In the pre-streaming days when my kids were young teenagers (circa the mid-90s) we could go rent movies on Friday nights and get an entire weekend’s worth of films for $5. It was glorious and makes for a fine memory. Remembering the 90s- the Video Store

@amerpie Ok, I had forgotten about Pauly Shore, and now you've reminded me. So thanks for that.

Seriously, the thing I miss (or like to think I miss, anyway) about video stores was the serendipity. You had the cover, the blurb, and a short list of actors to go by; no IMDB lookups, no checking reviews. But you could browse almost endlessly. I wound up watching things I would never have heard of otherwise. (Some of them, to be fair, I would have been better off not hearing of. But still.)

@amerpie “Good ol’ days” or not, I so miss the act of physically renting a movie. And while I haven’t given this specific association much thought, I think the disconnect between memory-making and movie-watching has contributed to my almost complete lack of interest in films anymore. I would be surprised if I watch even 5 new movies in a year

@amerpie There's Kundun on a poster in the photo! It's since been essentially banned because it angered the Chinese government. Another argument for physical media: can't be erased from streaming 'services' at the push of a button .

@amerpie

Reading this post and attached image brings back so many memories.

I remember in the last few years of Blockbuster and early days of Netflix, for about $20/month you could rent unlimited movies (I think it was up to three at a time).

If you binge watched them or weren't happy with the choices you made, you could just drive down to your local store, return them, and grab a new set of movies.

Initially you had a return period, but towards the end, there were none so you basically got to keep some movies as long as you liked.

Good times.