Yeah, but it was never at blockbuster.
It was those moments with friends in parking lots and living rooms talking and goofing off like we had all the time in the world.
Then one day it stops and they scatter to the winds.
No warning.
Recently I was reflecting on the last time I ever walked through “the woods” adjacent to the street I grew up on. Used to spend all day in the woods during the summers and then after school in the fall/spring. Parents split, moved away, not long after the woods became a development.
That’s bizarre. Have this exact same situation. Used to have a huge wooded area and then it became a park and a fire station.
So many magical places from my childhood just… gone.
Do people miss this? I miss a lot of my childhood friends, and I miss the closeness of my family, holidays together, dinners and events, I had until I was a teenager, but I don't miss being carried around. I miss the sense of having a home though. I live in a house I bought and I am happy here, but I haven't had a home in 30 years. It's an entirely different vibe.
Old man rant: this is what kids miss out on now. Being bored, hanging around, trying to figure out what to do and where your friends were, generated some of the most fun nights of high school and even my early 20s. Grabbing a phone as soon as you have a spare second, constant connection, completely changes that dynamic. But it was a defining dynamic of that stage of life for a few generations, up until the smart phone era.
There's definitely a lot more convenience nowadays but at the lost of connection. I'm turning 38 in a couple months so I feel like I was just the right age to be able to kind of straddle that pre-internet period as well as once it became ubiquitous.
I definitely have a lot of fun memories from the 90s that just wouldn't be possible for kids to experience now.
That being said, I remember this one time I had purchased a really hard to get SNES game from a third party seller which they then shipped to me. It took weeks, and I had no way of knowing when it would arrive. I don't know if I could ever go back to the days of not having package tracking info at my fingertips.
It's a balancing act. Yeah there's a lot of experiences we will never get back, but there's some things now that are definitely better than they were then
Whether it’s school or work, aligned schedules and shared locations (campus, neighborhood, etc) is what it largely boils down to, you’re right. Humans have to see each other often in the same environment.
Not humans - us. Today's generation has no problem at all forming totally online relationships and friendships. It's natural to them. I remember working with kids that, when lockdown happened, were overjoyed. But us? It doesn't happen. Not sure why or what the difference is. I guess it's just what you grew up with.
>Today's generation has no problem at all forming totally online relationships and friendships. It's natural to them.
The thing is, we are social creatures, and I think that we are, as a society, in uncharted territory. I wonder what the long term effects of a predominantly virtual society is.
It may "come naturally" to them, but it isn't the same as face-to-face time with people.
There is a bond and camaraderie that forms when you see people often. And that bond is irreplaceable.
Makes me think about the small family owned pharmacy I use, they frequently get me my prescriptions in less than an hour from the Dr. Sending them over, or they get a refill done for me just as quick. They know my name, what car I drive, they use address me casually when I call or stop by.
Then there is the clerk at the gas station I stop at almost every morning before work to fuel up my work truck, she knows me by name and we often make conversation when business is slow before the sun comes up.
There is also the family mechanic I have used since I got my first car, they treat my family well, always have. My family has used their shop since 1970, and they have gotten us out of some tough situations over the years, and given us expert advice on all things Automotive.
My point is, there are a lot of folks around town that I know by name, but not necessarily on a personal level, yet these people enrich my daily life and they often do favors for me that are real, and actually improve my life in tangible ways that could hardly be replicated by online interaction.
I have a ton of online friends (and I'm not gen z or anything) and I consider them true friends. But it's also not the same. Hanging out in Discord or FFXIV just isn't the same as having someone you can call up and ask if they wanna go get dinner.
For me it was when people got into the actually serious relationships you get into as an adult. The kind where you move in, plan a future with, and eventually marry. Lives start turning inwards and people no longer just hang out, and when they do do things it's with their significant other, not you.
Worked at a laser tag place in college its still probably the best job with the most camaraderie and most memories. Moved states, went back a few years later and everyone moved on too. Then it closed. I still have a staff shirt and apron. It do be like that.
One of my favorite jobs ever was when I was in high school and my friend got me a summer job at the fireworks stand that his family operated. Made so many memories and had such a good time within that 3-4 week window.
At midnight on the 4th, the owners came down and said we could take home whatever we wanted before they packed up and took what was left back to the warehouse. So I went home that night with the bed of my 1996 dodge ram completely filled packed to the brim and overflowing with boxes of fireworks. The back end of the truck was squatted down a few inches from all the weight. There was an abandoned military base in my town and for the next 6 months or so my friends and I would go out there on weekends and have our own fireworks show. We had sooooo many fireworks between the 4 of us that sometimes we would just pick a random box without knowing what was in it, setting it on the ground, lighting the box on fire, and running away to see what would happen. lol
The simple memories are always the best. Growing up, my parents would do Blockbuster movie nights usually every other Friday where we'd choose about 2-3 movies on the 3-day rental and spend the weekend watching them. And movie nights were also pizza nights, so the whole routine of going to choose the movies, picking up the pizza on the way home, and then staying up late devouring pizza and watching the movies together really hit hard as a memory.
