Honestly curious, humor me.

[altarflame]

Having driven past strip clubs to get anywhere, all my life, I remember being shocked to learn that that is not the case everywhere you go in these United States. Yesterday I think I drove past 3 strip clubs, 2 adult stores, at least 3 tattoo parlors and at least one bong shop (tobacco accessory store? I don't know what you're "supposed" to call them), just going to a homeschool group at an upper class sort of park, and a Whole Foods. Here and in Jacksonville there are 24 hour daycares for strippers to use and that is fairly widely known. There are bilboards and park benches that advertise for strip clubs and adult stores, all over the place to the North and South. We do NOT have those "Jesus" or pro-life bilboards you see in rural, central Florida, where people on the radio have southern accents. You start seeing those after about a 3 hour drive. Sometimes you will see one of those homemade scripture signs nailed to a telephone poll or something.

I'm not passing judgement, ok? I mean, I have judgements, but that's not what this post is about. I'm just wondering if you see these things in your everyday life, where you live. Can you buy illegally downloaded and burned porn at any flea market in your area on a Saturday afternoon (by the case)? Do you have 24 hour combination drive-thru liquor stores and Pentacostal Church of Gods?

Key West, where there are headshops (bong stores) and tattoo parlors and open gay bars with no windows where people are groping heavily, and drag queen performances where they really try to drag you inside by the arm, as you walk by, all over, and shirts in the store windows with curse words, naked butts and sexual positions, seems over the top and really different to me. But it occurs to me, as I was saying, that HERE might seem over the top to some other people, "deviance"-wise. In Key West, it's not uncommon to see a guy in a shirt that says "Fuck milk. Got pot?" with his arm around a woman in a bikini...in the grocery store. On South Beach people don't blink about topless women and there are lots of tiny speedos and I don't know. I've never thought much about how this is regional. How regional is it all, really? My Dad felt really uncomfortably confined and regulated when he moved here from Key West, it felt formal and overdressed and conservative to him. In Homestead!

When I first moved to Jacksonville, I remember being kind of aware of how much more clothes people had on. But there was also a lot more punked out hairstyling, body piercing and noticeably MORE strip clubs (I used to pass 4 in a 30 minute drive to work...and they go on and call them things like "Cheaters" and "Temptation"). So it was a different sort of balance. It was slightly less ghetto with tons more affluent churches around and a bigger redneck population (it is not safe to be openly redneck down here unless you're holed up in your ranch house out in the redlands...)

Tell me where you live and how it is. The word on the street from people who've went away to Florida State in Tallahassee is that you have to cross county lines to get an adult film or toy, and that police will fine you for jaywalking. It's hard for me to believe that is still in this same state.


ETA:
*I should note that I am so incredibly sleepy today that in between things like opening gifts, taking pictures, getting things out of packaging, setting up party stuff...I am a zombie struggling to keep my eyes open, who can barely think straight. And this post is born out of that stupor, to keep my F5 key from wearing out until it's time to make and eat dinner.

Comments

[mayflowermama.livejournal.com]

I have a question for you. Did you see all of that when you lived in Boston?

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Ha, NO.

And I wondered often: was I just not going to seedy neighborhoods? I mean...I went all over. I didn't purposely avoid any sort of neighborhood. We were lost all the time! :p

What do you think that means? Boston is...what? Very highly educated and full of universities? Or...extremely puritannical and sprung from our pilgrim roots?

[bicrim.livejournal.com]

Let's see. I'm in Central New Jersey. We have strip clubs of two varieties, topless bars that sell liquor, and "juice bars" that are all nude, but no booze. I wouldn't say there are tons of them, but I know where three are off the top of my head within a half hour driving. We have adult stores with toys and videos, most are small and kind of yucky, but we have one big, well lit, and woman-friendly one that I like to visit sometimes with David. We are only a half hour from NYC, so most of our culture is a reflection of that. Pretty sophisticated people for the most part, very multicultural, mostly Indian and East Asian. Very crowded, very bad traffic.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I realize this is horrible, but it is true: I have only ever seen Indian people owning/working in hotels and convenience stores, and Asians in Chinese restaurants and nail salons, down here. Truly. I have made it a mission to "see" them, to walk through the malls trying to spot them, and most of the time I just end up surprised again when I walk into one of those establishments, like...how does this happen?

