Oh, VHS, We Hardly Knew Ye
Cats: Current Events, Internet, Tech, TV|As I continue the lament (started by Engadget) of the the VCR, as least in stand-alone form, I am reminded of the very first one we got when I was a kid. It was the early, early 80s when we got our first VHS cassette player/recorder, and I think it was a second-hand unit from a friend of the family. It had an analog counter, a pop-up cassette tray, and all mechanical push-buttons. We lived in a small town, but I can say with some certainty that there wasn’t yet a video rental place to be found anywhere. The studios hadn’t really started releasing pre-recorded cassettes yet. But we had HBO and The Movie Channel on our 20-channel, push-button cable box (I remember TMC was channel 2), and we started recording movies and shows for later reviewing. As I recall, that first VCR didn’t last very long, as the pop-up cassette tray refuse to pop up anymore. Our second VCR was a light-year ahead, with a front-slot opening and an lcd display (nothing on-screen yet, I don’t think).
So many of my childhood movies were viewed on VHS. Playing them over and over and over helped me and my brother bond with each other, and there are many film quotes that only have special meaning to us and those like us. But now it’s the end of an era, and I can mark my generation by the fact that my baptism was not recorded on video, but my brother’s was. Conversely, my wedding tape is on VHS, but my brother’s is on DVD.
So let’s open up the floor: What memories (fond or otherwise) do you have of VHS?
October 31st, 2008 at 11:40 am
How do you remember our first VHS? I barely recall how the DVD players in our (current) various rooms function, let alone what they look like! What a memory!! :)
I will take this dance down memory road further to the tv days when shows were not available 24-7, let alone able to record the shows. Often my siblings and I based our seasonal plans on which weekend the THE WIZARD OF OZ would be on each spring. If we were traveling to Kansas (from MO) that weekend, we knew we would not get to watch that infamous movie that year!!