[Rummyfan]

So we waited, paid our dues, received a knowing nod of approval from dad, and speed-walked downstairs to the “rec room,” which had the television, the VCR, and the only kid-friendly VHS tape my grandparents had in stock: “Home Alone.”

Man, how old am I.... I have seen VCRs and video cassettes come and go. Not to mention laserdiscs.... and even to a large extent DVDs and BluRays.... And movies I have seen in theaters (remember theaters?) are now showing on TCM....

[Drew68]

Man, how old am I.... I have seen VCRs and video cassettes come and go. Not to mention laserdiscs.... and even to a large extent DVDs and BluRays.... And movies I have seen in theaters (remember theaters?) are now showing on TCM....

I remember when VCRs first came out. They were prohibitively expensive so a lot of places used to rent them. My parents would drive some distance to a mall that had a video rental store, then a completely new venture. They'd rent a top-loading VCR (which at the time retailed for around $1200) and a half dozen VHS tapes for the weekend. I remember the store owner would give us a lesson on how to manually adjust the tracking, saving us a return trip if the tape didn't play well.

It was a big deal when we finally bought our first VCR and stopped renting the ones from he video store.