When I was a kid, I spent many of my summer vacations in video stores.
We're talking 20, 21, 22 years ago.
They were everywhere. This was the advent of VCRs.
Eye on Video.
Open Eye Video.
Rewind Video.
Play it Again Video.
There was no big-wig store.
No Blockbuster Video. No Rogers.
Our family seemed to me like the ONLY one in the world who didn't have a VCR or cable, which really sucked because I was a movie lover - and I didn't even really know it.
At that age - my parents mostly took me to see Disney movies, but they never really interested me much.
It was the "other" movies they'd take me to see - Splash with Darryl Hannah, Back to the Future with Michael J. Fox, Weird Science with Anthony Michael Hall.
They just did something to me - and that's the reason I spent my entire summer vacation one year browsing those little mom and pop video shops, reading the backs of all the videos and staring at the pictures - the 2 or 3 snap shot scenes from all those movies I couldn't watch.
I was indiscriminate. I read the backs of every single movie box in every single store.
10 with Bo Derek.
George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead.
Cocoon.
Wolfen.
F/X.
Animal House.
Quick Silver
Fright Night.
The Man with One Red Shoe.
Crossroads.
The Quest.
Irreconcilable Differences.
Johnny Dangerously.
Stand by Me.
Down and Out in Beverly Hills.
Labyrinth.
Goulies.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?
Mommie Dearest.
Tron.
One day - the guy who always sat behind the counter and never gave me any shit - and allowed me to puruse the store for hours on end asked me: "Hey...why don't you ever bring your parents in here, and rent some of these movies? You like movies so much but you never get any."
"I will," I lied. "I'll go get them and tell them and bring them back."
I never went back in the store again. I seriously honestly felt bad.
I know that sounds ridiculous, seeing as I was all of 8 years old - but I honestly felt horrible that I didn't have a VCR and COULDN'T rent movies.
Had we actually owned a VCR - I would have been his best customer, hands down.
"Fast Forward" about 10 years later.
I find myself working at a video store - behind the counter.
Easily - it was my favourite video store in the entire city, only because it appreciated the magic and wonder and imagination and SPIRIT of "MOVIES".
Jumbo Video.
A Canadian franchise and it was privately owned by an alcoholic who loved movies.
It was as big as 5 of those mom and pop shops combined - and the shelves were CRAMMED with movies - everything - from indie, to classic - to every single one of those boxes I read as a child, and then some.
The new release wall was surrounded by flashing cabaret lights.
The air itself smelled like popcorn - we would pop our own, in an old school machine and hand it out to the customers.
It was a smell I never, ever got sick of. It smelled like excitement.
It felt like "going to the movies" - even though it was only a video store.
Even though it was so much more than that.
We had a "horror room" - an entire room that you had to enter through swinging, saloon style doors.
It was dark, lit only by light bulbs that flickered, made to look like candles.
The light fixtures were shaped like candles, sticking out of the wall, clutched by clawed hands.
In the center of the room was a bigger than life sized statue of Freddy Krueger, lips snarled back to show black teeth, claw raised, about to strike.
And the biggest, greatest, most incredible selection of horror films ever, sprawled out and on display for the browsing.
The store was just massive - absolutely heads and tales above and beyond anything the corporate run big wig franchises could ever dream up today.
This was a store which was built by someone who had a deep passion for films, and it showed.
We were the king and queen of the indie video store scene in Windsor and I was so proud to work there.
We always had movies running - which we got to pick - but the boss encouraged us NOT to play the obvious choice - which is usually the current new release movie the studios want you to pimp out.
No - he encouraged us to pick our FAVOURITE movies.
So on any given night, when you walked into that store and were hit with the heavenly scent of freshly popped popcorn and melting butter - you might see playing up on the screen Adventures in Babysitting.
The Neverending Story.
Thelma and Louise.
Legend.
Elvira Mistress of the Dark.
Howard the Duck.
