2:30am at a 7-11 in 1987(VIDEO)!

[Ace of Spade]

.........

 

[Ace of Spade]

2:30am at a 7-11 in 1987 video.

FAQ
Did you make any money on this video?

Yes, I do have most of my videos monetized on YouTube. Which means if enough people view the video, I get a check deposited into my bank account. I have been regularly getting a check for about $100 2-3 times a year...until this video blew up. In June I received a $2,000 deposit. I split the money with Ken. Not sure how much I will get from this second round yet.


Do you know where the people in this video are today?

Most of them...no. As you might have gathered from previous comments, I keep in contact with Ken. As for Jim, the other guy that was with us...I haven't a clue to where he is. Lost touch with him shortly after that summer. Now I did run into the guy with the "Popped Collar" and the French Girl shortly after that at EPCOT's employee cafeteria. We laughed about it. She went back to France shortly after that. He later asked me for a copy of the VHS that he could send her. I ran into him occasionally at Disney over the next few years, but eventually lost track of him. But thanks to the video going viral, he is now back in touch with me, and he is still in touch with the French Girl (who is still in Europe). They both apparently had many friends send them the link asking if it was them in the video. After it went viral, a nephew of the Night Manager contacted me and said it was his Uncle. He played the video for the Uncle, who had no recollection of that night, but confirmed it was indeed him. He has since retired from 7-11. Most recently, the girl in the yellow top dancing by the frozen foods made contact. Apparently she was an employee of that 7-11 at the time, and still works for 7-11 at another Orlando location today. She told me her manager showed her the video. Nobody else from the video has come forward. Keep in mind, some of these people were dating people they are probably not with today, or under the influence of something, and probably don't want to be identified. Even though Ken was squeaky clean in the video, he does have a profession where he has to watch out for things that might pop up in the public about his background. This might be the case for the others as well. In June of 2014, I ran into "Popped Collar" in Las Vegas of all places at The Mirage Hotel.

Ran into "Popped Collar" in Vegas - 2014

The Accent

I guess there is an '80s way of talking. There are many comments about our "accent". I don't hear any difference from then to now. But most say there is. And a lot of people are saying Ken sounds like Ferris Bueller. I don't hear that either. But he was kind of (as one poster put it) channeling classic David Letterman bits from that time (i.e. "magic night in America")


The Van

I have had a few comments about the "rape van" we got into at the end of the video. Most people just wished they could see what the art was on the side of the van. Well here it is. It wasn't technically my van. My '79 Trans Am was in the shop and my parents were letting me drive their van. This was a photo taken in the early '80s of my mother, my brothers and me. I'll keep looking for a better picture of the van. But the painting on the side is of a lake or something with the sun setting on it.

Locals Not Tourists

One popular theory to why we all were so friendly, was because we were "tourists" mingling with other "tourists". And when people are on vacation, they are happier. That wasn't the case here. We were pretty much all locals. Even the Spanish speaking guys who said they were tourists (one of them was wearing a Disney employee shirt - see the Mickey on it?). I worked at Disney, Popped Collar and French Girl worked at Disney. I'm pretty sure that John and Kelly were Disney employees. The Mozzarella dude was probably Disney. (We all meet the Disney grooming standards of the time). The 7-11 employees were locals obviously. In other words...none of us were on vacation. Who buys a bag of sugar while on vacation?




Video Cameras were common

The other theory to why people are friendly (and there probably is some truth to this one), is that cameras were probably not that common, so it was a novelty to see one and it was "fun" to be the focus of somebody's camera. The part of this theory that is wrong is, home video cameras were the big new thing. A few years back, they became affordable. And they were becoming more and more portable. We all were living and working in one of the biggest tourist capitals of the world. Every day we saw tourists with cameras. Lots and lots of video cameras. And two years later, America's Funniest Home Videos premiered, featuring videos shot in the '80s on everybody's home video cameras.

They were common enough, that I bought my own when I was a college kid, working a part time job. It was about $1200 at Sears. I used my paychecks from Disney to pay for college as well as my new investment. I believe I put $200 down, and was paying $25/month. This was my first credit purchase, which enabled me to get credit cards later. I remember shortly after I bought it, my dad and I had a big fight about it. I made a huge purchase without involving him, and he didn't know if it was such a good idea. But he later loved watching the videos I shot with it and living vicariously through my adventures. All-in-all, it was a good purchase. I loved this camera.