We have full liquor full nudity, as they proudly proclaim on the signs. They also sometimes grill in the parking lot and scream at passing cars to come on in, and pull out big "18 is OK!!" sandwich boards.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Also, the adult stores are not very woman-friendly...there is one well-lit, larger one I can think of, I guess. I've still been inclined to browse online for anything I'd get there.

[noelove.livejournal.com]

We have two 'adult' stores here in town. Both are completely non-discript from the outside. We have one topless strip club, not bottomless or whatever. There are no billboards in Santa Barbara County. Not one. You drive on our freeway and you will not see one. There are also no ads on bus stops. On the busses ya, but its mostly local radio stations, local pizza places, local banks. I dont' think I've ever seen a chain advertised on a bus. But thats about where advertising ends in this town.

Our Solstice parade is probably the one time of year that anything risque happens. Women/men get pretty scantily clad and walk up State Street in the parade. I've never seen anyone on the beach with too little on. Thong..etc.

As for tattoo shops, there *are* quite a few of those. The last gay bar that I knew of closed or changed ownership. The gay community here in town is pretty underground from what I've heard.

[noelove.livejournal.com]

oh and DEF. no drive through liquor. Every place closes at 2am, and I *think* they stop selling at 130am.

[oscariswilde.livejournal.com]

White Mountains of Arizona, Arizona Okay not a specific city cause it doesn't matter all of the area is referred to as the white mountains and it consists of about 6 towns.

Drive through liquor yes, the rest of it no. Someone wanted to open an adult store a couple of years back but they never could get the zoning approved. There was a huge uproar about it.

When I lived in the Phoenix area though we had strip clubs, drive through liquor, bill boards touting just about anything and everything, etc. When I lived in Montreal, Canada anything went. It wasn't uncommon to leave my apartment late at night and see some couple going at it on the street or in a car in the parking lot we were next too and you didn't walk through the park at night. OMG there are things I saw before we knew to stay out of the park at night that still scar me to this day. It would have been tramatic had I been alone and happened upon it.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I watched people have sex at our lunch spot during high school hours O_o

I think we have some kind of zoning where I am now (southernmost Florida) that says strip clubs, adult stores, etc have to be at least so far from schools and residential neighborhoods? Not so in North Florida, though, my brother's elementary school in Jax (Mayport area) was literally on a short dead end street, right next to a strip club. Like those were the only two things on the block long street, you drove past the strip club to drop off and pick up. And it was a good school! Very involved parents, tons of animals and science stuff in the classrooms. But it made me kind of nuts. That was right by the naval base and there were a lot of strip clubs in general because of that...

[mizzy.livejournal.com]

In oregon we (i say we although i live in Washington, but the nearest large city is in Oregon.. im only 30 miles away and i lived in oregon my whole life until 2 years ago) have the highest number of strip clubs per capita http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2009/02/11/beaver_state_loses_top_strip_c

we have lots of gay bars, drag queens etc... but.. covered windows, no selling alcohol after 2am, no drive through liquor stores etc. lots of head shops, lots of tattoo parlors etc..

They are THERE.. but whats inside doesnt spill out to the outside... meaning there are adult shops in neighborhoods, and the people who go to them are just like you and me and not trashy and ruien the neighborhood.. same with most srip clubs. Granted there are some very trashy neighborhoods with a strip club in it.. but it was trashy before the strip club came in.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

*nods*

This makes sense to me. I don't think I'd notice much if it were like that here. I don't go out of my way to notice peoples' lifestyles, you know? And I am not above a sex toy or a piercing anyway.

Key West is very much a tourist town, it's almost like one big theme park, so it is different. But here it's like, to get on the highway my kids are asking, "Why is that place called 'Booby Trap', and what do they mean '18 is ok'?" And I live in a pretty nice neighborhood.

[tikizeekbaby.livejournal.com]

I'm in Los Angeles, so it really depends on where you go.

In my area, Burbank, there are some "gentleman's clubs" (strip joints with no booze or topless bars with), and a few sex stores, though they tend to be in the Industrial areas of town for some reason (probably cheaper rent?).

In Hollywood, there are quite a few strip clubs on the main drags as well as quite a few stores that sell clothing/shoes for the strippers as well as sex supplies. There are billboards advertising the clubs in towns that have a lower tax base; but if you keep driving you end up in a wealthier area and no more billboards.

In West Hollywood, because it is a largely homosexual male community, you have gay bars and sex stores with full front window displays.