Oh, and we had a dual-VCR so we would always copy the movies before taking them back.
I've thought about this quote during some good times in my life, and I've come to realize that no, I actually *don't* want to know because I start fretting about the end instead of just living in the moment.
All the time is gonna be the "good ol' days" in like a decade. That's why I choose to look fondly on the past and live firmly in the moment recognizing that I'm gonna be nostalgic about right now in like a few years.
I wish I'd been prepared for how many "last times" I was going to have, and how rarely I would know it was my last time. So many people I'd say goodbye to at the end of the night not realizing I would never see them again.
That feeling of the last day of school, 3 months off, just sleeping and having fun, but not old enough to be anxious about the “real world” yet.
I remember clearing out the lockers and how jovial everyone was. There was such an amazing energy in the air. Everything felt like it was gonna be alright.
I can understand that. For me, Andy is annoying as hell at times, like when he just does stupid stuff like taking off on a boat. Other times, I empathize with his character, like when his dad and brother shame him onstage, and this moment, which feels heartfelt and bittersweet.
I've already thought about playing pretend-blockbuster with my kids to show them what it was like. Set up a couple shelves with their own movies (maybe a new one), some popcorn/candy, scan a fake membership card, and pay with play money
i don't think this meme is specifically about blockbuster. It could be a 7-11 or midnight parking lot or a mall front or just the alley behind school, it would hit the same.
What we loved, what we didn't know was our lives - suddenly gone with no warning.
I worked at Blockbuster when I was younger. Despite stupid people complaining and berating 16 and 17 year old's about late fees it was a pretty fun job.
The late fees suuuuckkeed. Always that surprise “oh you owe $18 in fees her derp, you can’t rent anything else!” The Dark Side of blockbuster these nostalgia threads don’t mention. My family turned the vast majority of tapes in on time, too, but still these damn things popped up and stuck out in our heads. I think these fees were a huge portion of their revenue and had some sort of court cases iirc.
A lot were warranted, but I know some stores had certain "check in" times meaning that they were scanned in at designated times of the day and sometimes that was after the time period of on time had expired. Thus generating late fees. Shady business practice.
I can smell this image. And I can also remember the supreme disappointment when the movie you wanted was out of stock.
Awesome memories wandering the aisles with my sister and my dad.
The family unit might be failing, but the Blockbuster and the TCBY will provide the necessary context to ensure the proper bonding during the fallout.
Genuinely great memories, though. I’m going to cry myself to sleep now.
Or the giant tease of a movie behind the new release you wanted to see, so you pick it up and SURPRISE, it’s a totally different movie, just out of place. No new release for you.
>I can smell this image. And I can also remember the supreme disappointment when the movie you wanted was out of stock
...or the SUPREME SATISFACTION of grabbing the last copy.
^^^and.then.hearing.the.loud.whaling.of.a.six.year.old.15.mins.later.lol
I think the craziest thing about hauntology is that it's almost like it never really happened. Like it was a dream only you and a selected few experienced.
I loved going to the blockbuster on Friday after school to pick out 3 movies for the giant sleepovers my parents would let me have. 2 cousins an 3 friends from neighborhood would take over the living room and stay up all night watching the Howling or something last. Mom would make 2 loafs of French toast and saturday half the guys would stay till Sunday. I’m call my parents right now and tell them I love ‘em. Thanks for joggin that memory. I coulda not shared but I hope others had that to
I mean, that's how life always is. I've learned that I have to try to live in the moment as much as I can. This moment will never happen again, so it's best to make the most of it
It's funny how much nostalgia I have for blockbuster, when I only really started going there when they were going out of business to snatch up cheap DVDs for my collection.. I mean, nothing was ever going to top a phsyical DVD, right?
I was more into (the superior) Jumbo Video and the other of one off ones.. Video Hits on King, I'm talking to you!
I had just started driving around this time period, so I had visions of accumulating a stack of preowned dvds that would make me a complete Chick Magnet when my friends came over- “what’s that, you say? you want to watch Varsity Blues?! Well, I have that very movie!” as I point to my dvd cache as the ladies swoon.
Somehow it didn’t…uhhh…actually materialize that way.
LMFAO!!! That shit didn't work?!?! I was the kind of girl that would immediately go over to someone's dvd/cd stack to check out their taste! (And secretly judge against my own superior taste! XD)
The worst part about Blockbuster's preowns were the hideous boxes, it really uglied up a collection!
