Remembering The Days When We Bought Our First VCR
Though my parents had VCRs in the late ’70’s and early ’80s before this Boomer struck out on his own, it wasn’t until around 1986 that my wife and I purchased our first VCR. I recalled we paid around $250 back then for the privilege of watching movies at home. In today’s money, that was about $700…so it was not an insignificant purchase, which is probably why I remember it so well.
It was also a very fond time in our lives. We had just gotten married, had our first apartment together, and a new baby. Watching movies at home on that first VCR gave us the opportunity to have a movie night, while still able to stay at home with our newborn.
A Status Symbol of the 1980’s
With that kind of expense, your first VCR was a bit of a status symbol in the 1980’s. Perhaps much like a family’s first television was in the 1950’s (what Baby Boomer isn’t thinking about Back to the Future right now?), a family’s first VCR had similar cachet. Maybe your apartment wasn’t fancy and your car was a base model, it didn’t matter…you had a VCR!
At this time, Blockbuster was just getting started, and VCR rentals were very often small shops or even other businesses that rented movies on the side. Selections weren’t vast, but there were enough movies to keep everyone happy. This also began the era of cult classic movies. Limited selections meant you watched what was available, and good movies that were poorly promoted or didn’t do well at the theater found a new life and a new audience through those first VCR’s.
Time Was as Slow as That First VCR
Those first VCR’s weren’t known for their speed when it came to rewinding. Often, battery operated rewinders would be purchased in the event your evening turned into a double-feature, and you didn’t want to wait forever for that first movie to rewind.
Time seemed slower then as well. You didn’t worry about the latest movies…there were so many others out there you hadn’t seen, and favorites you wanted to see again. Times seemed a bit simpler too, but as I’ve stated on Boomer Opinions before, that doesn’t automatically make them the Good Old Days. God forbid you should accidentally leave one of those VHS tapes in your car on a hot summer day. That $5 rental suddenly becomes a $50 movie purchase ($140 in today’s cash!).
Fast Forward to Streaming
Now that we’ve rewound to the past, let’s fast-forward our mental VCR’s to 2024. It’s Christmas time, and I want to watch a Christmas movie, uncut and without commercials. Fortunately, I have a stack of Christmas DVD’s around here somewhere, but guess what? I’m too lazy to grab them! It’s so much easier and nicer to stream what I want with my fancy 60″ smart TV.
Anyone else guilty of spending $2.99 to “rent” an Amazon movie when you have the very same movie on Blu-Ray on the shelf somewhere…simply because you didn’t want the hassle of finding it and putting it in? Ugh….what have we become? If you had told 80’s me that I’d be doing that, I wouldn’t have believed you.
Between cable TV, YouTube, and a half-dozen streaming services, the number of choices we have is staggering. Add to that OTA (over the air) television, as well as the aforementioned DVD’s, and there is enough content to last for years.
Fond Boomer Memories
I don’t know what happened to that first VCR. I’m pretty sure I replaced it at one point years later. Our fancy 2002 conversion van had a nice 12-volt VCR built in that made road trips so nice. About 10-15 years ago I ripped all of our VHS camcorder tapes to DVD through my computer…I may still have that VCR somewhere. Nothing can erase that fond, cozy, amazing feeling of popping in a VHS tape into that first VCR, grabbing a bowl of recently invented microwave popcorn (1981), and enjoying a movie with the wife and baby.
Times change, but the memory of that first VCR was our foray into the world of technology. Later, all manner of tech would become second nature to me as I embraced first video then computer technology. Life has been good. I didn’t get a college education, but I survived and then thrived right along side of those that did with technology as my guide.
Thanks for joining me on another walk through Boomer Memories.