Opinion

VIEWPOINT

EDITORIAL Cool and Retro

Recently, I have made it a point to explore Merritt one place at a time. I started this past weekend and I was really amazed at the shop I walked into.

The Merritt Movie Experts is a gem. I initially thought it would just be a shop that sells movies, much like the electronics section at Walmart. Surprisingly, it is an actual movie rental shop where you could get a variety of movies both old and new.

Located on Voght Street, right next to Spirit Square, I kept passing by this shop during my commute to work. What drew me to it was their movie posters of The Suicide Squad and Godzilla vs Kong, the latter being a favorite of mine.

I was in awe when I saw the inside of the shop, I thought these types of stores went extinct a long time ago. I mentioned this to lady at the counter and she replied, “If we had a dollar for everytime we heard that, we would already be rich.”

It felt so surreal, like a blast from the past. As a kid I used to love renting out movies every thursday at the shop we had back in the Philippines. When I moved to Canada, I loved renting out movies from the Red Box, unfortunately they were taken out in 2015.

I looked up at the wall and The Movie Experts had a list of their release schedule featuring the latest movies to come out on Blu-ray. Now compare this to the shelf on my left that was filled with VHS tapes! That’s right, apparently there is still a market for these artifacts.

Though I didn’t end up renting a movie, I consider my visit time well spent because I had the chance to talk movies with the attendant, I saw titles I didn’t know about, and I was able to see something my friends back in Calgary can’t anymore. IZAIAH REYES

HERALD EDITOR

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OPINION

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RED DRESS WALK IN LOWER NICOLA

Dozens of people met up on Tuesday, March 15 to walk and raise awareness for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) Izaiah Reyes/Herald

LETTERS to the editor Rockin’ River back on

Editor,

We are incredibly grateful and excited to be able to announce our new lineup for this summers festival. It feels amazing to get back to a place where some normalcy seems possible. This year’s lineup is by far our most diverse with Tim McGraw, Hardy, Billy Currington and Darius Rucker headlining each night. I am confident that we are going to have a wonderful show and I can’t wait to spend the long weekend with 10s of thousands of my fellow music lovers on the banks of the Coldwater river listening to some of the best music anywhere on the planet. See you all there!

Kenny Hess Founder, Rockin’ River Music Festival

The Rockin’ River was last held in 2019 with both 2020 and 2021 being cancelled. Photo/(Herald File Photo) From the Herald archives: March, 1995

GAS LEAK FORCES EVACUATION

The Merritt Fire Department evacuated 12 families living in the 2600 block of Granite Ave. after a strong smell of gas was detected from Tirecraft. The families were asked to wait for the fire department to locate the source of the leak which took an hour. After locating the source, the families were able to go home as according to the Fire Department Chief, Rich Finley, natural gas dissipates quickly.

LETTERS POLICY

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John Isaac

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