How did you first discover this movie?

Believe it or not when it first came out is was the B film of a double-feature, yes they still played double-features then
I had seen it reviewed on Siskel & Ebert At The Movies so I was aware of it
But what a great surprise when the B film blows away the main feature
and such a treat for it to be an instant classic like this

I remember there was one year I saw this movie on TBS in July, I can't remember the exact year but I think it was sometime in the mid 1990's

I was unfortunately subjected to it in 4th Grade when the holiday season was happening and my teacher wanted our classroom and the neighboring one to watch a movie to keep us distracted.

I discovered this movie by reading humorist Gene Shepard’s original short story in Playboy Magazine. He was an extremely successful and popular American humorist who was often published in Playboy, which, believe it or not, was a very respected magazine for its articles, interviews (they sent Alex Halley, the future author of the novel Roots, to interview the Grand Dragon of The Ku Klux Klan) and humor as well as its nudity, and which paid its prose contributors tip dollar. The movie version is great, but the short story is even better. It’s more detailed and has more nuance.

Read all the Jean Shepard that you can.

I'm surprised I didn't stick around long to watch the mother put the bar of soap in her mouth afterwards.

Siskel and Ebert.

I knew a woman who didn't discover this movie until 2015 and when she watched it she told me she thought it was a dumb, stupid movie, I did suggest her to watch this film.

I can't remember what year it was when I first discovered this movie but I imagine it had to be around 1993 or so.