diff --git a/vcr/stubs.py b/vcr/stubs.py
index a01b33d..0725a80 100644
--- a/vcr/stubs.py
+++ b/vcr/stubs.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-from httplib import HTTPConnection, HTTPMessage
+import socket
+from httplib import HTTPConnection, HTTPSConnection, HTTPMessage
 from cStringIO import StringIO
 from .files import save_cassette, load_cassette
 from .cassette import Cassette
@@ -25,8 +26,69 @@ class VCRHTTPConnection(HTTPConnection):
         self._cassette = Cassette()
         HTTPConnection.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
 
-    def _save_cassette(self):
-        save_cassette(self._vcr_cassette_path, self._cassette)
+    def _load_old_response(self):
+        old_cassette = load_cassette(self._vcr_cassette_path)
+        if old_cassette:
+            return old_cassette.get_response(self._vcr)
+
+    def request(self, method, url, body=None, headers={}):
+        """
+        Persist the request metadata in self._vcr
+        """
+        self._vcr = {
+            'method': method,
+            'url': url,
+            'body': body,
+            'headers': headers,
+        }
+        old_cassette = load_cassette(self._vcr_cassette_path)
+        if old_cassette and old_cassette.get_request(self._vcr):
+            return
+        self._cassette.requests.append(dict(
+            method=method,
+            url=url,
+            body=body,
+            headers=headers
+        ))
+        HTTPConnection.request(self, method, url, body=body, headers=headers)
+
+    def getresponse(self, buffering=False):
+        old_response = self._load_old_response()
+        if not old_response:
+            response = HTTPConnection.getresponse(self)
+            self._cassette.responses.append({
+                'status': {'code': response.status, 'message': response.reason},
+                'headers': dict(response.getheaders()),
+                'body': {'string': response.read()},
+            })
+            save_cassette(self._vcr_cassette_path, self._cassette)
+        old_response = self._load_old_response()
+        return VCRHTTPResponse(old_response)
+
+
+class VCRHTTPSConnection(HTTPSConnection):
+    """
+    Note that this is pretty much a copy-and-paste of the
+    VCRHTTPConnection class.  I couldn't figure out how to
+    do multiple inheritance to get this to work without
+    duplicating code.  These are old-style classes which
+    I frankly don't understand.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, host, port=None, key_file=None, cert_file=None,
+                         strict=None, timeout=socket._GLOBAL_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT,
+                         source_address=None):
+        """
+        I override the init and copied a lot of the code from the parent
+        class because HTTPConnection when this happens has been replaced
+        by VCRHTTPConnection,  but doing it here lets us use the original
+        one.
+        """
+        HTTPConnection.__init__(self, host, port, strict, timeout,
+                                source_address)
+        self.key_file = key_file
+        self.cert_file = cert_file
+        self._cassette = Cassette()
 
     def _load_old_response(self):
         old_cassette = load_cassette(self._vcr_cassette_path)
@@ -52,7 +114,7 @@ class VCRHTTPConnection(HTTPConnection):
             body=body,
             headers=headers
         ))
-        return HTTPConnection.request(self, method, url, body=body, headers=headers)
+        HTTPSConnection.request(self, method, url, body=body, headers=headers)
 
     def getresponse(self, buffering=False):
         old_response = self._load_old_response()
@@ -63,10 +125,6 @@ class VCRHTTPConnection(HTTPConnection):
                 'headers': dict(response.getheaders()),
                 'body': {'string': response.read()},
             })
-            self._save_cassette()
+            save_cassette(self._vcr_cassette_path, self._cassette)
         old_response = self._load_old_response()
         return VCRHTTPResponse(old_response)
-
-
-class VCRHTTPSConnection(VCRHTTPConnection):
-    pass