Breakfast Club.
And guess what? The movie - no matter how obscure, random or dusty that box was - it would rent.
We started circulating the unsung heros of movies, the forgotten films that usually fade away into sun-bleached oblivion.
My good friend (and sometimes girlfriend!!) Nicole also worked there - and some of my greatest memories ever are the ones I spent with her, when it was just the two of us working the counter, running the entire store.
Nicole is the only other person on the planet who shares my exact humour - and out of anyone I've ever met - has the greatest taste in movies - EVER.
The movies she finds hysterically funny are nothing I would ever even take a second glance at - but when I hear Nicole likes it - and recommends it - I watch it, and I watch it in a "Nicole way".
This is impossible to explain, except that - I guess I watch it with Nicole's sense of humour in mind - and without a doubt, I finish the movie dying laughing, crying I am laughing so hard - not only because it's a genuinely, deeply funny flick - but because I know how hard Nicole must have laughed at certain parts - and this makes me laugh even harder.
We spent our shifts playing movie trivia, taking turns picking movies to surprise each other - we'd do movie quotes and try to figure out which movie they were from.
I worked midnights there as well - alone - from 11pm to 7am and it was a lonely shift at times - but never dull.
Some nights would be buzzing with people at all hours of the night and early morning. Other nights - not a single soul would walk through the doors.
I listened to tons of music, but I watched millions of movies too - but I felt most comfortable, most "at home" doing exactly what I did when I was 8 years old:
Spending time, surrounded by VHS tapes, organizing the shelves and reading the backs of boxes over and over and over again.
In 1997 - in a bullheaded and bullying move which was both slimey and inconsiderate and greedy and every other possible negative motivation you can imagine - a Blockbuster video opened up directly next door to us.
And I mean - DIRECTLY next door - when you looked out the window - you saw a big blue and white Blockbuster sign.
It was nothing short of devastating to us.
They had mass walls with multiple copies of new releases.
They offered cheap rentals, whereas we had to charge a bit more since we were privately owned.
They didn't have half the selection, but the price was right, and many of our loyal customers hopped the fence and left us.
We had to make a few adjustments.
The owner bought an outdoor sign - and I was given the job of making up catchy slogans to spark people's interest to get them to come back.
"We've Got all the "Blockbusters" ...and THEN SOME" - was one of my first signs.
Another popular one was "Freebie Extravaganza!!" - my "less is more" approach to advertising and it worked!
The manager of Blockbuster was on the phone that day - asking us what it was, exactly, we meant when we said "Freebie Extravaganza".
All it meant was - come in and we will stamp your "freebie card" - after 10 stamps, you got a free rental.
But we didn't tell him that.
"Guess you have to rent something to find out, now won't you?"
A few people ended up coming back to us.
"They don't have half the selection over there...and no free popcorn!!"
In order to compete and attract more people, the owner sank more money to buy more new releases.
We also had to transform the horror movie room into a porno room.
Freddy got evicted and I was so sad to see him out of his element, locked in the storage room.
We got a bit of a surge from opening up a porno section, but it was only from people who were too ashamed to go to an actual adult video store.
At Jumbo, they could walk in and walk out.
No tell-tale black-bag.
No red faced.
No worrying about bumping into your mother in law leaving the porno shop.
Nope - porno shoppers were just leaving good ole Jumbo Video, family video store.
When the year 2000 came around, the store wasn't doing well.
Blockbuster had stolen so many customers who were seduced by flashy coupons, slick mail flyers, Coke and Pepsi and Pizza Pizza cross promotions - and cheaper prices.
Even if the selection sucked, the price didn't.
They had us beat - and we just could not afford to run the type of shop we did - one GEARED to lovers of movies - true lovers of movies - and charge the unheard of low prices big budget Blockbuster was able to do.
Our staff was whittled down to half of what it once was - and we started selling off those beloved movies that I adored so much - since childhood - for demeaningly low prices - it was our last chance, our last desperate grab to make money, to stay afloat.