The 24 hour daycare intrigues me as I always wondered who those moms had watching their kids. I've never heard of such a thing here, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

What amuses me (I used to live in and visit Jacksonville frequently)is how the ad I saw for Hooters there always invovled a little kid with a bowl of spaghetti on his/her head... I remember being surprised here when they "suddenly" played up the small outfit angle...'cause I'd always gone there with my cousin and her KIDS. LOL

[jerkface02.livejournal.com]

i live in north eastern ohio in a suburban area. it's pretty conservative here in comparison to the things you are mentioning. however, there is the odd low profile head shop situated in a plaza between an art supply store and kinkos. but you don't really see strip clubs unless you go to more ghetto areas. i actually used to dance at a place in east akron. it was a rough area.
there really aren't any jesus billboards either, though. at least, not around here. if you drive waaay out towards indiana you might see some here and there along the highway.
there is a gay bar on the other side of akron in a little artist/hippie community. otherwise, it's just a bunch of target stores, panera, fast food, oil change places, that sort of thing.
and you definitely won't find too many people wearing t-shirts with potentially offensive language around where i live. but it's spotty. like, one town over it's a little more hill billy laden and you might find more of that.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

In Santa Rosa, there was ONE adult bookstore/porn shop/video 'arcade' and that was it. If you wanted to drive the good hour and change to get to San Francisco you'd have a plethora of porn/sex shops to go to, but I wouldn't say that you can see a porn shop or a strip club all that much out there. It probably depends on what district you're in though. I mean you're not going to find a strip club in the financial district out there, kwim?

I have seen like one porn shop where I live now (and there's probably a church on every other block). I think this area is relatively conservative. I haven't explored Sacramento much, but I'm pretty sure they have a porn shop or three, although I don't know about a strip club. Probably? I don't see them advertised on billboards or anything though.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

*I should add that there were two head shops in Santa Rosa. I'm sure that Sacramento has some too. Dunno about the suburbs of Sac where I live though. I kind of doubt it, but I haven't explored much.

[moobabe.livejournal.com]

I live in a pretty small town in northeastern Maryland. A headshop just opened across the street from my daughter's dojo (on Main Street, but about 85% of the stores are on Main Street, as the town has two stoplights) and people are UP IN ARMS about it. I tsk and shake my head and try not to be openly amused by just how upset folks are about it. "The kids walk RIGHT BY that store!" Dude, they can get pot at the middle school.

The only thing that I really objected to was when they had the strobe light going, and that's because flashing lights bug me.

Aside from that, we have... nothing along those lines. I think the nearest "adult video store" is in the next county. I don't even think that the local regular video store has a porn section.

[heavynleigh.livejournal.com]

I know of one adult store in Oceanside. I don't know of any in this area, though I'm sure if I googled it I'd find something in Santa Ana or Costa Mesa, maybe. I don't think I've seen any strip clubs at all since moving to CA. If I've driven by any they're discreet enough that I never noticed. Now that I think about it, that's pretty surprising given Camp Pendleton (Marine Corps base) being right there. Huh.

We had a couple in NJ that were near us, but no crazy billboards on the highway or anything. Most of the highway billboards were for the casinos in Atlantic City.

The people I've seen at the beach have been decently enough clothed. I don't think I've seen anyone topless around here. As liberal as CA is said to be, I've found that most people tend to dress/act relatively conservatively. Or maybe that's just because we've lived in more affluent areas and haven't really been to any of the lower class areas, just out of not having any reason to go there, not because of any pretentiousness on our parts. I feel like such a snob right now. lol

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

When I lived in San Clemente, there was only one adult store that I knew of, in Costa Mesa. It was called Condom Revolution. Actually that was a pretty rockin' store. Not seedy at all.

I never saw a thong at the beach the entire three years I lived there, either.

I did know of one chick who was a stripper, though I'm not sure where she stripped at. I never saw a strip club in San Clemente. Which, now that I think about it, is pretty surprising.

[mommydama.livejournal.com]

FYI, I haven't read any of the other responses.

I was raised in a small town south of Kansas City, KS, and spent four years of my childhood near Crystal River, FL. I had never seen or driven past a strip club or adult store that I could see from my car or was aware of until I was married and started moving with my husband to military towns. I was quite horrified actually. Even in college when I would go to the "party" streets downtown, I didn't see those places. I saw bars and dance clubs but none of the stuff you are describing.

