Adventures in the skin trade

I've had a number of flutters in unappealing careers - market garden worker, waitress, cleaner, but none of them quite had the tingle of revulsion that I got from working at a video store. Ah, the clatter of the saloon style doors that led into the porn chamber, the lunch time drop offs of videos, still warm from the player (I hope it was the player). Sometimes it all became a bit too real, there was too much of an insight into the lives of the people I was dealing with. So the customers usually fell into one of three categories.
-The adventurous couple, with female party loudly exclaiming just how into the misgynist porn titles we stocked
-The teenager, with older looking friend,on the loose with his parents video card
-The hardened (tee hee) porn habitue looking for anything newly in the shop, or an old favourite if that was all that was available.
The first category of customers were usually tedious, the second source of hilarity, especially when I had to ring up with overdues. You would think that the kids would be smart enough to return the DVD in time to avoid that phone call which effectively would put an end to their love life. And the last, oh the last. Without them, we would all have been out of work, or the store a shambles. These were individuals who appreciated the comforts in life, and were not afraid to work for them on a quid pro quo basis - how else do you think the shop got refitted?
Sometimes a crusty would enter the shop, and sift around until finally dashing into the back room. Sometimes they were loud and proud, and once someone just complained about the lack of viewing booths. Hell, I wasn't going to clean them up for anyone. And then sometimes, somtimes they were just awesome in their endurance and devotion to our porn range. I think particularly of a man who used to catch a taxi from Brockville to the store, select the evenings entertainment (5 weeklies for $7, 3 overnighters) and rush back out to the waiting taxi to get back home. Lord knows what home was like.
Awash probably.