In our never ending quest to provide all of our readers with relatable, ‘slice of life’ style content, we here at the SoBros Network feel the time to weigh in on social commentary has officially come. It’s once again time for me, Big Natural, to open up the leather-bound parchment pages of the annals of history. Put on your plush robe, light your pipe, start a fire, and get ready for deep contemplation. This is the as-often-as-I-remember-to-write-it column: Forgotten Treasures of Americana. Today, we are going to be looking back at a beacon of my childhood growing up here in Tennessee, Mount Juliet Video and Comics.
So, I know we can’t really call this ‘Americana’ when I’m going to be kicking off the new year writing about something that is indeed hyper local. But, for those of you who grew up in Mount Juliet, Tennessee in the 1990s, as I did, I wanted to pay tribute to what was a beacon of excitement in our childhood. Mount Juliet Video and Comics used to be set up in the shopping center that’s now called The Valley Center Mall. I don’t remember that strip being called this, but that’s what Google is telling me, and since my memory is failing me on this one, I’m just going to have to go with it. It’s the shopping center where Planet Fitness, Bargain Hunt, Calabria, and Memo’s Mexican Kitchen, among others, call home. Mount Juliet Video and Comics was essentially a video store – not unlike the Blockbusters and Hollywood Videos of the era. The difference, of course, was that Mount Juliet Video and Comics was a little more down home and mom-and-pop feeling.
It makes me sad to see that there’s virtually nothing about this place on the internet. No old photos. No old columns. I couldn’t find much of anything on it, and that’s part of why I wanted to write this piece. It’s a place that I hold dearly among my childhood memories, and I’m hoping maybe some other 30-somethings from the area will find this and be like “hell yeah – that place ruled.” Times were different back then, sure. Mount Juliet was a hell of a lot smaller. It wasn’t the shopping mecca that it is today. I can remember Mount Juliet Road being a two-lane road, and the only dining options we had were Cracker Barrel, Arby’s, and Captain D’s. It felt like massive progress when the McDonald’s/BP opened, and of course, when we got a Waffle House. Providence was nothing more than a rolling hillside, and if you needed to do some heavy-duty shopping, you had to commute to Hickory Hollow or Rivergate. At least, that’s what we did when I was a kid when we needed something beyond what the Hermitage or Lebanon Wal-Marts could provide us.
Point is…people didn’t have the myriad of options that they do today in Mount Juliet. I can remember the old H.G. Hill grocery store in that shopping center that was turned into a Piggly Wiggly and then BACK to H.G. Hill (I think? Someone correct me if I’m wrong on that – again….not a whole lot of Mount Juliet, TN retail history on the internet and I’m going strictly off memory…). I remember my folks telling me that it was really the only place you could go shopping in town when they moved out here in the late 80s. So, you can imagine how Mount Juliet Video and Comics could pretty easily become the preeminent source of family entertainment back in those days.
I have fond, fond memories of weekends spent perusing the movies there. Whatever my parents would rent, I’d have to get a VHS copy of some WrestleMania from the early 90s. I rented WrestleMania VHS after WrestleMania VHS, rinsed and repeated, probably the same 10 tapes, over and over. If I had some extra allowance left over – if anything survived from Friday night’s trip out to Sir Pizza and Toys R’ Us in Hickory Hollow – I would comb through their selection of action figures and collectibles. It really was like the meme – you could go next door and grab a pizza from Little Caesar’s, scoop up some tapes, and go home for the quintessential 1990s Friday night. Life was simple. Life was good.
I know kids in town today have Target, Wal-Mart, and Books-A-Million, and I would’ve been absolutely stoked to have had the same when I was a kid. But, there’s something to be said for the charm and the experience that comes with a small mom-and-pop specialty store that kids today don’t have easy access to. The big retail conglomerates plop their five-acre stores in town, and stuff like that becomes harder and harder to find. That’s why I’m glad that our friends at Danger Zone Video decided to open up shop in Mount Juliet. Between VHS, books, collectibles, and all kinds of nostalgia from a bygone era, Danger Zone Video is filling the void left by the closing of Mount Juliet Video and Comics, and serving as the niche physical media store the community needs.
Nonetheless, if you remember the glory days of Mount Juliet Video and Comics, hit me up with your favorite story about the place in the comments.
Check out the Forgotten Treasures of Americana archives right here on SoBros Network – past posts include topics such as playing outside, quicksand, the citizen’s arrest, the midnight snack, those hammocks in Centennial Park here in Nashville, Casey Kasem, Slamball, and of course, that one rumor that Marilyn Manson removed a rib so he could suck his own dick.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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