Mourning Blockbuster in Maine

 While driving the roads of Maine in search of thrift stores (garage sale season is over and I'd rather not talk about it right now, the wound is too fresh) we would often see barns and houses left to die of neglect. Slowly as if crumpled by an invisible giant hand they would start to sag in the middle as they slowly collapsed. At one time they were useful,  pride was taken in their ownership,repairs were made, and then suddenly they were left to a slow and unsightly public demise.

Finding thrift stores in Maine is a time consuming business, very often they will not be listed in the search results. Many of the stores are run by a staff of elderly volunteers that either are not very computer literate or simply do not have time for such nonsense. Gradually, bit by bit, Lisa and I assembled our list of stores from newspapers, Facebook posts and from the information given to us by neighbors. We guard the list the way some old time sea captains would guard their charts. For us even daring to peek at the list is a flogging offense, unless you like being flogged, in which case stronger measures might have to be considered; but it won't be pretty.

Some stores are weighted more towards clothing, others furniture, yet others are a pleasant mix of everything. What do all these stores have in common? They all have VHS tapes in stock. If you come into a thrift store in Maine that does not have any VHS tapes in stock you must have wandered into a consignment shop, I won't hold it against you but we cannot be seen in public  together anymore, you understand; don't you?

VHS tapes (Video Home System) were one of the first popular ways of actually owning a film in the United States along with laser disks that are often mistaken for LPs. They lasted from the 1980s until about 2010 give or take a year or so. At first they were not really aimed at the home consumer. I remember paying about seventy dollars for a copy of the Blues Brothers back in 1984. I had to pay on the installment plan but  by skipping lunch a few times it was  eventually mine.

Lately there has been a lot of nostalgia for both the VHS tape and the Blockbusters chain of video stores; but is it warranted? Are we viewing the VHS tape through some sort of halo of golden nostalgia?

Let us look back to the VHS, it was out during a time when we were all younger; automatically that gives it a boost in the positive column. You would go to the video store and look for the titles you wanted and bring the boxes up to the front where the counter person would then, after looking at your membership card (you forgot more often than not you would have to pay for a membership),  they would go and bring back your movie in a plastic box after warning you to have it back by such and such date. The best of stores had a return slot so even after the store was closed you could bring back the tapes.

At some of the better stores the transaction was non-judgemental, pick a movie, rent a movie, go. However, there were some stores where they would actually look down their noses at you as if they had better taste in films than you did. Some stores had a back section full of erotica (or porn if you'd rather put it that way). One of the stores in Brooklyn had such a huge devoted section that you had to go through swinging doors to enter  the area like an old western saloon. 

The biggest problem with the store was  not its huge selection of ertocia but rather the smell of mold and mildew from the brown-green carpet in the back of the store. Clearly at one time the store had had a water condition and the carpet was never cleaned afterwards. The other problem was the attitude of certain of the women working the store counter. Some were very judgemental on those renting porn. I was waiting behind one guy who did have the best line ever though. The woman behind the counter said, "You rent that film and awful lot,"as she went to get his tape.  The guy waited a second and said,"Yeah, there is a girl in that film that looks a lot like you."  After that little exchange the woman rarely said anything to anyone beyond when to bring the movies back and to thank you as you left. I can live with that, if the owner carries porn films they are there to make money and nobody should be embarrassed to rent them and nor should someone working at the store make any comments about the rental.

Okay, so you go home to watch your movie. Did you forget about having to adjust the tracking so you did not get those little lines across your primitive television screen, the one with an actual picture tube? You earthlings disgust me.  What about rewinding the tape to be kind? Remember they had separate machines to rewind the VHS tape to spare your VCR any wear and tear?  They were that gift you gave people when you had no imagination. By the way did you use video head cleaner? Some people actually had dust covers for their VCRs (good earthlings).

I will admit that there is  a lot of stuff available on VHS that is not available even today on DVD or streaming. However, a lot of it was trash. Now I know that no matter how crappy some film is, there is always the chance that someone out there  utterly loves it. That said, again there was a good deal of trash  out there including cheap knockoffs of popular titles, with deceptive box cover artwork to lead you to think you were renting/buying a more popular film; sequels to films that were fated to go straight to video with few if any of the original film's stars appearing; and lastly there were cheap original films shot in someone's garage. Obviously there is so much stuff out there that the odds are that some of it might have been good. Also you might have the best meal of your life from a vending machine.

As for the nostalgia associated with Blockbusters video, need I remind you that they virtually killed off all of the local independent video stores. "Make it a Blockbuster night." Yes I have done that myself. It was kind of comforting to walk into a video store and see about eighty copies of the newest release on its walls.

However, in Brooklyn, New York on Avenue U  there is one store from a small chain of video stores called "Captain Video," and yes I can hear Ed Norton calling his name.  The store is there empty and unrented for over twenty years. On its sign, besides videos you could have bought pagers from them. I wonder if anyone is nostalgic for pagers?

 I miss video  rental stores, even Blockbusters, which gets into why there is so much VHS nostalgia. Though I have to admit in Maine I am reasonably sure that a lot of people still have VCRs and like picking up their movies cheap, to which I counter, "Have you ever had to rewind a DVD?"

Getting back to Maine again. Sometimes along the roads we'd see old video stores that have long since closed. Their signs still up but faded and weatherbeaten.  Usually the color red fades the most, like an old tattoo. Lisa and I would talk about when the VHS format was hot and people would gather in the store every Friday to rent out a movie or two (but never three, you are not going to make it through them and might as well toss your money out of a moving car window).

People would see each other, families would talk and make plans. Friends would look and recommend films to see. Teens looked for the latest horror film while some adults actually wanted to take a change on an independent film or a foreign movie to expand their horizons.  As you walked the store you might discover a movie you'd come to love or to hate with a passion, or a person that you'd come to love or hate with a passion. When you came to the store you were on a mission. You had devoted considerable time to driving out to pick up a movie and to later bring back that same film and maybe get another. That sense of  community is now gone. 

How do you currently get a film? Redbox is about as personal and friendly as an ATM. If someone leaned over my shoulder to recommend a film I might elbow them thinking they were trying to steal my credit card number.

Buy a DVD on line? Lonesome Town. Stream a video, the same ticket to Lonesome Town, but at least you are on the express train. There was just something about popping that VHS tape into the machine and waiting to hear that almost warm sound of it clicking into place that is missing today. 

The VHS tape feels substantial, when you used to get a box set it took up a great deal of space.  The DVD is more relatable to the CD in form. The box art is smaller, the back harder to read. VHS tapes on a shelf have a similar form function to books (or at least large paperbacks). It is this nostalgia that bought records back from the grave. However, I do not think you can bring back the video tape, especially since the last factory that made them stopped doing so in 2016.

But I ponder if you could bring back the video store. After all it is that same desire to socialize that has kept movie theaters (minus covid of course) alive. Perhaps it is better for me to say I mourn the video store but not the VHS tape.