My parents joined the cultural elite in 1983, purchasing our first VCR. Soon we would have a mountain of video tapes, from recording movies, local news, television shows, and school performances.
Somehow at the ripe old age of 12 I became the operator, recorder and curator of everything revolving the Video Cassette Recorder, and its necessary tapes. If memory serves me correctly, we would sometimes not only rent a videotape from the Movie Store, but a VCR as well, allowing us to record movies at home. As a result we amassed a library that included (among others), Blade Runner, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Doctor Zhivago, and Fandago.
But the most watched would be the John Hughes triumvirate of Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, and Breakfast Club. I recorded all three on a tape (on “extended play”) and would watch them over and over, when I would come home from school. The jokes, the one liners, the comebacks – they would eventually be absorbed into my teenage personality.
We (I) continued to commit these motion pictures and local memories to magnetic tape for many years, into the 1990’s for sure. Eventually I would end up with the lion’s share of them, and they would remain with me …until now.
I finally got a chance to look at the lot. I was able to part with the majority, as so much of it is available in better quality, should we choose to watch it. (In fact I rented Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome on YouTube to show the kids.) But other stuff I will need to digitize, likely through a service via Costco.
This mountain of videotapes brought a lot of joy. But it’s time to get rid of it.
