The summer of 1988 was a fucking trip. What should’ve been a miserable experience, somehow I made it a memorable one. Let’s see I was about 13, and had to spend a chunk of my summer vacation in summer school. No…it was nothing like the 80’s Mark Harmon movie. The one tolerable thing about that was class ended at noon. So at least I had a good amount of time to enjoy the day. Summer time on Colt Drive in Stockton, Ca (I know…it looks like a bomb hit it. Hasn’t changed much). wasn’t exactly a day on the beach. A quaint little violent neighborhood, full of gangs and children getting abused behind closed doors.
As I mentioned in a previous entry, I spent every weekend that summer at the theaters watching Cocktail, and Nightmare on Elm Street 4. Week days I was a little more creative, and a little more ambitious. The movie Colors was released that April, and gang life became Hollywood. That allowed existing gangs to be more upfront and less hidden. Completely missing the point of the movie, younger kids saw the appeal, and looked at our neighborhood criminals as celebrities, and someone to admire. Not buying into the bullshit, I continued to drown myself with my obsession for movies and music. With the weekday afternoons free, and finding myself more disconnected with my childhood friends, I started my own little movie theater in my garage.
Not really giving a shit where my mother spent her afternoons, I would move my TV and stereo out into the garage. Between the stereo sound and the acoustics only a garage could provide, I had put together a pretty solid amateur theater. Plastering posters all over the walls, and the now showing movie in the garage window, neighborhood kids flocked to check it out. Being that I lived in that neighborhood since I was about 5, I had a pretty gnarley rep of knowing my shit when it came to movies and metal.
First movie I showed was Friday the 13th part VI: Jason Lives. It was a huge hit, and I continued to show it everyday for about a month. This was also the summer cable paperview became a big deal. Being able to order the latest movies through cable and being able to record them. Nothing today, but in 88 it was a huge deal. 2nd movie I showed was The Running Man. Another hit. Released in 87, but became available on paperview in 88. Eventually it became a double feature with Return of the Living Dead 2.
It was a humble little theater. But just like today, I really enjoyed turning others on to movies they probably would’ve never discovered on they’re own. Monday through Friday I never took the day off. Showed movies non stop until I had to go back to school. The last movie I showed was Waxwork. Not as big of a hit. But still went over well. The summer ended the way it began. The audience demanded the return of Jason Lives. So Jason Lives is what I gave them.
After that summer I retired the movie theater. 1989, the gangs were growing and I was losing a lot of my friends to that life style. Drugs were also playing a huge role, and some of the kids I grew up with would numb themselves so they can deal with the nightmare that was their home. I continued to live the way I live today. Chilling in my movie/music world, living in theaters and record stores. It was no secret that the summer of 89 was the summer of Batman. An insanely huge movie. I mean shit, people were getting the bat logo as a hair cut.
For you movie collectors, it was also the first time a movie was released on VHS retail shortly after it’s theatrical run. Before that we had to wait over a year to even buy a movie at a decent price. Shit…E.T. wasn’t even released retail until 1988. So in the winter of 1989, I thought I would bring my theater out of retirement for the premiere of Batman. I assumed that would have the same results as the other movies. A few neighborhood kids, some popcorn and a good time.
Having no clue about what’s going on outside my home, my mother comes home from (wherever the fuck she was), and immediately rips me a new asshole. Not understanding a fucking word she’s saying, I ask her to explain. She opens the living room curtain. Theres a line of people wrapped around my home. Apparently the whole neighborhood wants to see Batman. Excited about the turn out, and ready to rock n roll, my mother steps in and does what all parents would’ve done. She shut that shit down.
Pretty pissed, a little embarrassed. But also realized something. No matter what goes on in a bad neighborhood. Drugs, gangs, violence, it’s still possible to bring a community together to experience something positive. That movies will always have the power to forget the world outside your door and escape for a couple of hours.
– G.R.E.E.N.B.A.N.K.
MORBID MOVIE MEMOIRS: VHS GENERATION 