Aimeé
Everyone dealt with quarantine over the last year differently and I think we all went a little mad in our own way. Even the people who kept living like nothing had changed were acting out, in my opinion. That’s a sad and scary way to deal with a pandemic.
A not sad and scary way to deal is by diving deep into whimsical nostalgia and homebuilding, just like the husband of TikToker @thevideobunker, who is delighting everyone with his inventive use of power tools and memorabilia.
The first viral TikTok posted on their account reveals that the narrator’s husband has turned their basement into a video rental store.
“During quarantine, my husband built a video rental store in our basement,” she says, leading up to the door with its neon “OPEN” sign aglow.
She says he was trying to recreate the energy of a Blockbuster from the nineties and got a lot of material from a local rental spot that closed during the pandemic and gave away its shelves.
“The start of quarantine last year coincided with the closure of our local Family Video, which gave my husband access to a lot of shelving and a crazy idea,” she says. “He decided he needed a project at the house to keep himself busy….instead of refinishing our kitchen cabinets, he decided to build a video rental store.”
The store is full of wonders, including a E.T. statue:
A mini-fridge with sodas and a counter full of movie snacks:
And an adjoining room to sit back and relax and enjoy VHS tapes and the LaserDisc player, plus a bunch of older video games:
But it really can’t be captured in just pictures:
There’s only one follow-up video so far, though I could probably watch 50 of these TikToks examining every corner of this trove of wonders. In it, the husband answers a commenter’s question about whether or not there’s an “Adults Only” section.
A man I’m assuming is her husband is behind the counter and he points to the high shelf behind him, then brings down a video.
“It’s up here, behind the counter, so you’ll have to blush when you ask for titles like The Night Crawler,” he answers, flashing the very racy VHS cover.
Talk about bringing back memories….