[gardenmama.livejournal.com]

Lol. OK, I've grown up and lived most of my life in northern Minnesota. The culture here is rural, redneck and Lutheran. Predominantly midwestern attitudes, Democrats, conservative, blue collar. There is one adult store/strip club that I know of in this area, and it is an hour-and-a-half drive from where I live.

I spent five years in the twin cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) while my husband was in graduate school, and there's more of that kind of thing (gay bars, porn/adult stores, strip clubs) down there, but there no real "red light district" or anything like that. I have no idea where to go looking for hookers, but I'm sure they exist.

I wonder if the weather here was like that where you are in Florida if the dress code would be different. We have lots of beaches ("Land of 10,000 Lakes") and people go skinny dipping on a lark occasionally, but there are no nude beaches. People dress fairly conservatively year round, yet you'll see people out in 40 degree weather in short and short sleeves, whereas in Florida I doubt you'd go outside if it was that cold, and certainly not without a coat and hat! We're made of tougher stuff here, and proud of it.

[gardenmama.livejournal.com]

Oh, and no head shops (in the state?). Maybe they are illegal here?

[tubesy.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting!!

I grew up in central Virginia. No porn stores. NO strip clubs for sure. No head shops (the closest to all of these things was Spencers Gifts in the mall!) Then I moved to Atlanta for college, and it was like one of those Vegas montages where the main character's head is in the center of the screen and ever-more-tempting casino/bar signs float past. They have drive-in liquor stores, screaming billboards for sex shops, lingerie modeling joints, massage parlors, and strip clubs. There is a general district for those businesses, but they are not limited to that area. There is a famous, prominent strip club that is basically on GA Tech's campus. Head shops all over the place, sometimes combined with sex shops! One of my favorite weekly funk dance parties was at a strip club, for heaven's sake.

Now I'm in Chicago, and it's a bit of a mix. I live right in the well-established gay neighborhood, so there are plenty of rainbows (which I love) and some saltier store window displays in the costume and sex shops...there are 4 sex shops and 3 head shops in like a two block radius from my apt, lol. HOWEVER, there is one only strip club billboard that I pass with any regularity, and it's like 1/month, and it just says the name of the place ('The Admiral') so you kind of have to know what they're advertising to get it. Strip clubs are just not part of the normal nightlife here the way they were in Atlanta. Very interesting.

[maylea-moon.livejournal.com]

is a 24 hour daycare even legal?

[aranel.livejournal.com]

I think she means it is open around the clock, not that the kids are left there for 24 hrs. straight.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_delphiki_/]

I'm in Kansas. There aren't any head shops or porn stores here (except Cirilla's which isn't really all that seedy. There might be some in KC I don't know about.) I remember feeling like a little shocked child the first time I went to Ft. Lauderdale seeing all the porn stores EVERYWHERE. It was INSANE.

I also found Swiss Navy lubricant and it was only available in Florida for like two years. (TMI- I have horrible, painful dryness and need something to keep things from getting sore and tender. Silicone lube does the job but I've had allergic reactions to certain kinds.) It is way more gay friendly down there than it is up here.

That was one thing that was a pleasant surprise since here you get a look for holding hands with a person of the same gender. No one gave me and my ex a second glance when we were there.

[mommydama.livejournal.com]

Wow. You live very close to me.

We are moving to Denver soon however. I just have seen you on Tina's journal forever and never realized you were from my neck of the woods.

[traumerin.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a small town in Washington state--rural, conservative, "redneck." One adult video store came to town when I was in high school, and there was a large public outcry, and a lot of people tried to have it shut down. It's still there, though it was torched by arsonists recently.

I live in Seattle now, but that kind of thing varies a lot by neighborhood. Downtown and in the "gay district" you'll see signs for adult theatres, gay bars, clubs, and that kind of thing. Other places, really not at all.

[aranel.livejournal.com]

Between Houston and Galveston (TX) there used to be, maybe still is, a billboard for a strip club called Heartbreakers. The next billboard after it says in huge letters "Jesus heals the broken-hearted" and cites chapter and verse of the Bible.

