Writer's Block: Family Fun Video Nights
Block Buster Stores announced that they are closing 300 more stores. Do you have fond memories of renting movies from the local video store? Do you remember the last video you rented?
My parents purchased our first VCR in December of 1983 as a Christmas present to the family. Only weeks before, we had moved from my early childhood home in St. Louis out to the suburbs of St. Charles County. new home, new subdivision, new school, no friends, and in the middle of Winter... I guess Mom and Dad figured that the family needed entertainment distractions that we could all enjoy together.
When you're 12, going on 13, your Prime Time TV preferences aren't exactly the same as your parents, and Mom and Dad never were much for playing video games with us. At that time in history, we had an ATARI 2600 that was only about 5 years old. We had dozens of games that my brothers and I would play for hours if we had access to the TV. It's weird to think that there was a time in my life where the family only had one color television, and one 13" B&W television.
There weren't any large video chain stores to rent movies from. Blockbuster wouldn't come on the scene for nearly another two years. But there was a little "Video Rental" store in the corner office, of a strip of two story business offices, at the top of Spencer Creek subdivision where Jungerman and Sutter's Mill Rd. come together. I think one of the first VHS tapes that we ever rented there was one of Gallagher's comedy concert tapes. We also rented Eddie Murphy, Delirious at one point, but when Mom and Dad realized that it was nothing like the comedian's performances on Saturday Night Live, the tape got shut off real quick. My brother's and I snuck back up after midnight that night and watched the rest as we stifled our laughter into the couch pillows.
Before we took the video back to the video store, I made an audio copy of Eddie Murphy's performance. Over the following several weeks I must have listened to that tape at least a dozen times; until I had almost perfectly memorized each joke and story line for line. I would retell it to friends at school, or on the bus to get laughs.
That was the beginning of my love for our local video store. The following summer, we would go swimming up at Nob Hill pool, then head over tot he video store on the way back home for a late lunch; watching a movie before the 'rents got home from work. Depending upon who was working the counter in the afternoon's (usually some high school girl), we could sometimes get away with renting a rated R films like Porky's, Police Academy, or Emanuelle. It was neat to see boobs in a movie, but it was usually more fun to rent scary horror films. By the time I was 15, I had seen Faces of Death parts 1 through 3.
Now days, it's easy enough to pick a "movie on demand" or select something to watch on Netflix. Even renting a DVD is simply a matter of stopping by one of the nearest Big Red Box kiosks; and even then, we've usually picked out the movie we intend to rent by browsing the movies online before going to pick it up.
The joy of walking into a video store, wandering through the aisles of video tapes (or even DVD's) to choose something to watch, are long gone. Popping into the store to browse the box covers, read the movie descriptions, and possibly finding something you may not have even realized you wanted to watch; all the while chatting with the familiar store employees, or watching the latest trailers up on the video screens,... it was all part of the experience.
You had to GO to the local video store. And on a stormy, or snow covered night, that could be an adventure all in and of itself. The only part that really sucked, was returning the video on time, and remembering to rewind the tape.
My parents purchased our first VCR in December of 1983 as a Christmas present to the family. Only weeks before, we had moved from my early childhood home in St. Louis out to the suburbs of St. Charles County. new home, new subdivision, new school, no friends, and in the middle of Winter... I guess Mom and Dad figured that the family needed entertainment distractions that we could all enjoy together.
When you're 12, going on 13, your Prime Time TV preferences aren't exactly the same as your parents, and Mom and Dad never were much for playing video games with us. At that time in history, we had an ATARI 2600 that was only about 5 years old. We had dozens of games that my brothers and I would play for hours if we had access to the TV. It's weird to think that there was a time in my life where the family only had one color television, and one 13" B&W television.
There weren't any large video chain stores to rent movies from. Blockbuster wouldn't come on the scene for nearly another two years. But there was a little "Video Rental" store in the corner office, of a strip of two story business offices, at the top of Spencer Creek subdivision where Jungerman and Sutter's Mill Rd. come together. I think one of the first VHS tapes that we ever rented there was one of Gallagher's comedy concert tapes. We also rented Eddie Murphy, Delirious at one point, but when Mom and Dad realized that it was nothing like the comedian's performances on Saturday Night Live, the tape got shut off real quick. My brother's and I snuck back up after midnight that night and watched the rest as we stifled our laughter into the couch pillows.
Before we took the video back to the video store, I made an audio copy of Eddie Murphy's performance. Over the following several weeks I must have listened to that tape at least a dozen times; until I had almost perfectly memorized each joke and story line for line. I would retell it to friends at school, or on the bus to get laughs.
That was the beginning of my love for our local video store. The following summer, we would go swimming up at Nob Hill pool, then head over tot he video store on the way back home for a late lunch; watching a movie before the 'rents got home from work. Depending upon who was working the counter in the afternoon's (usually some high school girl), we could sometimes get away with renting a rated R films like Porky's, Police Academy, or Emanuelle. It was neat to see boobs in a movie, but it was usually more fun to rent scary horror films. By the time I was 15, I had seen Faces of Death parts 1 through 3.
Now days, it's easy enough to pick a "movie on demand" or select something to watch on Netflix. Even renting a DVD is simply a matter of stopping by one of the nearest Big Red Box kiosks; and even then, we've usually picked out the movie we intend to rent by browsing the movies online before going to pick it up.
The joy of walking into a video store, wandering through the aisles of video tapes (or even DVD's) to choose something to watch, are long gone. Popping into the store to browse the box covers, read the movie descriptions, and possibly finding something you may not have even realized you wanted to watch; all the while chatting with the familiar store employees, or watching the latest trailers up on the video screens,... it was all part of the experience.
You had to GO to the local video store. And on a stormy, or snow covered night, that could be an adventure all in and of itself. The only part that really sucked, was returning the video on time, and remembering to rewind the tape.