A Long Drive To Memory Lane

It’s 2022. We have a shit economy, possible world conflict, and complete division in the United States.

What do I want to do?

Rent a movie.

Yesterday. Saturday 2/26/2022

We (my wife, kids and I) drove down to Chatham, NY a town in the Hudson Valley. There is a place called Video Visions. If you look it up on Google it says that this place is a “DVD Store” this is not true. It’s a Time Capsule. Normally a drive from Rochester is 4 hours. On this day we went through ADK but that is a story for another time.

Once you get there, it is almost surreal. While you walk up to the shop you can see the sign hanging over the sidewalk

Before you hit the door you see the 24 hour drop box. When you open the door that is when the rush of nostalgia hits you walked into a brick wall, walking through the homemade racks of VHS tapes, DVDs, even a few video games. It is literally Saturday night and I am standing in store about to rent a video for the family.

Once I picked up a VHS tape, memories came flooding back. Friday night renting a movie then waking up to Saturday morning cartoons while eating your favorite cereal. So basically, young again.

When you get to the counter, where you will meet Steve Campbell. a man who will answer any question you have. He told stories about big competition who he wanted to buy him out and a year later that said competition went bankrupt.

I wont tell you much about the man, there is a small documentary on Youtube.

Oh, and let’s not forget about the forbidden room, you know what I’m talking about.

While cashing out my oldest picked out a candy, and we bought a few VHS tapes (Grease 20th Edition and Half Baked) and rented one DVD the being Stephen King’s Silver Bullet. Steve filled out paperwork to make me a member of his store. He did the “let me hand you them this way”, you know so the alarm wouldn’t go off. I thanked him for the experience, allowing me to relive my childhood while sharing it with my wife and children as a grown man.

After we walked out the door, we loaded up and quite literally drove off into the sunset.