Our mission at SAW is to foster conversations about this thing we all love (or love to hate): film/TV. Many of our features are designed with you in mind. Your opinions, to be more to the point. You have ’em. We want to hear ’em.
Question of the Day (QOTD) is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a film/TV-related question that we put to you, the reader. The comments section below is like the feedback box at work; except, in this example, we actually read what you write and care about what you have to say.
I think anyone who has ever had the joy of stepping into a video store misses them. I know Dhalgren misses them because he wrote a whole piece on the closure of Vulcan Video. We’ve also asked you all if video stores should be saved for posterity.
Video stores were the internet before the internet. It allowed movie lovers of all ages to discuss and debate their favorite movies and theorize about any little or big thing. Everyone has memories about heading to their local video store, but do you remember the first time you stepped in one? That’s the question I ask today.
I want to know… what the first video you (or your parents) rented from a video store?
I know I had gone to my local Blockbuster before this moment, but the first video I can remember renting that I was super excited about was Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I’m not sure why I wanted to see it so badly, but obviously the trailers did a great job selling the stop-motion picture.
Holy shit, hold up! I was just hit with a different memory. I forgot my small town used to have a hardware story/bakery that also rented out VHS tapes. It was Recess: School’s Out and/or The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. Those were probably the first two films I had a hand in picking out at the video store. Man, those were simpler times.
So what about you, folks? Do you remember what the first video you rented from a video store was?
I’ll see you in the trenches.
