the end of an era

i find it a little sad that movie stores will be a strange and distant memory to my kids.

my childhood memories are so tied up in movie stores.

renting movies as a family, with a group of friends for a sleepover, without plans on a friday night wandering into video update in pajamas with your sisters...

you had your favorites or the new movie you were dying to see, always with the possibility of it already being rented by someone else.  

your mom might say yes to the box of milk duds you requested and you live ever-so-dangerously, biting into the first one to discover if it is fresh and chewy or an old box from 1974 that is sure to pull out a filling (of course, you eat the whole box anyway...).  

or your little sister runs into the store ahead of your little brother to remove the actual vhs from behind the box of three amigos to claim, "bummer.  it must be checked out."

our grandkids will certainly listen to our explanation of how we used to "rent" movies with slack-jaws and heads shaking in disbelief.  all that work, just to watch a movie?

with the instant gratification of netflix and the like already such a part of our lives, even thinking about movie stores today seems a bit archaic.  

 

and the drop box? 

 that will certainly give our grandkids a good giggle...