CIRCA 1997 • 7-ELEVEN • MIDNIGHT RUN

THE TOP
SHELF WAS
LIT

Playmates Carrie Stevens and Daphnée Lynn Duplaix made the pages stick together. Dad’s little secret, three feet above the Slurpee machine.

The rack glowed under fluorescent light like a forbidden altar.

Glossy spines faced outward. No one ever made eye contact with the cashier on the way out. You grabbed a Big Gulp, then lingered one aisle over until the coast was clear.

Dimly lit convenience store magazine rack at night

Featured that year

Carrie Stevens

June 1997 Playmate of the Month

Blonde, sun-kissed, the kind of smile that made the centerfold feel like a personal invitation. Her issue stayed in circulation for months because nobody wanted to return it to the rack.

Daphnée Lynn Duplaix

July 1997 Playmate of the Month

French-Haitian beauty with that perfect 90s bombshell energy. The issue sold out fast. If you missed it, you waited for the next guy to get caught and return it in shame.

The usual suspects

Then came the DVDs.

Same furtive dance, different format. You’d rent “The Matrix” and “Private Gold 12” in the same transaction, praying the clerk didn’t make eye contact. Thank god for the internet.

Dim 1990s video rental store with adult section