Melissa and I saw this on a billboard on Interstate 24 on our way back home from Nashville. It actually sparked a conversation between us… with me starting with ’so how do you suppose all these adult book stores stay open with the internet giving it all away?’… ‘maybe they specialize’. Midgets. No… I’m sure that’s available online.

Melissa’s main curiosity was just how people could go in there unashamed… I think the same question could be asked of people walking into a church, and I think it’s directly related to the fact that the majority of the people who are in the church when you get there probably agree with 90% of what you believe to be true in life… and 90% of what you’re willing to accept. Maybe the same thing happens with people when walking into an adult book store? Perhaps they understand that 90% of the people who go in there… are looking for the same thing that they are? Or perhaps it’s simply that there is very little need or expectation for acceptance in that social environment, compared with say a bar or club, where the social acceptance need and expectation is much higher? Maybe they just don’t care?

I’ve only been in one adult book store. I was 19, and it was in Dickson, PA. It was creepy. I was only there for a few minutes, and it was only to pick up a blow up doll. It was not for me, it was for a friend. No, really. It was my friend’s 21st birthday, and a bunch of us decided that it would be funny if we put a blow up doll in his bed. It was funny, but he wanted to kill us.

15 years later, and I have not found a need for going into one of those stores again. I am after all, an internet guy.