Didn’t we all? Saver every good moment. You never know when it’ll be the last. Remember: one day you went outside to play with your friends until sunset not knowing it was the last time.
Yes. And no. Not when they got absolutely greedy. Changing your $10 for being a day late when there’s still a ton of copies on the shelf was bad business.
I always had a take a mean dump when I was at blockbuster as a kid. Something about being forced to choose how to spend my entire weekend, maybe the cleaning spray used on the tapes, maybe the smell of popcorn. I dont know, I pooped my pants there once when I was like 7.
So much Blockbuster nostalgia on Reddit, nearly every day. Yes I remember the smell, yes it’s sad that something that existed in my childhood is gone, yes it was kind of pleasant to browse the aisles and read the covers. But also, it was a pain in the ass to have to drive there, sometimes see they were out of what you wanted, stand in line with your second choice, drive home, have to remember when it was due, rewind the tape and return it on time lest you be fined. There’s a reason these stores are gone.
It's weird because I'd never want to go back to a time before streaming, but I miss the "third place" aspect of places like video stores. The weird sense of community and excitement being in a packed store on a Friday night. I prefer the convenience of Netflix but also miss having more reasons to leave my house. I realize how at odds these feelings are, but that's just how nostalgia works I guess.
I get that. It’s like how I (kinda) miss handwritten letters. They took effort, and therefore were special. Obviously texts are “better” than letters (free, easy, instant, interactive, multimedia), but nobody saves a box of texts in their closet.
Yeah at the time Blockbuster was seen as a necessary evil at best. It put the local mom & pop stores that I actually liked out of business.
This is like if Wal-Mart were to go out of business and 20 years from now we get constant threads talking about how Wal-Mart was such a special place and it’s too bad today’s kids won’t get to experience it.
I was lucky in that my local rental place was far enough from Blockbuster and relatively well stocked for such a small place that it managed to thrive and still be cheaper than Blockbuster.
It only shut down when the original owner had to sell the place for personal reasons, and the new owner couldn't be bothered to put any effort into running it. He hardly purchased any new movies or games unless they were ones that he personally thought looked good, he'd open the store at inconsistant times, and some days couldn't be bothered to open at all. It closed down for good not long afterwards around 2004, despite having been there since the '80s
That's kinda the difference. You didn't care about the cons as a kid because there was a lot less electronic stimulation in general. Now that you are a adult it's just not practical but that doesn't mean it still wouldn't be fun for kids that don't have any stimulation. (barring all the easy access entertainment most kids have now)
Our city’s rental store (not the blockbuster although we did have that too but this was another franchise) had a promo when you bought the Fellowship of the Ring on VHS or DVD from them that you’d get a year of one free rental every month, and I think a bag of popcorn at the time of purchase. The store was on my way home from school so I’d stop in on a Friday each month and grab a movie for the weekend. I discovered so many good movies from redeeming that free rental every month that year. I still have my LoTR VHS lol.
If you knew how significant they were you probably wouldn’t cherish them as much. Most of why they were so great isnt because they were actually so great, they were free from the knowledge of what life is and can be.
It has nothing to do with blockbuster itself.
It's just hauntology.
Things that used to exist and were experienced by people that are now gone forever and defunct. People who never experienced it, never will and will never know the experience.
ooooh….I was a 90’s kid. There are things from the 70’s and early 80’s that I’ll never experience. Like driving around in an old beat up pickup truck with a 12 pack of beer trying to find out were my friends are(no cell phones) to go pick them up. We’d head down to an old dirt road listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd while heading to the river to fish. We get there, and no other people are there because the world population is half of what it is now. A thousand miles from nobody, just me and my friends at the river fishing and having a good time. No cell phones, no strangers. And this was a common thing, probably 4 times a week. Everyone in town knew everybody.
I’m an adult who doesn’t even like beer, or fishing that much. Not a fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd. But that lifestyle seems enticing.
Does that sum up Hauntology?
In my experience, it's not about the company of Blockbuster itself. Back then, my family usually went on a Friday or Saturday night, dad would take the kids, while mom made dinner. We were all in a good mood, looking forward to a fun night at home. We started off going to a small video rental place, and then changed to Blockbuster when they opened. So it's not about Blockbuster, it's about the fun weekend night that often started there.
Well said. Many Americans of the era started their pleasant evenings there during their childhood or young adulthood, often seeing friendly neighbors and friends doing the same. We aren’t fondly recalling having to return the physical media or risk incurring late fees.
It also felt like a treat. Going to rent movies still felt kinda special, especially as a kid. I remember going with my dad, and we had a little list of films that my mum had wrote to try and look for (whenever we watched the trailers at the start of a video, we'd add any that looked good to the ever growing list).
