My Movie Collection

I've been collecting movies for most of my life. Movies are my obsession, so the natural extension of that passion is collecting them! I remember when it was almost impossible to buy a movie. You could rent them, sure, but to actually buy them? Only the really big hits actually came out on video (VHS) back then, if you actually wanted to own one of the lesser hits or even obscure films, it would cost a fortune!
I distinctly remember going into Suncoast (the entertainment store at the mall) and wanting to buy Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. They didn't have it for sale. I asked and they handed me a catalogue that I could order from. It was listed for $95 dollars. That's right, a VHS cassette costed ninety five dollars- in 1992 dollars (that's $205 in 2022 dollars)! As the years went on it was actually possible to buy movies on VHS for reasonable prices ($20), but it took a while. I would always ask for movies for birthdays and Christmas and eventually had almost 100 cassettes.
Then DVDs came out and the whole world of movie collecting changed! Now almost everything was available and a lot cheaper. I jumped in head first and bought movies as often as my finances allowed. By the time I was living in Indiana and teaching, I had several hundred DVDs. I was very proud of my collection and displayed them on my shelves in my living room. Eventually Diana showed up and the collection had to move into the spare room. By the time Ledger came around the whole collection had to go into storage- it was a small place after all, and they were taking up valuable space!
Reluctantly I packed them up into storage boxes. I was brave and held back my tears, but I insisted Diana make me a promise: some day, when we have a big house of our own, I get to take them out of storage and display them proudly! She agreed and off they went into the shed. We have since moved several times and each time I dutifully lug along all my storage boxes, hopeful that our next move will allow me to open the boxes again. Finally we bought a house here in Allegan and wouldn't you know it, there's a huge unfinished basement, ready to be filled. We got a new TV for the living room, so that meant I could put the old 55 inch TV in the basement- and my movie dreams started to come true! Once I set up the TV I also set up a DVD player. That means I'm going to need DVDs... What luck, I have hundreds! I tore those old storage boxes open and was in heaven as I emptied each case onto the shelves and slowly recreated my collection to its former glory. Since then I've been able to pick up some old used DVD shelves and surrounded myself with my whole collection! Once or twice a week I head down there to watch a movie or two. My own little movie heaven! At this point its a pretty sloppy shaggy mess, but I'll keep working on it, and loving every minute of it!
(more pics)