bye bye blockbuster

Blockbuster video filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy this past week. Truly, I feel more like a chapter of my youth has closed.


When my family first moved to the area, there was nothing. And I mean nothing. In fact, the strip where Target / Applebees / Giant now is did not even exist. It was just forest.

When they started building that strip, it was VERY exciting. There was a westcoast video store AND a 10 room movie theatre and a Clemens, making it the closest food store to my family, despite it being a 15 minute drive. Before then, the only theatre within driving distance was in Exton. It had 2 screens and showed Rocky Horror at midnight. Too seedy for kids and families.

Anyway, the strip was built and I actually spent a lot of my youth in that area. Whether going with my family to pick up a movie at West Coast, working at Clemens, or seeing a movie at the Regal, I was there quite often.

I remember a *very* special privilage given to my girlfriends and I on the last day of 9th grade. We were allowed to walk from the junior high over to the Regal to watch a movie and our parents would pick us up there afterwards. I recall talking with my friends over how excited we were to do this on our own and cross a very busy street to do so. Being 15 in 1995 was much different than being 15 in 2010.

I remember getting a job as a bagger at Clemens. I worked two or three times a week for 4 hour shifts. I never aspired to check out person and was quite satisfied with my brainless $5.75/hr position making sure people's eggs were not smooshed. A lot of my friends worked there and so it was fun. I always looked forward to having to do "putbacks"... did you know that when you decide you do not want something at the check out counter, it all goes into a cart, and some poor high school student has to walk around with it and put everything back where it came from? It is true. And it was the best job, actually, because you could wander the store aimlessly for hours and people expected you to be sort of gone for good when you did the putbacks.

I remember some time in college when Sarge was visiting from Westminny. He and Jon and I went to West Coast to rent a movie for the night. When you walked into West Coast, they had a turnstyle. I walked through first and spun it a bit quickly before Sarge could walk though. Well.... it hit his milkshake, which proceeded to splatter all over the floor. Oops. The 16 yr old at the counter could care less though.

Maybe that was the whole charm of the strip... each store was run by an army of apathetic high schoolers who were there to get money to put gas in their car and hang out with friends. Naturally, it was a fun place for kids to be.

During my late high school years, a new theatre opened about 10 minutes down the road. It was bigger, nicer, and catered more to where the population was actually located. *MY* theatre was closed within a year or 2. A few years after that, it was razed to the ground. During that time, a Blockbuster opened 10 minutes down the road from West Coast.... and then another opened literally within 5 minutes of my parents. West Coast bit the dust as Magic Video (it's predecessor) did when WC came to town. Clemens went down the tubes as Giant moved into the area. Competative pricing put forth by a huge chain beat the family run local store into the ground. Eventually, Clemens became a Giant. Just recently, a Target was put in (why you need 2 Targets within 5 miles is beyond me) and an Applebees, which is surely a sign of the apocalypse.

In my own small town, a beautiful old saloon was knocked down and turned into a Rite Aid. What was once the only grocery store within 20 miles is now in it's deaththroes as Walmart provides fresher meats and produce due to higher turn around time. In nearby Phoenixville, the classic Val Rio diner was tossed out for a Walgreens.

But my point was not to lament the breakdown of society (though I guess I can do that too), it was more to point out how stinking fast everything is changing. Blockbuster became big in our area when I was in high school... I graduated in 1999. So, what? 10 to 15 years is all the life a media form can have now? Granted, Netflix and DVRs and the internet are awesome... but it was nice to go to the store with your family and argue over what movie to get that night. It was nice to go to the supermarket that you grew up going to, that you worked at, where you knew where everything was located. Oh, and it was certainly nice not to pay $12 or $15 or, in the case of IMAX, $17 bucks to go to a movie.

But Blockbuster is the last in the line of "stuff I did to entertain myself as a teen" to fall. Maybe it just signifies my true adulthood. Because, you know, marrying and buying a house don't. And to be totally honest, this makes me feel more adult-like than any of that stuff. Since we plan to have kids in this area, I can imagine them asking us what we did for funwhen we were kids and us saying well... none of it is here anymore.





Lately I have been feeling a bit dragged down by work. It has been an incredibly stressful year, and, as it tends to do, it has shown that to me bodily. I am tired. I have already been sick, when I have not been sick for probably over a year. My ibs has been flaring up. It just makes me blah. I keep thinking of how much I LOVE October, and how out of the 5 weekends October has this year, I am working 3 of them, including Halloween, which is one of my favorite holidays. On Friday, after we went out to dinner with my family, we got home around 10:30 and I flopped into bed exhausted. It is absolutely true that the youth do not appreciate their youth!

I remember staying up with Jon until 3 or 4 or 5 am... slipping out of his house quietly and trying to slip back into mine without waking my parents. I remember sleeping in til 11. I remember feeling at 10 pm like my night was just starting. I remember late nights at friends' houses playing games and being silly and watching movies. Who does that, now that they are in their late 20's? Why don't we? Why are we so tired now? What happened to sleepovers? What happened to making out with your boyfriend into the wee hours? What happened to feeling like life was yours and the ability to live in that very moment and not worry about the future? Does that just get outdated like Blockbuster?

Jon and I took a moment this afternoon before I left for work to cuddle up. I asked him if we would still be able to have those moments when we had a family. He said we would give them nyquil and put them down for a nap. He was joking. But it still puts forth something worth thinking about.... enjoying your time for the blessings it has.

So I guess this post is coming to this: things change. It happens. We cannot stop it. Mom and pop stores will close in lieu of megachains. Buildings that were town staples for decades will be razed to make way for a new drug store. "Convenience" will become more and more and more convenient until you do not have to leave your house (thanks netflix!). Ultimately, we have to appreciate now for what it is and use it to make good memories for the future. We have to do with what we have. Despite the sadness of old fixtures dying, new stuff crops up and I think you can only cling to the past for so long.

Still, I will have fond memories of my childhood convienences which were surely someone else's bain. I am positive that the people who lived near that strip where aghast at the new development. And so while I am disappointed with today's developments, some child is getting really excited about a new place to hang out, a new place to make fun memories.

I am not very sure on how to end this post but to go in an entirely different but related direction and emphasize the importance of making memories in places that are beyond commercialism. Go camping. Go hiking. Go kayaking. Ride your bike. Play frisbee. Do these things with friends. Get outside where there are trees and grass and bugs and birds, and do it before those places, the truly beautiful ones, are also turned into Walmarts and Targets.