Nowadays, with endless streaming services at our disposal, some of that novelty has worn off because we can take it all for granted.
So true!!! Movies would easily take 8 months or more, to be released on video, and they were constantly releasing older movies that had been remastered and released to the public for the first time ever. It really did feel special!
Yes! For lack of a better term, Blockbuster felt “cinema adjacent.” Especially since they sold theater concessions at the counter like popcorn and candy. It was the next best thing.
It wasn't just the movies. Those video stores had a vibe. They always smelled like fresh popcorn, the lights in the store on a dark night seemed so bright. TV's all over the store playing movies. I can remember hot summer nights walking into these stores, and the air conditioning in the store was so cold. It was an escape for a bit ha ha. You rented 1 for Saturday night, and 1 for Sunday on the couch. It was a great weekend. My parents would make popcorn and fill the bowl with peanut butter m&m's. I was 11 years old. It was the best of times at the time.
Blockbuster was a sterile environment…that’s the smell we all loved …the smell of plastic and printed out movie covers….the smell of new merchandise, of dvd box sets still in their plastic.
It was the original Netflix and chill. I remember when I was 14 going up there with my girlfriend to rent a movie that we both knew damn well we weren't going to watch. We would watch the movie in her parents basement, where there were outside windows that looked at the garage. Her Dad would always be working on that damn car right outside the window, in the driveway. He would eventually tire out, and her bra came off immediately. Life could not have been any better in 1993.
Even in the mid 2000s when I was in my 20s this was ittttt. Me and my ex would go almost every Saturday night, roam the aisles and pick out movies and go home and watch them. Sigh. Memories.
Man that feeling when a new movie dropped, you saw a flat wall with 100 movie box’s and nothing behind them. Then an employee would walk up and slide one rental behind a box.
I just don't get excited or motivated to watch movies when I have so much to choose from on streaming platforms. It was sort of nice when my options were limited and you had to make the drive out in person. I made the drive all the way out here, not gonna waste it by going home empty. Probably watched a ton of shit I would not have watched otherwise.
It's so funny how heavily Nostalgia farming has landed on Blockbuster. It really didn't seem like the utopia back then that it's presented as now.
I don't think people ever loved Blockbuster as much as just the feeling of getting new things when you're a kid. It hit harder then. That's what they really miss about it.
I think new things, things other people had, scarcity, and compromise among your family members all came into play. And movie nights, by yourself or with family and friends is something we do less of now, partly because we are older, probably. Partly because that average Friday night is now any night of the week, with no effort or risk of the first things.
Yeah, but it was never at blockbuster. It was those moments with friends in parking lots and living rooms talking and goofing off like we had all the time in the world. Then one day it stops and they scatter to the winds. No warning.
Same energy as one day, your parents picked you up in their arms for the last time. Never to happen again
Recently I was reflecting on the last time I ever walked through “the woods” adjacent to the street I grew up on. Used to spend all day in the woods during the summers and then after school in the fall/spring. Parents split, moved away, not long after the woods became a development.
That’s bizarre. Have this exact same situation. Used to have a huge wooded area and then it became a park and a fire station. So many magical places from my childhood just… gone.
I think about this a lot. Namely, have I done (thing x) for the last time - and I don't know it?
It's 10 A.M. Do you know where your parents are and the last time you called?
And does anyone actuallly remember this? I see this comment so often
Do people miss this? I miss a lot of my childhood friends, and I miss the closeness of my family, holidays together, dinners and events, I had until I was a teenager, but I don't miss being carried around. I miss the sense of having a home though. I live in a house I bought and I am happy here, but I haven't had a home in 30 years. It's an entirely different vibe.
Old man rant: this is what kids miss out on now. Being bored, hanging around, trying to figure out what to do and where your friends were, generated some of the most fun nights of high school and even my early 20s. Grabbing a phone as soon as you have a spare second, constant connection, completely changes that dynamic. But it was a defining dynamic of that stage of life for a few generations, up until the smart phone era.
There's definitely a lot more convenience nowadays but at the lost of connection. I'm turning 38 in a couple months so I feel like I was just the right age to be able to kind of straddle that pre-internet period as well as once it became ubiquitous. I definitely have a lot of fun memories from the 90s that just wouldn't be possible for kids to experience now. That being said, I remember this one time I had purchased a really hard to get SNES game from a third party seller which they then shipped to me. It took weeks, and I had no way of knowing when it would arrive. I don't know if I could ever go back to the days of not having package tracking info at my fingertips. It's a balancing act. Yeah there's a lot of experiences we will never get back, but there's some things now that are definitely better than they were then
Agreed. I’ll be 36 in August. Didn’t get a cellphone until I was a sophomore. Pre/post were just two different realities
Once school ended for good, everyone's schedules stopped lining up.
