What do I do with these?

VHS (short for Video Home System) is a standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes. Developed by Victor Company of Japan (JVC) in the early 1970s, it was released in Japan on September 9, 1976, and in the United States on August 23, 1977.

If you remember these were the format to rent movies before DVDs and streaming. One could go down to the Blockbuster and pick out a few VHS movies to watch then return putting them into a post office style box. They were the library of old movies and those who had just passed the theatre viewings. You even got a membership card.

These were the analog reproductions of movies once seen on the big screen but now can be reviewed in your home television. While cable was competing for attention, VHS tapes could be played and replayed anytime you wanted.

Of course you had to have a VHS player machine with a remote to fast-forward, pause and rewind. The quality wasn’t remarkable but tolerable depending how many copies were made. The image would start breaking up when the tape was getting thin from Sharon Stone crossing her legs in ‘Basic Instincts’ or Jamie Lee Curtis striptease in ‘True Lies’.

Cameras the size of shoulder held news photographers were the first portable personal movie recording devices (other than reel-to-reel tape machines). Zoom lens and sound made any common want-to-be a moviemaker.

This was the age of 8-track tapes. This was the age of cassette tapes to dub vinyl to mix-tapes for your girlfriend.

Once digital reproduction arrived all the analog and tape were old fashion and replaced with CDs and DVDs. That meant buying a new recorder and player.

The point is I have these old VHS tapes. I still have a VHS/DVD player and watched them (after some dusting off). I’d had them duped to DVD some years ago but wanted to see if the ancient technology still worked.

Then I tried to find someone I could share these treasures with. After many request of anyone who could view VHS tapes the realization of antiques.

At some point in time, I’d had many copies and original VHS tapes but they were worn out or broken or just discarded.

My brother said he would take them as historical relics and try to watch on a borrowed machine. Still these are a decade documentary of land refurbished and what would become ‘Puppywoods’.

While many have photo albums or videos of children growing up, this is the land I live in growing up.