On The Final Death Of Blockbuster

This week Blockbuster video shuttered its last remaining stores bringing the era of the video store to its final end. I didn't even know they still had any open but apparently there were still a few lone wolf stores squatting alone in the wilderness of America's strip malls. It's been coming for a long time as thousands of video stores have closed thanks to the rise of people buying/stealing their movies online. Still, it is a little bittersweet for someone like me who remembers the heyday of the video store. I remember when my grandfather bought an early top loading VHS in 1982 and the only place to rent videos in Houston was at a mall in the ghetto. Later, the video store became an almost daily refuge for my friends and I. We would peruse the aisles looking for horrible movies to watch. Perhaps an old Chuck Norris movie or a film about a killer severed hand would strike our fancy. The kids today won't ever have that same experience. It was like panning for gold. Now you just look at the suggestions some Netflix algorithm picked for you and choose your movies that way. T'ain't the same, y'all...t'aint the same.