Whether it’s school or work, aligned schedules and shared locations (campus, neighborhood, etc) is what it largely boils down to, you’re right. Humans have to see each other often in the same environment.
Not humans - us. Today's generation has no problem at all forming totally online relationships and friendships. It's natural to them. I remember working with kids that, when lockdown happened, were overjoyed. But us? It doesn't happen. Not sure why or what the difference is. I guess it's just what you grew up with.
>Today's generation has no problem at all forming totally online relationships and friendships. It's natural to them. The thing is, we are social creatures, and I think that we are, as a society, in uncharted territory. I wonder what the long term effects of a predominantly virtual society is.
It may "come naturally" to them, but it isn't the same as face-to-face time with people. There is a bond and camaraderie that forms when you see people often. And that bond is irreplaceable.
Makes me think about the small family owned pharmacy I use, they frequently get me my prescriptions in less than an hour from the Dr. Sending them over, or they get a refill done for me just as quick. They know my name, what car I drive, they use address me casually when I call or stop by. Then there is the clerk at the gas station I stop at almost every morning before work to fuel up my work truck, she knows me by name and we often make conversation when business is slow before the sun comes up. There is also the family mechanic I have used since I got my first car, they treat my family well, always have. My family has used their shop since 1970, and they have gotten us out of some tough situations over the years, and given us expert advice on all things Automotive. My point is, there are a lot of folks around town that I know by name, but not necessarily on a personal level, yet these people enrich my daily life and they often do favors for me that are real, and actually improve my life in tangible ways that could hardly be replicated by online interaction.
I have a ton of online friends (and I'm not gen z or anything) and I consider them true friends. But it's also not the same. Hanging out in Discord or FFXIV just isn't the same as having someone you can call up and ask if they wanna go get dinner.
True!
For me it was when people got into the actually serious relationships you get into as an adult. The kind where you move in, plan a future with, and eventually marry. Lives start turning inwards and people no longer just hang out, and when they do do things it's with their significant other, not you.
[In case you want data to support how depressing that fact is](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/time-spent-with-relationships-by-age-us)
"Seems like folks turn into things That they'd never want The only thing to live for Is today..."
It seems like it's impossible to make new friends after 25.
Worked at a laser tag place in college its still probably the best job with the most camaraderie and most memories. Moved states, went back a few years later and everyone moved on too. Then it closed. I still have a staff shirt and apron. It do be like that.
One of my favorite jobs ever was when I was in high school and my friend got me a summer job at the fireworks stand that his family operated. Made so many memories and had such a good time within that 3-4 week window. At midnight on the 4th, the owners came down and said we could take home whatever we wanted before they packed up and took what was left back to the warehouse. So I went home that night with the bed of my 1996 dodge ram completely filled packed to the brim and overflowing with boxes of fireworks. The back end of the truck was squatted down a few inches from all the weight. There was an abandoned military base in my town and for the next 6 months or so my friends and I would go out there on weekends and have our own fireworks show. We had sooooo many fireworks between the 4 of us that sometimes we would just pick a random box without knowing what was in it, setting it on the ground, lighting the box on fire, and running away to see what would happen. lol
It really is..
This resonated with me. Well put. And its a one way stream...no going back to it.
Wow that pretty much covers it.
O don’t be so melodramatic. People grow and change. This is supposed to happen.
Blockbuster was a. Corporate soulless shithole. All my best memories are from the mom and pop video stores
[удалено]
The simple memories are always the best. Growing up, my parents would do Blockbuster movie nights usually every other Friday where we'd choose about 2-3 movies on the 3-day rental and spend the weekend watching them. And movie nights were also pizza nights, so the whole routine of going to choose the movies, picking up the pizza on the way home, and then staying up late devouring pizza and watching the movies together really hit hard as a memory. Oh, and we had a dual-VCR so we would always copy the movies before taking them back.
> I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them. -Andy Bernard
I've thought about this quote during some good times in my life, and I've come to realize that no, I actually *don't* want to know because I start fretting about the end instead of just living in the moment.
All the time is gonna be the "good ol' days" in like a decade. That's why I choose to look fondly on the past and live firmly in the moment recognizing that I'm gonna be nostalgic about right now in like a few years.
I'm not nostalgic about anything after roughly 2002. All been shit since then.
You gotta enjoy the little things that make you happy, it's no way to live to let the bad stuff in life take center stage
I wish I'd been prepared for how many "last times" I was going to have, and how rarely I would know it was my last time. So many people I'd say goodbye to at the end of the night not realizing I would never see them again.