I bought many of them myself, because I couldn't bear to see them go - I felt so attached to them.
I worked long hours - but I never cared. Midnights sometimes trickled over into morning shifts...and sometimes those leaked over into afternoon shifts.
I once worked a 28 hour shift, because no one wanted to come in.
But I didn't care, because I loved the space, the smell, I loved digging through the promo material and hanging up new movie posters.
I loved changing the new release and coming soon board.
And my favourite - the job no one else ever did - I loved dusting off the movies, those big clunky tapes - and reading the backs of the boxes.
In April of 2000 - the owner pulled me into the office and sat me down.
He told me he was going to close the store - that he had no other choice - and he could no longer afford the rent - and so help me God - even though all the signs were there - I never saw it coming.
I felt like my best friend punched me in the face.
I was unable to imagine life without Jumbo. I was content working there - forever and I maintain - if it were still around, there is a 99% chance I would still be there. I stand by this claim, I really honestly do.
And now - it was going to be gone.
It was closing.
Something I just never assumed would happen because Jumbo was such a huge part of my life.
I know it wasn't his fault, but I was so sad and furious.
But mostly sad.
I tried for about 2 seconds to hold it back - but I saw his eyes glint - just a tiny bit and I knew he knew that it felt like my heart was breaking.
I couldn't help it - I completely broke down and started sobbing, right there in his office.
I'm not sure if he was uncomfortable - he may very well have been - but I couldn't help it - I just sobbed, in disbelief.
I was in utter denial and disbelief that something like this was a long time in the coming.
See - there was a new "fad" that was really starting to take off called "DVDs".
We just started getting them - and for about 5 minutes - we had the biggest selection in all of Windsor.
I personally didn't think it would catch on.
"How could we ever replace a tape?!?!" I scoffed at the notion.
But - it happened.
And that spring, Blockbuster surpassed us - and switched almost entirely to DVD.
We at Jumbo, with our mighty and vast collection of VHS tapes, were left almost completely alone. And no matter HOW MUCH I dusted those boxes, they started to fade and slowly become null and void.
April 30th, 2000, the doors to Jumbo Video closed and locked - for the first time EVER. This was a 24 hour shop.
The doors NEVER closed.
But that day - they did.
I worked my ass off that week, boxing up movies to send to the store in Kitchener.
Taking down movie posters. Dealing with accounts. Selling off films. Final payroll.
I had to split Freddy Krueger in half, wrap him in news paper and box him up to be shipped. I remember looking at what I consider his "corpse" in those boxes and feeling the exact same way:
Ripped in half. I was beside myself.
I stayed busy enough all day that I didn't really think of it as the "final day".
It wasn't until the last box was packed, and the owner opened a bottle of wine, and me and him and Becky and Kim - the 4 of us who had been there the longest - filled our glasses and raised them to the best Video Store in the world...and that was when I lost it.
I took one last walk around, "the rounds" that I had made so many times my footprints were probably etched in the tile - but this time all the shelves were empty - and let me tell you - there is nothing sadder.
Nothing sadder than a movie store with empty shelves.
The popcorn machine was dark and cleaned out, de-greased.
The cabaret lights were off, for the first time ever - they weren't flickering and flashing.
It was just a building, with a tiny, left-over hint of old popcorn hanging in the air.
The era of VHS was over - and even I was a completely different person, which is probably why it hurt so much to let go of that place.
I held that job from the time I was 17 to 22.
It was my highschool job.
And my university job.
It saw me through crazy transitions - life changing transitions - and it was the one, safe constant element - and I'll never ever forget it, how it was in its prime -with its flashing lights, popping popcorn and endless rows of movie boxes, waiting to be picked up, looked at, read, discovered.
It's hard to believe it's been almost 7 years since the last Breeders record, but - I just double checked my calendar and yup, it's true.
