Movie Wonderland

If you're too young to know what I'm talking about, don't bother reading this... No, I'm kidding. Come along and read it, you might learn something. On to the focus.

Alright, I'd like to take a moment to look back at video stores. Dates were made, friendships were born, guys and gals got rejected, great movies were picked up along with some bad ones, friends would even hang out there, and sometimes video games were rented or bought from here but for me, one place, in particular, was the place to go whether with friends or family and that place wasn't Blockbuster, although that place was always the second place to go. The place I'm thinking of is Hollywood Video.

When I was younger, we used to have to drive at least 10 minutes to go to a Hollywood Video where we were living at the time. That's where we picked up the movie, Bones with Snoop Dogg and O with Mekhi Phifer. Yes, I was terrified of the movie with Snoop Dogg and I was too young to know about O but my mom and stepdad watched it. This was back when we were renting stuff from there a lot but if we liked it enough, we'd "forget" to return it like when we rented Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire. The whole family loved that movie especially me because I couldn't believe that there was a live-action Spider-Man movie made and it was awesome.

When I was 10 or 11, we moved to a city that was about 15 or 30 minutes away from us, there was a Hollywood Video that was less than 5 minutes away from us and we went there more than we thought we were going to. We rented movies, bought movies, rented video games, hell, we even bought snacks from there sometimes. It was becoming a routine that I coined a day for it, I called it "Hollywood Fridays" because we always went during the weekend.

I remember the first time when I went there and I was able to walk out a happy camper, I was 12 years old and we had a guys/girls night. It was me, my brothers, my stepdad, and I think one of my uncles were there at the house while my mom and sisters went to my mom's childhood best friend's house. We went to Hollywood Video after we rested up from dancing to Michael Jackson songs and my stepdad was trying to teach us how to moonwalk but I couldn't do it at the time (I was able to pick the skill up when I was 15), my stepdad pressed the button in his brain and said, "Go look around and get whatever you want." I went to the movies, of course. I had to see what was a possible option, there wasn't much at the time since one of my cousins worked at a Hollywood Video at the time and he always brought over something for us to watch before the movie hit the other shelves so, in my mind, I was challenging him for me so I got Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and a few snacks. That was a really good night.

Anyways, the point of this memory lane is to say that I miss video stores. If I had the option between having Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services and having video stores again like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster, I'd pick the video stores in a heartbeat. Sure, we have Netflix and chill and all that but that's not where it's at because I loved that anything can happen at a video store. The first minute, you're there to rent or buy some movies, the next, you're planning a date with a cute gal or you go there wanting to get some video games but instead, you're hanging out with a friend of yours that happens to work there. Video stores are like chill spots for everyone and I miss that from the moment I see the signs to the moment I have whatever in my hands ready to go before I leave the store.