Adventureland

Back when I was a child in the 80′s, we had two video stores in Emmett, Idaho. One was Adventureland and the other…I cannot remember the name of the place. I remember Adventureland because that was the main place everyone went to for movies. Every birthday, my mom brought me to Adventureland. We would get a couple of movies. Then the store gave me a bag full of candy and other goodies. I remember getting movies like Benji the Hunted, Mermaids, and Edward Scissorhands. We would stay up all night watching movies. Adventureland has since closed. The video store I cannot remember the name of stayed open for a few more years. The location where Adventureland once was became several different video stores. Then the one I cannot remember closed and it was down to one video store. Watching video stores come and go in Emmett is like watching two people of the same strength arm wrestle. The one where Adventurland was will re-open. Then a competitor will open across the street. There was one that was a big name at some point that opened. Both video stores will not receive very much business and they both end up closing. They open and close and the whole thing starts all over again. I don’t know if there is someone there that is offended with video stores and keeps opening their own store just to shut it down or if someone is too stupid to think that video stores can have a competitor in Emmett. I do not enjoy seeing video stores close. I always liked going into a store to browse at movies. I am not too fond of browsing online because it does not have that same magic and my Internet connection is too poor to download and play movies. It’s not the same! I will rent from Red Box, but it will not have as many movies as Blockbuster did when they were bricks and mortar. Netflicks is convenient, but they do not have as much variety as Hastings or the local library. We are so wrapped up with using the Internet that we forget to go into the world and see what else everyone has to offer. Until we no longer have a place to go to, I will continue to go to video stores to rent movies. I will miss getting free movies on my birthday.