Mom And Pop Stores

How many of you remember going to Mom and Pop rental stores? These were the stores in your neighborhood that started it all before Blockbuster and Family Video, hell even before Hollywood Video.

We had two here, Harley Video and Pic-A-Flick Video.

I can remember the smell, it was the wood from the shelves, and plastic from the movies and cases. It was a wonderland to me, with all the posters and stand-ups, you could walk up and down the isles forever. My brother and I would always be in the horror and action section. So many great covers to choose from! Don’t forget about the room in the back with the XXX titles, don’t think we didn’t try to sneak in there.

The cases would be out on the shelves for you to look at, and you would take them to the counter and they would hand you the tape in a hard plastic case. Around here it was either blue or clear, then later it was the cut boxes.

Man, every Friday night was an adventure, pick as many movies as we could and try to watch them over and over through the weekend.

Later on, I would go with my friends and rent movies from Blockbuster, my wife and I rented, even my kids got to go rent movies. You have to remember, it was something special to go out and pick a movie and bring it home. Don’t get me wrong, we stream some stuff, but we also have a rental store in our backyard that we pick movies from all the time.

So, here,s some pictures to blast you back to walking around your local video store! Please comment and tell me about your rental experience!

Don’t forget to pick up a pizza and some snacks!