Under the Influence

Another theory to why we are all so friendly is that we are all "coked up". Let make this clear. I have never done cocaine. I don't plan on ever doing it. In fact, I was such a goody-two-shoes at the time, I wasn't even drinking alcohol that night. I waited until I finished college before I would booze it up on occasion. I'm pretty sure Ken wasn't under the influence of anything that night at all either. I can't speak for Jim or the others that were featured. If I had to guess, I'd say a few of them recently had a few drinks. And the popular theory behind John's mannerisms is that he might have been on Cocaine. I don't know. But I do know that not everybody was under the influence in this video.




Is that 7-11 still there and if so, where is it?

Yes, it's still there. It's located at 13407 Apopka-Vineland R (535), Orlando, FL 32821-6368




Draft Card Comment

When Kelly says she has a "draft" card, she actually said "Giraffe Card". There was a nightclub down the street called The Giraffe Lounge, and it was inside a hotel called The Royal Plaza. The Giraffe Card was something like a "repeat customer" membership card with perks. One of our stops earlier that night was to go inside The Royal Plaza and sneak up to where The Michael Jackson suite was. He wasn't there though. On our way out, Jim grabbed a "Do Not Disturb" sign that he is carrying around in the video. When we were introducing ourselves to John and Kelly, Jim said he worked at the Royal Plaza (even though he didn't) and held up his Royal Plaza Do Not Disturb sign, which prompted Kelly to say..."I have a Giraffe Card". But everybody...including Ken that night, thought she was saying Draft Card. By the way...do people carry around a Draft Card?




World Premiere Comment

When I said "see you at the World Premiere" to the French Girl and the Popped Collar guy, I was actually referring to the Employee Cafe at EPCOT. That was the name of the Cafeteria. And that's actually where I did indeed see them next. But some people made the clever comment that the "World Premiere" would be on YouTube.


Where did we go next?

I think we headed over to one of the nearby Disney hotels looking for fun, but didn't find much. So we parted ways and called it a night.

 

[fastone]

Exactly.

 

[NHB7]

If I brought my camera to my local 7-11 and started recording today, I’d get my ass beat by the guys drinking 40s and smoking cigarettes all day on the front curb. They’re always starting fights out there. If I wait long enough though, they might be drunk enough.

 

[That209]

Sure things are different, but people often remember things wrong. Just for example, If you asked most people who are middle aged, like me, if they think things like teenage pregnancy, drug use by teens, and violence by teens have gone up or down since they were a teenager, most people would say up. But they would be completely wrong.

It’s just one of those things. We all remember the past fondly and focus on the negatives in the here and now.

Pretty much. People get nostalgic about how things looked back then compared to now. The way people dress, their hair, the way that 7-11 looks, etc. They’re nostalgic and really they just miss it. In reality the world is very much the same, we just dress different, stores are ‘modernized’ but, the world was pretty much just as violent and bad with drugs (especially crack/coke back then). 1980 was almost 40 years ago and for those that were born then or after, we’re still the same deep down. Humans gonna human. People say like ‘oh what happened to the world’ but besides how we and certain things look (stores, cars,), WE haven’t actually changed that much except for a lot becoming more sensitive, judgmental and scared of strangers..like, in this video the guy talks to everybody and they’re all having a good time but trying that today would get you awkward stares or ignored n shit. People today are afraid because of what they read about even though most people you meet at completely normal. So yeah, people today are very much the same deep down, but nobody wants to believe it and that’s why people are more negative towards each other than ever before.

 

[National Acrobat]

Weirdest part of this video: No one is obese.

 

[Ace of Spade]

If I brought my camera to my local 7-11 and started recording today, I’d get my ass beat by the guys drinking 40s and smoking cigarettes all day on the front curb. They’re always starting fights out there. If I wait long enough though, they might be drunk enough.

I know right. LOL ... and someone would end up recording you getting your ass beat for trying to record them. LOL WORLDSTAR!!!!!!! LOL

 

[Hollywood Jack]

Do you have kids? I left my kids at my parents place one day and they pulled out the videos. They laughed their asses off at the videos of me and TBH they were that different than the one in the OP. Just saying my 13 and 15 yr old's generation is bewildered by the 80s.

No kids and no home videos.

 

[Guestx]

This X1000 ^

I remember it being the same way and things are not at all like that now. I told my kids we stayed outside all day and we drank from a water hose and they looked at me like this.

In my neighborhood there are a shit load of kids, its a young parents area with a lot of elementary schools and all my neighbors all the way down the street have kids. Let me tell you something, you drive to my neighborhood and you will see no kids outside playing. Its a ghost town. There are a shit load of kids around here but they don't come out to play and that is another way that the internet boom changed us as people.

What I want to know is if BB guns are still a big thing with young boys.

When I was a kid every boy loved weapons and every boy owned at least one BB gun. And I didn't grow up in a rural area, I grew up in the middle of Memphis.

