just glad we're all here to share in the excitement."
posted by koeselitz at 10:17 PM on April 7, 2014

beats my 7-11 clerking experience, which included being alone in the store when a guy came in with bloody, bloody arms, asking for change.
posted by angrycat at 11:42 PM on April 7, 2014 [4 favorites]

I really enjoyed this. Ken was channelling classic Letterman.

I had the same exact thought. I do wonder if he was a fan. My other thought was, "Wow, two whole Slurpee flavors to choose from."

In case anyone missed it, there's a link to a video of the three guys reuniting in '07, albeit in a bar. I wonder if they were just too self-conscious to do another 7-11 taping.

Apparently one of them is a Red Sox fan, which made me realize the original video was shot the summer after the '86 World Series. Yes, things were very different then.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 12:19 AM on April 8, 2014

Reddit thread about the video with probably similar reactions as 4chan. Also where I learned the one answer to questions such as, why is the French girl holding a rearview mirror to her chin? Why is John smiling so hard? Why are those guys buying a bag of sugar at 2:30 in the morning?

Answer: Coke. Lots of coke.
posted by book 'em dano at 12:54 AM on April 8, 2014

Answer: Coke. Lots of coke.

The kind that costs you ten cents more to get less?

I like how the concensus there is that "everyone was so nice because they were so high."

Apparently one of the guys from the video is in that thread, and he says they might do another video at 7-11 after all.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 1:15 AM on April 8, 2014

Certainly the fact that the 7-11 was right beside Disneyworld and seemingly patronized by a bunch of people that worked there by choice might have something to do with the relatively high levels of jolly. The kids I knew who went down there and worked for summers/semesters/whathaveyou in the early 90s were basically into BEING HAPPY AND ON ALL THE TIME AND SHOWING PEOPLE THE MAGICAL UNIVERSE GOOFY COSTUMES AND TURKEY LEGS. Come to think of it, we always assumed they were on drugs too. So, yeah, cocaine.
posted by thivaia at 6:37 AM on April 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's like high school all over again. We'd skateboard all night long and hang out at 7-11s and everything was right in the universe. The video is so familiar in a suburban Florida kind of way that I feel like I should know the film maker.
posted by photoslob at 6:55 AM on April 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

We'd skateboard all night long and hang out at 7-11s and everything was right in the universe.

I love that sentence.
posted by davebush at 8:48 AM on April 8, 2014

I figured the rearview mirror at the chin was her attempt at a prop microphone - look at the way she passes it to the other guy at 4:55, like an interviewer would.
posted by eykal at 12:17 PM on April 8, 2014

Though I've still no idea what "You lose the world" is meant to refer to.
posted by eykal at 12:18 PM on April 8, 2014