Yesterday it was a school. Today it’s a video store.
When my now brother-in-law moved his family to town in 2015, he joked about hopping on a Delorean and going back in time. He’d driven by the last remaining video rental store in the city.
The store finally closed after 30 years in 2018 and turned to heartbreaking rubble a year later. That’s a good run for any business never mind a video story in the 21st century.
Nowaday’s, if the movie you don’t want to watch isn’t on your favourite streaming platform, you can surely find it on an app store or on DVD at the local thrift shop or in a bargain bin at a big box store.
As a single dad, this store was a fun adventure on a limited budget. We didn’t have Netflix in 2012 and there was nothing like browsing the physical movie cases in person while a movie played on every screen. Then there was the smell of fresh popcorn, depositing a quarter into the gumball machine, or flipping through movie posters.
There were always three rentals. A kids movie, a family flick, and one for dad if he could stay awake long enough.
I’ve lived in the community where that video store once stood for over 20 years so I also remember renting video game consoles or admiring the Disney movie boxsets of classics such as Fantasia which back then, was a collection of VHS tapes and a CD containing the musical score. I still have it.
It’s a crazy dream I know, but if there is anything lockdowns taught us, it’s the importance of human connection.
“I know I should have seen this coming but guess I just didn’t want to.” ~ Blockbuster
Honey, I bought a video store.