It was very common for a pack of boys to haul off into whatever woods might be nearby armed to the hilt with air-powered weaponry and shoot shit. Something tells me that today you'd get the cops called on you if someone saw you walking down the street with a BB gun.

 

[MusterX]

What I want to know is if BB guns are still a big thing with young boys.

When I was a kid every boy loved weapons and every boy owned at least one BB gun. And I didn't grow up in a rural area, I grew up in the middle of Memphis.

It was very common for a pack of boys to haul off into whatever woods might be nearby armed to the hilt with air-powered weaponry and shoot shit. Something tells me that today you'd get the cops called on you if someone saw you walking down the street with a BB gun.

I definitely had a BB gun, the kind where its a pain in the ass to load and you have to drop all the BB's down a hole in the barrel. Later after that I got a pellet gun that held Co2 cartridges. My first real gun was a crack barrel .410 shotgun. This stuff just seemed normal to me growing up but you know, gun culture and all that.

 

[Guestx]

I definitely had a BB gun, the kind where its a pain in the ass to load and you have to drop all the BB's down a hole in the barrel. Later after that I got a pellet gun that held Co2 cartridges. My first real gun was a crack barrel .410 shotgun. This stuff just seemed normal to me growing up but you, gun culture and all that.

My first BB gun was a Red Ryder, just like Ralphie in A Christmas Story. My step-dad bought it for me when I was around eight or nine, can't remember exactly.

From there I graduated to a series of Crossman and Daisy pump rifles and the occasional CO2 pistol (but I hated buying CO2 cartridges so mostly stuck with the rifles).

Like I said, at least where I lived air guns were as common among kids as skateboards. It was no thing to just walk down the street in the neighborhood with one. People didn't think anything about it.

Pretty sure I had this exact gun:

 

[MusterX]

My first BB gun was a Red Ryder, just like Ralphie in A Christmas Story. My step-dad bought it for me when I was around eight or nine, can't remember exactly.

From there I graduated to a series of Crossman and Daisy pump rifles and the occasional CO2 pistol (but I hated buying CO2 cartridges so mostly stuck with the rifles).

Like I said, at least where I lived air guns were as common among kids as skateboards. It was no thing to just walk down the street in the neighborhood with one. People didn't think anything about it.

Pretty sure I had this exact gun:

Yep, I get it. It was the same way for me. I can remember going to my grandmothers house and not having any BB's and she would take me to a local store to get some and I can remember how excited I was to get a dollars worth of BB's for my gun.

 

[Guestx]

Yep, I get it. It was the same way for me. I can remember going to my grandmothers house and not having any BB's and she would take me to a local store to get some and I can remember how excited I was to get a dollars worth of BB's for my gun.

An America where kids don't shoot BB guns is an America that needs to get razed to the ground!

 

[MusterX]

2:30am at a 7-11 in 1987 video.

FAQ
Did you make any money on this video?

Yes, I do have most of my videos monetized on YouTube. Which means if enough people view the video, I get a check deposited into my bank account. I have been regularly getting a check for about $100 2-3 times a year...until this video blew up. In June I received a $2,000 deposit. I split the money with Ken. Not sure how much I will get from this second round yet.


Do you know where the people in this video are today?

Most of them...no. As you might have gathered from previous comments, I keep in contact with Ken. As for Jim, the other guy that was with us...I haven't a clue to where he is. Lost touch with him shortly after that summer. Now I did run into the guy with the "Popped Collar" and the French Girl shortly after that at EPCOT's employee cafeteria. We laughed about it. She went back to France shortly after that. He later asked me for a copy of the VHS that he could send her. I ran into him occasionally at Disney over the next few years, but eventually lost track of him. But thanks to the video going viral, he is now back in touch with me, and he is still in touch with the French Girl (who is still in Europe). They both apparently had many friends send them the link asking if it was them in the video. After it went viral, a nephew of the Night Manager contacted me and said it was his Uncle. He played the video for the Uncle, who had no recollection of that night, but confirmed it was indeed him. He has since retired from 7-11. Most recently, the girl in the yellow top dancing by the frozen foods made contact. Apparently she was an employee of that 7-11 at the time, and still works for 7-11 at another Orlando location today. She told me her manager showed her the video. Nobody else from the video has come forward. Keep in mind, some of these people were dating people they are probably not with today, or under the influence of something, and probably don't want to be identified. Even though Ken was squeaky clean in the video, he does have a profession where he has to watch out for things that might pop up in the public about his background. This might be the case for the others as well. In June of 2014, I ran into "Popped Collar" in Las Vegas of all places at The Mirage Hotel.

