A young man, several days worth of beard on his face, hands over a $5 bill and gets back $3 in tokens, $2 in cash.

"We have a lot of regulars. I'd say it's a dangerous place, probably a breeding ground for HIV."

A police officer stops by and says a man tried to abduct a 4-year-old child up the road about 45 minutes earlier.

. Anxious and easy, straight or gay, or unconcerned. In her two years as store manager, most of which have coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, her goal has been to make the store more welcoming without apologizing for what it is or turning it into something else. I feel sorry for them;

they're taking their lives into their own hands."

In the arcade, four men do a silent shuffle, glancing up at each other and down at the booths, which are in two small rows and have doors that end knee-level.

Going to the bookstore, he notes, is nothing like being penciled in for a hookup on one of the apps, though Kalamets does mention that people seem to be using apps to coordinate meetings at the bookstore more and more. Men get out and walk, heads down, through a makeshift parking lot of crumbling blacktop.

“They’ll come back every two weeks.”

On the single afternoon when I stood by the register in reporter mode, I saw men alone and in pairs, buying gifts for their wives and wandering into the back room seeking immediate pleasure. A tip from his mother led to his hiring, and "laziness" and a "poor job market" keep him there.

"I don't like it.

April 13, 1972.

“Pipe Bomb Rips Back Door Off W. Side Adult Book Store.” Plain Dealer. “Take Another Looks At Peep-Show Law.” Plain Dealer. As store manager Margo Kalamets tells it, when she started working at Modern Adult 711 in early 2020, the physical space was grimy, the selection of sex toys shoddy and sparse, and a powerful odor of dried cum filled the theater.

I don’t know if that’s the right word, if we promote those things so much as we promote sexual freedom.”

When he talks about visiting the McKeesport store before Kalamets started working there, McCaleb admits he was “disgusted,” adding, “It was archaic, but I could see the potential.”

Kalamets alleges that past management let some things slip, and says she’s working on improvements, like getting T-shirts for her staff so that when they come upstairs to fix something or deal with a problem, they can identify themselves to make it clear they’re not trying to cross boundaries with customers or be intrusive.

. “Police Search Yields 3 Bombs.” Plain Dealer.