So long
Three years ago, I wrote with remorse about Britian’s biggest high street electronic retailer taking VHS off the shelves for good. At that time, all I could think about was all my childhood memories recorded on videocassettes piled beneath our VCR, my favorite movies tucked on the side (Snow White, Cinderella, The Sound of Music, Three Men and a Little Lady, Beauty and the Beast), and the hundreds of videocassettes tapes that managed to make it to our collection (I used to use them as building blocks for castles with on the floor). I could see myself as a little girl going to the video rental store, and going home with a dozen of quite heavy videos piled in a plastic bag that eventually gives in to their weight and rips. I could clearly remember my dad’s silhouette leaning over a table and opening a videocassette container to mend it after the boys had somehow managed to have it fly off it’s shelf with a soccerball.
At the time that I wrote that post, we still occasionally used the VCR; seldomly, but we sometimes ran down the street to the videostore (now closed) or decided to watch a movie from our older collection (now covered with dust).
Today, three years on, most videoshops in town have either long since erased cassettes from their shelves or turned into mobile phone stores. Today, three years on, the pile under the television is actually of 1-JD DVDs, courtesy of the corner video store in downtown Amman. Today, three years on, the videocassette, age 30, is officially laid to rest, as Hollywood pulls the plug on VHS releases.
Perhaps most dramatically for myself though, I realize that one day I will be talking about those heavy, boxy things that you had to manually rewind in the same tone that my parents talk about old vinyl records:
“They were so big!” Mama would say. “And then, you would put the needle on a specific location and it will actually start playing!”
“Really?” we would ask her amused. “A needle? You couldn’t just press rewind and wait for only 10 minutes for it to rewind by itself?”
Alas! RIP videocassette. There will be no more waiting.
(76)
Shy
April 9, 2007 @ 6:24 pm
So long VHS.
As for vinyl they’ll still be around for a while longer. In some countries the turntable outsells the guitar because of the growing popularity in DJing
Hareega
April 9, 2007 @ 7:35 pm
Oh nothing is more missable than my Betamex tapes
Josef
April 9, 2007 @ 11:17 pm
REALLY?? NOOOOOOO!!!! Videos were a BIG part of our past, I mean all the cartoons, I had popeye’s full collection on VHS (The old series), snow white, the beauty and the beast, tom and jerry!! DVD came and destroyed it all!!! Grrrrr Anyway, nothing is really the same anymore, nothing is as I remember it, everything is in constant shange which really S**ks!!! Nice Article btw!! Well-documented!!! :P
طفيلي
April 10, 2007 @ 2:19 am
Hi
Pardon me I was laughing when i read your story . Although we might live in same country but i know people who donot know what is VHS.
However You have right to be disappointed about your old VHS collection with your memories But please rey to remember the pople who does not have TV or electricty to use TV
Ayyob
April 10, 2007 @ 7:55 am
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
bilal
April 10, 2007 @ 8:40 am
well I advice you to do as I did, copy everything on dvds. it took me some time to copy all my tapes but it is worth it.
The past is gone, and I miss it « ThisIsJoe
January 21, 2010 @ 10:45 pm
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