[neurotic-orchid.livejournal.com]

I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I don't really see any of those things ever, although I think there is one strip club in the city, maybe two. Our city is about the 12th or 13th largest in Canada, so not huge but a fair population. There's a nice sex shop downtown where you can get dildos and risque lingerie and stuff. In my neighbourhood, though, we don't have anything fun like that. :P

[treading.livejournal.com]

I am in a somewhat unique area. I live on the campus of a small, very liberal/hippie college, in rural southern Appalachia, about 15 minutes from Asheville, NC (also a liberal, hippie town). So while I may look out my window and see a topless woman coming off one of the campus trails, it has a decidedly different context than what one might see in, say, Vegas. Sky-clad nature girl is topless for entirely different reasons. There is one sex-toy porn store sort of place on one of the nearby rural highways. There are a few more out in Asheville. And I think there are at least three strip clubs, there, too. There are pretty harsh rules against them, though. Liquor stores are very strictly regulated here, too. And yeah, we have gay clubs and bars, but the ones I know of are pretty reputable, just a place for people to gather, not strip clubs. So yeah, long answer short, no, I hardly ever pass strip clubs and porn shops and the like, but I do occasionally see boobs on the street. heh.

[treading.livejournal.com]

Oh, wanted to add that we DO have a lot of tattoo / piercing places. And a lot of head shops.

I also lived in Portland, Oregon for half of my life. Most of the city you didn't see much of those sort of things, but certain areas were nearly overrun by it. I worked for a while at an army surplus store on SE 82nd street. Strip joints, sex clubs, porn stores, liquor stores, everywhere. Drug busts every week. Prostitutes on the corners. It was pretty awful.

[babyslime.livejournal.com]

Where I live there are tons of counter-cultural places, but none of them feel dirty or sleazy. I think because this is a 'young' place, we have more of that sort of feel to the area... but everything has more of a 'fun' vibe than a 'sleaze' vibe (which is what I'm getting from what you're describing).

There are two strip clubs that I know about, one of them has a reputation for being sleazy and the other pretty normal. There are several gay bars, none of which are sleazy, and the drag shows and stuff are all really fun and upbeat. Pot is legal, so there are quite a few headshops. They can't sell pot but they can sell seeds and supplies of all sorts.
I know of about six tattoo parlors, I was just in one yesterday meeting with an artist about mine...
There's at least a dozen adult stores and they vary from extremely woman friendly, to really sleazy. The really woman friendly one proudly advertises with window displays, pretty writing on the sign, etc. The sleazy ones are the ones with the boarded up windows that just say, "XXX 24 HOUR" and "ADULT SOURCE".

[daveandmonika.livejournal.com]

In high school I lived in a place called Centerville that was a suburb of Dayton OH--about an hour away from Cincinatti and an hour and a half from Columbus. Centerville is probably the upper-est middle class of Dayton's suburbs (my parents chose it because it had the best schools, we moved there for my dad's job which was in a different suburb, in general better schools means richer parents). In Centerville there was one nightclub that we passed on our way to school (Diamonds), and I heard of another one in Dayton (Cheeks). One of the girls in my English class in 11th grade worked at Diamonds. It was on the news when it stopped serving alcohol and went fully nude, iirc. Never saw any billboards or anything. Driving by you would have no clue as to what the business was (ie, check out the street view on google maps (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS313US313&q=960%20Miamisburg%20Centerville%20Rd,%2045459&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl)). I don't remember if there were radio ads or not. I knew of one adult store in Dayton, the Lion's Den. It had a big billboard.

College took me to Edmond Oklahoma, once again, the upper-est middle class suburb (this time of Oklahoma City). I don't think there are any gentlemen's clubs in Edmond proper, but I hear about lots (in OKC) on the radio at night. Night Trips, X-tacy Ranch, and Covergirls you can see from the highway driving through the city. There is an adult store that has a store down in the city and one right on the OKC Edmond boarder(used to be called Priscilla's and is now Patricia's). The one in Edmond has mannequins in the front windows that give it sort of a 'Fredrick's of Hollywood' feel. They have ads on the radio all the time too and an annoying jingle :-p.

[daveandmonika.livejournal.com]

Oh, and there were two local drive through liquor stores in Centerville...and I asked my husband about Edmond and he agreed that there were no strip clubs but reminded me that there's a Christie's Toy Box up in downtown Edmond.

[(Anonymous)]

I was stunned when hubby and I moved friend/SO into his new place and we drove by a strip club with a daycare next to it. Military town, FTR. Otherwise, I'm more likely to see religous signs against a proposed adult movie/porn store than anything you describe.