Be Kind, Please Rewind

    Just the other day I renewed my Netflix account which had been inactive for the past several months. I’m a big fan of Netflix and their service and have been a member off and on for about the last 3 or 4 years. I like the simplicity that the service brings and now it’s even easier because a good percentage of their stuff you don’t even have to wait for the dvd anymore, you can just upload it straight to your tv if you have a Playstation 3 (my means), a Wii or any of a number of other devices. I really love it.

     The reason I bring this up is just to put my thoughts down on what is becoming a dead business in America, the local video store. I drove by a Blockbuster the other day and there were big signs out front “STORE CLOSING-EVERYTHING MUST GO”   “UP TO 70% OFF ALL MOVIES”. I decided to stop in and see if I could find any bargains. While I’m primarily a Blu-Ray owner now, I do have about a half shelf of dvd’s still and I added to that a little bit. I think I came out with about 7 movies and it only set me back by $30 and some change. Not a bad little haul. But I started thinking how this may be one of the last times I step into an actual video store and it brought back some memories for sure.

     I can’t remember the first time I went to the video store growing up but it was around the late 80’s I guess when Blockbuster was exploding in popularity. I can remember on Friday nights going with my mom or dad to the store and finding a movie to watch. At first I was just a tagalong and my job was to be quiet and not act up in public. Rarely did I have a say in the choice of movie but it didn’t matter, my parents were pretty lenient on what I watched. Occasionally if I had a friend over they might let us pick out a horror movie to watch while my mom and dad got something more to their taste. I can remember many a Friday night wasting my brain away on such “classics” as Sleepaway Camp, Silent Night Deadly Night or The Stuff (kudos if you know what that movie is). But life really changed when I turned 16 and could go on my own!! I had car privileges and could go hang out with friends or go to the local hangout and meet girls or any of a bunch of other cool things…..Did I do that? No. Of course not. But I spent a LOT of time at Blockbuster. (Sports card stores also were responsible for a lot of my gas money, but this isn’t a collecting blog so on with the show). About this time I also got to have my own Blockbuster card and the “responsibilities” that came with it. More on that later. I spent many hours in my teenage years staring at the walls of videos, wondering what was good, what was trash. There’s a saying that you can’t judge a book by its cover….well, the same is true on movie rentals. I rented many a movie that had box art that looked wicked cool, only to turn out to be a waste of time as the movie stunk. Then a classic like The Godfather can have such a simple cover and be such a great film. But that’s what I love about movies, you don’t know what to expect. Sometimes you get a dud, but when you find that special one that really connects with you it can do a lot of positive things. I have even been inspired by movies before which is a wonderful thing. Anyways, I digress. But I have many fond memories of going to Blockbuster, and other video stores for that matter. A lot of times I preferred the local dealer, you could find rarer items there. I was introduced to the Faces of Death series at one of these local places (watch those if you want to lose your lunch one day. Not for the faint of heart).

     While I have fond memories, Blockbuster’s and the like caused a lot of headaches too and because of this I’m very grateful for services like Netflix. Ever forget to rewind a tape and you get that nasty look from the service clerk? I think I drove the people working at Merrill Rd. Blockbuster crazy sometimes. Be Kind, Rewind was the motto. Not so much for me. Looking back on that, sorry guys. Also, heaven forbid you forget you had a movie and it goes past the 3 day window. Those people would call you like the IRS and demand their movies back. If I had all the money back that I paid in late fees to Blockbuster I’d be a millionaire probably. That’s an exaggeration of course, but I paid them a LOT of extra money. My parents got stuck with it a lot of the times, sorry mom and dad. Also, good luck getting a brand new movie unless you were there early on the day it was released. Anyone remember the little return bin that was under the counter? People would slide their returned movies in from the outside and you would hear that CLUNK CLUNK. That was a beautiful sound wasn’t it? Everyone would rush over and practically attack the clerk to see if it was one of the new releases. I know that drove the clerks crazy, but hey, that’s their job. Usually it would end up being Bambi 8, the recent direct-to-VHS movie from Disney, but occasionally you would get lucky. If you were desperate you would just stand at that counter and wait for someone to bring their movies back while the clerks stared at you like you were a loser. C’mon, y’all know what I’m talking about. If you were around in those days and were looking for something specific you did the “wait of shame” too. I waited many times. But all of that was part o the experience and there is a miniscule part of me that misses those days. Very miniscule.

     As the 90’s progressed, DVD replaced VHS and I got older and started buying most of my dvds. Trips to the video store were fewer and fewer. I had times where I would still go pretty regularly but they would only last for a few weeks or so and then I would stop going again. When Netflix eventually came along and I discovered that, I can’t remember going to a video store after that, unless it was to clean out a place that is going out of business. Things are much easier now. You can get thousands of movies in mere seconds. We can even watch them on our phones now if you choose. Late fees are a thing of the past and the library of films is much larger than what a box store could hold. I love Netflix and everything we can get in regards to movies these days. But every once in awhile I like to remember those days when you would open up a door that has a Be Kind, Rewind sign hanging on it and just stare at those walls and wonder what you were going to rent tonight.