There was a time when every kid in Lunenburg’s weekend plans revolved around Mike’s Kwik Way. Saturdays and Sundays off were gifts from the South Shore Regional School Board, but all you got was the base model. To access premium tier weekend benefits like video games, movies, candy, and 2 litre bottles of Big 8 pop, you had to get to Mike’s.
Big city bodegas take advantage of convenient locations, but rural Nova Scotian Kwik Ways are often on the outskirts of town, if not beyond. Walking all the way out to Mike’s was impossible and it was an excruciating uphill bike trip. Weekend sleepover locations were decided based on who could provide the most convincing guarantee that their parents would drive out to Mike’s Kwik Way.
Rotten Tomatoes is often scorned for collapsing all film criticism into “Fresh” or “Rotten”, but to Lunenburgers of a certain age, such a binary existed long before: “Worth the trip out to Mike’s,” or “not worth the trip out to Mike’s.” Trekking out there to return a disappointing movie like Wild Wild West was a bitter, painful exercise. But to this day, no video game review carries more weight than, “We rented it at Mike’s Kwik Way every weekend.”
In a time before streaming, rentals from Mike’s Kwik Way were Lunenburg’s gateway to the wider world of media, and you never knew what you’d find. New Hollywood releases were mixed with bizarre direct-to-video schlock with titles like Slugs, The P.A.C.K., and Sally Marshall Is Not An Alien that I’ve still never seen anywhere else. Picking up the crummiest low budget movies with friends and sarcastically reading the back covers to each other is part of what made movie night an event. That, and trying to peek behind the forbidden curtain.
Today, the idea of a room full of pornography in a convenience store sounds insane, but a simple beaded curtain really was all that separated Mike’s room full of porno tapes from the Sega Genesis games and Disney movies. This seemed like a reasonable compromise to everyone. Trying to sneak a peek at what was really going on back there was a big part of the childhood Kwik Way movie rental experience. Plenty of kids claimed to have snuck in there once, with wild tales of what they saw.
That beaded curtain is a powerful image in my memory of growing up in Lunenburg, just as much as the Academy or the Bluenose. It was visual evidence that Lunenburg wasn’t entirely just a postcard; something a little sketchy was going on in the margins.
That’s what made Mike’s Kwik Way fun. Whether you were renting smut or just brain-rotting Hollywood trash; buying candy or cigarettes, pizza or sugary soda, everyone was getting into something they probably shouldn’t—and it was all out in the open.
Time went on and the internet made video rentals obsolete. Much like the Berlin Wall, the beaded curtain came down. A symbol of a bygone era. In fact, metaphorical beaded curtains came down all over Lunenburg, as the town’s sketchier elements were priced out and migrated to Bridgewater.
Legend has it that the titular Mike moved away to Ontario sometime in the mid 00s or early 2010s, but the Kwik Way that bears his name still does good business as a gas station and pizzeria. But it’s now a place you pop in and out of, not a place where you hang out and browse.
In 2024, Mike’s Kwik Way was sold to new owners, and its future is unclear. Will it remain a pizzeria and gas station? Nearly two decades after the collapse of the video rental market, can a Kwik Way ever regain its centrality to Lunenburg culture?
For an answer, the new owners of Mike’s may want to take a trip 45 minutes down the 103 to Queen’s County. Liverpool’s West End Kwik Way doesn’t rent out pornography, but it’s still somehow managed to stay relevant in the community. People always talk a little too loud in there, and no one’s ever in a hurry. No one gets impatient when someone gets 10 lottery tickets checked.
Everyone takes two or three trips around the store to browse the candy and baked goods, and there’s always something new. Kids buy ice cream with their own money and eat it on their bikes outside. Teens vape out front and recite rap lyrics. On a summer night, it’s one of the most heavily loitered parking lots in town. People just lean against their cars, light up cigarettes and hold court with whoever stops in.
People prefer killing time at West End Kwik Way to being at home. It’s still a fun part of the weekend, not an errand. If the new Mike’s Kwik Way can capture West End Kwik Way’s atmosphere, then maybe the people of Lunenburg can rediscover the joys of getting out of the house and puttering around a wood paneled convenience store.
UNESCO defines World Heritage as “Our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations.” Aesthetically, Lunenburg has done a better job of preserving its heritage than any other small town in Nova Scotia. Maybe it’s time to preserve the heritage of the vibes.
