As much as I love staying at home lying on the couch with a bag of crispy, jalapeno kettle cooked chips as I pick a movie from the wide selections on Netflix, I also did enjoy the days of going to Blockbuster as a child, physically picking up a cartoon movie and buying candies which do nothing more than rot teeth.

Now people are lazier, sitting at home picking movies without doing any physical work other than finger clicking. The worst part of losing Blockbuster was when no one had enough courtesy to replace it with another newer and even better movie store. Of all things, a wine shop took the glory. Redbox bins popped up around grocery stores and pharmacies, and the sad part is they only stock about 20 movies. Every time I go to Cleveland, I have to go to the Family Video movie store where it’s a dollar for every movie. If you’re lucky, you’ll come across a “rent one get one free,” and it makes both you and your wallet very happy. It always brings me back to the good days.

I think the reason Blockbuster fell apart was because of new stores like Hastings. Canyon had a Hastings, Amarillo has three Hastings and Redboxes are everywhere. Hastings, to me, is the best thing on the planet. It filled roles Blockbuster did not with more diversity in music, movies, games, books, coffee and fun little knick knacks which I believe won the favor of many.

While I’m either searching through the head spinning, infinite possibilities of Netflix or searching for a DVD on the disappointingly few choices of Redbox, my mind always wanders back to the old store I knew from my childhood, a store with everything I needed, Blockbuster.