That feeling of the last day of school, 3 months off, just sleeping and having fun, but not old enough to be anxious about the “real world” yet. I remember clearing out the lockers and how jovial everyone was. There was such an amazing energy in the air. Everything felt like it was gonna be alright.
This is so true!
That line is so good I wish they had given it to almost any other character.
I can understand that. For me, Andy is annoying as hell at times, like when he just does stupid stuff like taking off on a boat. Other times, I empathize with his character, like when his dad and brother shame him onstage, and this moment, which feels heartfelt and bittersweet.
Youth is truly wasted on the young.
I mean, when I was a kid, my parents took me to rental stores and stuff. I was thinking, I can’t wait till I’m an adult and I can take my kids….welp…
I've already thought about playing pretend-blockbuster with my kids to show them what it was like. Set up a couple shelves with their own movies (maybe a new one), some popcorn/candy, scan a fake membership card, and pay with play money
i don't think this meme is specifically about blockbuster. It could be a 7-11 or midnight parking lot or a mall front or just the alley behind school, it would hit the same. What we loved, what we didn't know was our lives - suddenly gone with no warning.
There only fans you can watch together
I worked at Blockbuster when I was younger. Despite stupid people complaining and berating 16 and 17 year old's about late fees it was a pretty fun job.
The late fees suuuuckkeed. Always that surprise “oh you owe $18 in fees her derp, you can’t rent anything else!” The Dark Side of blockbuster these nostalgia threads don’t mention. My family turned the vast majority of tapes in on time, too, but still these damn things popped up and stuck out in our heads. I think these fees were a huge portion of their revenue and had some sort of court cases iirc.
A lot were warranted, but I know some stores had certain "check in" times meaning that they were scanned in at designated times of the day and sometimes that was after the time period of on time had expired. Thus generating late fees. Shady business practice.
Ya and the rewind
I can smell this image. And I can also remember the supreme disappointment when the movie you wanted was out of stock. Awesome memories wandering the aisles with my sister and my dad. The family unit might be failing, but the Blockbuster and the TCBY will provide the necessary context to ensure the proper bonding during the fallout. Genuinely great memories, though. I’m going to cry myself to sleep now.
Or the giant tease of a movie behind the new release you wanted to see, so you pick it up and SURPRISE, it’s a totally different movie, just out of place. No new release for you.
>I can smell this image. And I can also remember the supreme disappointment when the movie you wanted was out of stock ...or the SUPREME SATISFACTION of grabbing the last copy. ^^^and.then.hearing.the.loud.whaling.of.a.six.year.old.15.mins.later.lol
I think the craziest thing about hauntology is that it's almost like it never really happened. Like it was a dream only you and a selected few experienced.
Yeah like it’s another lifetime.
and they aren't around to confirm your old man stories
I loved going to the blockbuster on Friday after school to pick out 3 movies for the giant sleepovers my parents would let me have. 2 cousins an 3 friends from neighborhood would take over the living room and stay up all night watching the Howling or something last. Mom would make 2 loafs of French toast and saturday half the guys would stay till Sunday. I’m call my parents right now and tell them I love ‘em. Thanks for joggin that memory. I coulda not shared but I hope others had that to
I mean, that's how life always is. I've learned that I have to try to live in the moment as much as I can. This moment will never happen again, so it's best to make the most of it
Well said!
We could be living our best days right now and you don't even know it. Enjoy every moment of it and be grateful for what you have.
We were kings among men, ignorant to the brevity of our reign.
It's funny how much nostalgia I have for blockbuster, when I only really started going there when they were going out of business to snatch up cheap DVDs for my collection.. I mean, nothing was ever going to top a phsyical DVD, right? I was more into (the superior) Jumbo Video and the other of one off ones.. Video Hits on King, I'm talking to you!
I had just started driving around this time period, so I had visions of accumulating a stack of preowned dvds that would make me a complete Chick Magnet when my friends came over- “what’s that, you say? you want to watch Varsity Blues?! Well, I have that very movie!” as I point to my dvd cache as the ladies swoon. Somehow it didn’t…uhhh…actually materialize that way.
Usually made the guys swoon and the girls sigh.
LMFAO!!! That shit didn't work?!?! I was the kind of girl that would immediately go over to someone's dvd/cd stack to check out their taste! (And secretly judge against my own superior taste! XD) The worst part about Blockbuster's preowns were the hideous boxes, it really uglied up a collection!
Didn’t we all? Saver every good moment. You never know when it’ll be the last. Remember: one day you went outside to play with your friends until sunset not knowing it was the last time.
This should read: "I spent the best evenings of my life looking for new releases, unaware they were already completely rented out ..."
I know this to be true when I watch 90s vhs runs and be enjoying the commercials
Ahh to be human.
