Video Stores

 In this age of at your fingers technology, one thing that I really miss is going to a video store to rent movies. Kids today just do not know that joy and sometimes that heartache when the movie you want to see is sold out.  Movies were categorized so you could go directly to the section you wanted to and browse.  Early on when we first got our VCR in December 1986, most video stores in Monroe were "mom and pop" stores.  They were locally owned, obviously, and usually were in a building that once housed something else before it.  Rarely did they build their own stores.  I remember that even our local drug store had a video rental section which we used.

We finally got a Blockbuster Video when I was in high school.  It was at the end of a strip mall that was across the street from Monroe Mall.  Harris Teeter was in that strip mall and many times Mom would do the grocery shopping and send me down to Blockbuster to get some movies for us.  And then, in college, I worked for a video store here in Greensboro.  It was a locally owned place named Video Review.  It was a very cool store and they carried movies you would not find anywhere else.  Jim, who owned the store along with his wife, Jan, would get many independent titles that places like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video did not carry.  We had tons or regular customers, and the prices were great.  Friday and Saturday nights were nuts. And this store had an adult video section which was right down the middle of the store.  I never understood how that was legal but oh well.

It was just so much fun to get to select your own movie to watch.  Getting your own video rental card was a rite of passage in our teenage years. I saw so many great ones throughout the years because I rented them.  Now, it's another reason to get a library card so that I can simulate renting videos at the store.  It's just something that I did with friends and created many good memories along the way.  I miss those times.  That is all.