When choices were limited

Paralyzed by the myriad of film choices in Netflix, I sometimes long for the early days of the nineties when video rental shops were popular. In Marbel, we rented VHS and Betamax tapes at the Notre Dame Complex, along Alunan Avenue. The store owner kept an index card for each customer. Listed were the movies rented out by each family. In those days, nobody seemed to watch films alone; it was a household affair that involved discussion and consensus.

Popular films—action movies, Disney animations, and Tom and Jerry episodes—could be leased for at most three days and must be returned immediately, or there would be a fee. Less popular films, like The Bridges of Madison County, could be rented out for a week.

My father would bring me, or any of my two brothers, with him to pick up the tapes. With instructions from my mother, who was partial to Harrison Ford, cowboy action, and historical drama, and generally averse to science fiction, we would visit the store, greet the owner (my father insisted on public courtesy), and proceed to the cartoons section. The tapes must have been illegally reproduced because they were covered in white cardboards labeled in the shopkeeper’s handwriting instead of the glossy, colored printed packaging of the originals.

When we got home home, we would have a say on what film to play first. The Betamax tape would undergo the prefatory process of rewinding—sometimes manually, but often by an electric machine given by aunts from Banga. This we did to ensure that the film started at the beginning. The shopkeeper often forgot to rewind the tapes before lending them. The film would then play in our Panasonic colored television connected to the Betamax player. Transfixed and transported to the dimension of imagination, we would all rest, content with the single movie of the week. If we behaved well enough, we could be treated to a Tom and Jerry film in the morning.