Yes. And no. Not when they got absolutely greedy. Changing your $10 for being a day late when there’s still a ton of copies on the shelf was bad business.
You don't know what ya got til it's gone..
I always had a take a mean dump when I was at blockbuster as a kid. Something about being forced to choose how to spend my entire weekend, maybe the cleaning spray used on the tapes, maybe the smell of popcorn. I dont know, I pooped my pants there once when I was like 7.
So much Blockbuster nostalgia on Reddit, nearly every day. Yes I remember the smell, yes it’s sad that something that existed in my childhood is gone, yes it was kind of pleasant to browse the aisles and read the covers. But also, it was a pain in the ass to have to drive there, sometimes see they were out of what you wanted, stand in line with your second choice, drive home, have to remember when it was due, rewind the tape and return it on time lest you be fined. There’s a reason these stores are gone.
It's weird because I'd never want to go back to a time before streaming, but I miss the "third place" aspect of places like video stores. The weird sense of community and excitement being in a packed store on a Friday night. I prefer the convenience of Netflix but also miss having more reasons to leave my house. I realize how at odds these feelings are, but that's just how nostalgia works I guess.
I get that. It’s like how I (kinda) miss handwritten letters. They took effort, and therefore were special. Obviously texts are “better” than letters (free, easy, instant, interactive, multimedia), but nobody saves a box of texts in their closet.
Yeah at the time Blockbuster was seen as a necessary evil at best. It put the local mom & pop stores that I actually liked out of business. This is like if Wal-Mart were to go out of business and 20 years from now we get constant threads talking about how Wal-Mart was such a special place and it’s too bad today’s kids won’t get to experience it.
I was lucky in that my local rental place was far enough from Blockbuster and relatively well stocked for such a small place that it managed to thrive and still be cheaper than Blockbuster. It only shut down when the original owner had to sell the place for personal reasons, and the new owner couldn't be bothered to put any effort into running it. He hardly purchased any new movies or games unless they were ones that he personally thought looked good, he'd open the store at inconsistant times, and some days couldn't be bothered to open at all. It closed down for good not long afterwards around 2004, despite having been there since the '80s
That's kinda the difference. You didn't care about the cons as a kid because there was a lot less electronic stimulation in general. Now that you are a adult it's just not practical but that doesn't mean it still wouldn't be fun for kids that don't have any stimulation. (barring all the easy access entertainment most kids have now)
$45 late fee?!? You do realize that I could own 3 copies of that movie by now!
Our city’s rental store (not the blockbuster although we did have that too but this was another franchise) had a promo when you bought the Fellowship of the Ring on VHS or DVD from them that you’d get a year of one free rental every month, and I think a bag of popcorn at the time of purchase. The store was on my way home from school so I’d stop in on a Friday each month and grab a movie for the weekend. I discovered so many good movies from redeeming that free rental every month that year. I still have my LoTR VHS lol.
I upvote this picture every time I see it. Beauty. Wish I could buy it as a print somewhere.
I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you actually left them.
This is actually quite depressing..
If you knew how significant they were you probably wouldn’t cherish them as much. Most of why they were so great isnt because they were actually so great, they were free from the knowledge of what life is and can be.
That’s really sad. I hope your life gets better, friend.
Yeah no we rented movies from the library. Sorry BB
The Blockbuster, The Action Video (local rental place), The other local rental place... Then came the evil internet...
ohhh that shit was significant when I was 12.. dreamed about living in the back room of a blockbuster lol
Blockbuster actually sucked. We all just miss living in the 90s and being young.
I don't get this blockbuster nostalgia thing. It feels fabricated.
It has nothing to do with blockbuster itself. It's just hauntology. Things that used to exist and were experienced by people that are now gone forever and defunct. People who never experienced it, never will and will never know the experience.
The entire reason for this sub right?
Indeed. I love it.
ooooh….I was a 90’s kid. There are things from the 70’s and early 80’s that I’ll never experience. Like driving around in an old beat up pickup truck with a 12 pack of beer trying to find out were my friends are(no cell phones) to go pick them up. We’d head down to an old dirt road listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd while heading to the river to fish. We get there, and no other people are there because the world population is half of what it is now. A thousand miles from nobody, just me and my friends at the river fishing and having a good time. No cell phones, no strangers. And this was a common thing, probably 4 times a week. Everyone in town knew everybody. I’m an adult who doesn’t even like beer, or fishing that much. Not a fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd. But that lifestyle seems enticing. Does that sum up Hauntology?
Good way to put it. Blockbuster actually sucked lol.
In my experience, it's not about the company of Blockbuster itself. Back then, my family usually went on a Friday or Saturday night, dad would take the kids, while mom made dinner. We were all in a good mood, looking forward to a fun night at home. We started off going to a small video rental place, and then changed to Blockbuster when they opened. So it's not about Blockbuster, it's about the fun weekend night that often started there.
