Ah, the days of VHS tapes and video stores. Many mums remember the weekly trip to the video shop. Maybe it was The Lion King on tape, maybe it was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on DVD, or Finding Nemo on Blu-Ray. Whatever the film, it was always a treat to go down to your local Blockbuster or Xtra-Vision with the kids, to get a new release or revisit a classic.
One family in the States isn’t quite ready to let go of the nostalgic value of video stores.
The Zuniga family, from Texas, made visiting their local Blockbuster store a part of their weekly routine. Their 20-year-old son, Hector Andres Zuniga, is autistic and non-verbal. Since he was 13, his parents Rosa and Hector Sr would take him to Blockbusters twice a week to pick out snacks and a film. His favourites are Barney, Rugrats and Blue’s Clues.
The staff had watched him grow up. Whenever his family passed the store in the family car, Hector - who is mostly non-verbal - would point and say, “Barney”.
In 2010, Blockbuster - once a major American outlet and integral part of the culture - declared bankruptcy. It went from having 9,000 stores worldwide at its peak, in 2004; to having 15 in the US, today.
A few months ago, a staff member pulled Rosa aside and broke the news: their local Sharyland outlet would be closing down soon. Rosa and Hector Sr. knew telling Hector wouldn’t be easy. Their twice-weekly trip to Blockbuster was a tradition and provided routine for Hector. It had provided him with one of the few words he did speak aloud.
“[Hector Andres] is a happy-go-lucky kid,” Hector Sr. told The Huffington Post. “He’s all heart, he’s very tender, but like anyone else, he has bad days. And we knew one of those bad days were around the corner when we found out that the Blockbuster was about to close.”
Rosa knew the staff would be selling their stock and came up with an ingenious idea: why not recreate the store in their own home? The Zunigas began buying various effects of the store like DVDs, signs and a rack with the iconic Blockbusters logo that employees set up for them.
Last Sunday, April 23, the Sharyland Blockbuster officially closed. The Zunigas took Hector to the store, which was mostly cleared out, to break the news.
When they returned home, the Zunigas got to work on the Blockbuster room. They led him into the room, which was stocked with his favourite films.
His parents said Hector was in ‘disbelief’. He walked around the room, touching the DVDs ‘as if to see if they were real’.
“His way of saying ‘I love you' is by going up to you and grabbing your earlobe,” Hector Sr. told HuffPost. “So he came up to me and grabbed my ear…it was one of those moments that us parents live for.”
Hector’s brother, Javier, posted pictures of the big reveal on Twitter, which have since gone viral.
The Zunigas' love for Hector is heartwarming to say the least, but Hector Sr. praised the former Blockbuster Video staff: "Those employees really came out to bat for my son. They really paid attention and did a hell of a job.”