Ran into "Popped Collar" in Vegas - 2014

The Accent

I guess there is an '80s way of talking. There are many comments about our "accent". I don't hear any difference from then to now. But most say there is. And a lot of people are saying Ken sounds like Ferris Bueller. I don't hear that either. But he was kind of (as one poster put it) channeling classic David Letterman bits from that time (i.e. "magic night in America")


The Van

I have had a few comments about the "rape van" we got into at the end of the video. Most people just wished they could see what the art was on the side of the van. Well here it is. It wasn't technically my van. My '79 Trans Am was in the shop and my parents were letting me drive their van. This was a photo taken in the early '80s of my mother, my brothers and me. I'll keep looking for a better picture of the van. But the painting on the side is of a lake or something with the sun setting on it.

Locals Not Tourists

One popular theory to why we all were so friendly, was because we were "tourists" mingling with other "tourists". And when people are on vacation, they are happier. That wasn't the case here. We were pretty much all locals. Even the Spanish speaking guys who said they were tourists (one of them was wearing a Disney employee shirt - see the Mickey on it?). I worked at Disney, Popped Collar and French Girl worked at Disney. I'm pretty sure that John and Kelly were Disney employees. The Mozzarella dude was probably Disney. (We all meet the Disney grooming standards of the time). The 7-11 employees were locals obviously. In other words...none of us were on vacation. Who buys a bag of sugar while on vacation?




Video Cameras were common

The other theory to why people are friendly (and there probably is some truth to this one), is that cameras were probably not that common, so it was a novelty to see one and it was "fun" to be the focus of somebody's camera. The part of this theory that is wrong is, home video cameras were the big new thing. A few years back, they became affordable. And they were becoming more and more portable. We all were living and working in one of the biggest tourist capitals of the world. Every day we saw tourists with cameras. Lots and lots of video cameras. And two years later, America's Funniest Home Videos premiered, featuring videos shot in the '80s on everybody's home video cameras.

They were common enough, that I bought my own when I was a college kid, working a part time job. It was about $1200 at Sears. I used my paychecks from Disney to pay for college as well as my new investment. I believe I put $200 down, and was paying $25/month. This was my first credit purchase, which enabled me to get credit cards later. I remember shortly after I bought it, my dad and I had a big fight about it. I made a huge purchase without involving him, and he didn't know if it was such a good idea. But he later loved watching the videos I shot with it and living vicariously through my adventures. All-in-all, it was a good purchase. I loved this camera.

Under the Influence

Another theory to why we are all so friendly is that we are all "coked up". Let make this clear. I have never done cocaine. I don't plan on ever doing it. In fact, I was such a goody-two-shoes at the time, I wasn't even drinking alcohol that night. I waited until I finished college before I would booze it up on occasion. I'm pretty sure Ken wasn't under the influence of anything that night at all either. I can't speak for Jim or the others that were featured. If I had to guess, I'd say a few of them recently had a few drinks. And the popular theory behind John's mannerisms is that he might have been on Cocaine. I don't know. But I do know that not everybody was under the influence in this video.




Is that 7-11 still there and if so, where is it?

Yes, it's still there. It's located at 13407 Apopka-Vineland R (535), Orlando, FL 32821-6368




Draft Card Comment

When Kelly says she has a "draft" card, she actually said "Giraffe Card". There was a nightclub down the street called The Giraffe Lounge, and it was inside a hotel called The Royal Plaza. The Giraffe Card was something like a "repeat customer" membership card with perks. One of our stops earlier that night was to go inside The Royal Plaza and sneak up to where The Michael Jackson suite was. He wasn't there though. On our way out, Jim grabbed a "Do Not Disturb" sign that he is carrying around in the video. When we were introducing ourselves to John and Kelly, Jim said he worked at the Royal Plaza (even though he didn't) and held up his Royal Plaza Do Not Disturb sign, which prompted Kelly to say..."I have a Giraffe Card". But everybody...including Ken that night, thought she was saying Draft Card. By the way...do people carry around a Draft Card?




World Premiere Comment

When I said "see you at the World Premiere" to the French Girl and the Popped Collar guy, I was actually referring to the Employee Cafe at EPCOT. That was the name of the Cafeteria. And that's actually where I did indeed see them next. But some people made the clever comment that the "World Premiere" would be on YouTube.


Where did we go next?

I think we headed over to one of the nearby Disney hotels looking for fun, but didn't find much. So we parted ways and called it a night.

Incredible update on what would seem to be an inconsequential video taken in the 1980's. How strange it must be for the people in the video for it to have gone viral on YouTube which at the time didn't exist.