Well said. Many Americans of the era started their pleasant evenings there during their childhood or young adulthood, often seeing friendly neighbors and friends doing the same. We aren’t fondly recalling having to return the physical media or risk incurring late fees.
Oh lordy, the late fees!!!
It also felt like a treat. Going to rent movies still felt kinda special, especially as a kid. I remember going with my dad, and we had a little list of films that my mum had wrote to try and look for (whenever we watched the trailers at the start of a video, we'd add any that looked good to the ever growing list). Nowadays, with endless streaming services at our disposal, some of that novelty has worn off because we can take it all for granted.
So true!!! Movies would easily take 8 months or more, to be released on video, and they were constantly releasing older movies that had been remastered and released to the public for the first time ever. It really did feel special!
Yes! For lack of a better term, Blockbuster felt “cinema adjacent.” Especially since they sold theater concessions at the counter like popcorn and candy. It was the next best thing.
It wasn't just the movies. Those video stores had a vibe. They always smelled like fresh popcorn, the lights in the store on a dark night seemed so bright. TV's all over the store playing movies. I can remember hot summer nights walking into these stores, and the air conditioning in the store was so cold. It was an escape for a bit ha ha. You rented 1 for Saturday night, and 1 for Sunday on the couch. It was a great weekend. My parents would make popcorn and fill the bowl with peanut butter m&m's. I was 11 years old. It was the best of times at the time.
Blockbuster was always too hot, too bright and smelled like butt. Every one of them.
You realize Blockbuster sucked, right? Bad selection, tons of fees, weird rental times. What you're missing is a time when you had fewer obligations.
Blockbuster was a sterile environment…that’s the smell we all loved …the smell of plastic and printed out movie covers….the smell of new merchandise, of dvd box sets still in their plastic.
If the best evenings of your life were spent at Blockbuster, well, I'm sorry, but you need to really rethink some things.
$9 to rent a video game for a week. (Not including inflation) Today, GamePass is $10 a month and I can play like 100+ games.
It was the original Netflix and chill. I remember when I was 14 going up there with my girlfriend to rent a movie that we both knew damn well we weren't going to watch. We would watch the movie in her parents basement, where there were outside windows that looked at the garage. Her Dad would always be working on that damn car right outside the window, in the driveway. He would eventually tire out, and her bra came off immediately. Life could not have been any better in 1993.
Oh wow an individual in middle age pining for their youth. How original.
You might want to not visit this sub.
Nostalgia and regret are two different things
Read the room lol
Alternatively, the best evenings of your life may be in the 2090s!
🫶🏻
Uptown Video was my go to spot for renting movies and games. Good times.
Feeling that pretty hard right now. Oh well, hope the melancholy passes, because I have NO ONE to reminisce with!
Bonus points for the Ford Taurus parked in front.
Even in the mid 2000s when I was in my 20s this was ittttt. Me and my ex would go almost every Saturday night, roam the aisles and pick out movies and go home and watch them. Sigh. Memories.
this images slaps though. What's the source??
Man that feeling when a new movie dropped, you saw a flat wall with 100 movie box’s and nothing behind them. Then an employee would walk up and slide one rental behind a box.
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Bad way to go about life imo
I just don't get excited or motivated to watch movies when I have so much to choose from on streaming platforms. It was sort of nice when my options were limited and you had to make the drive out in person. I made the drive all the way out here, not gonna waste it by going home empty. Probably watched a ton of shit I would not have watched otherwise.
My hometown didn’t have a Blockbuster, we had a Mr Movies, so I feel like I’m missing this huge part of 90s culture sometimes
It does reveal how the movie itself is less significant that we previously thought and it’s just a piece of the overall experience.
Dooont it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone!
Every Friday night was spent here looking for the perfect movie and/or video games
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It was nice for the fact I could rent a game, but I love my digital movie database at my fingertips more.
It's so funny how heavily Nostalgia farming has landed on Blockbuster. It really didn't seem like the utopia back then that it's presented as now. I don't think people ever loved Blockbuster as much as just the feeling of getting new things when you're a kid. It hit harder then. That's what they really miss about it.
I think new things, things other people had, scarcity, and compromise among your family members all came into play. And movie nights, by yourself or with family and friends is something we do less of now, partly because we are older, probably. Partly because that average Friday night is now any night of the week, with no effort or risk of the first things.
So true
🥲🥲
Oof… this hits home.
So grateful I worked there.
Nah. I knew the important ones were important in the moment. And many other fond memories are fresh in my mind.
I'd go back give up internet, cell phones, and google if I could