Tracking

I’m really beginning to understand how unfair life can be.

And I’m not old. I am so sick of hearing that. “Old technology.” “All too lo-fi.” “Something my uncle or grandfather would have used back in the day.” They never say the same thing about cars or even cameras. Give them a few decades, and they all become classics. A few of those same decades on me, and they want to put me in a landfill with all of my brothers and sisters.

Yes, I am a videocassette recorder, or what you plebes call a “VCR”.

You really don’t understand how embarrassing and insulting it is to be referred to by an abbreviation. We technological marvels like our full names: Kenmore; Hoover; Motorola; Hasselblad; Polaroid; Toyota; Honda; Mustang… I really should not be referring to cars and cameras again. I seem to have a built-in bias against them (sounds like the start of a joke there). And I would not be surprised if many of you don’t even know how vital we still are and were when we came along.

Oh, those were the glorious years: 1975 – 2000. At first, we were all too expensive to really be in every home. Major studios for television and film prized us as a way to save their shows, and we could be relied upon by editors who wanted to make the slightest improvements to what was about to be shown. Then, we became the go-to source when people wanted to watch movies at their leisure. And that was why we were here, for your leisure. You loved to go out and find a movie for the weekend that could be popped into us and screened while you laughed, cheered, screamed or wept. You loved to use us to recapture the moments when babies were born, couples were brought together in marriage, their children graduated from high schools and college, new homes were bought, and…lives ended. Not to be too morbid, but I have seen more than my fair share of funerals and I cannot understand why so many of you want to keep those memories alive (pun very much intended?).

And may I address something that only members of a certain generation will remember: Beta vs. VHS.

I know that I have probably lost the majority of you who even bothered to listen to a machine, but this was a real issue back then. Some of us would only be useful with the Beta format; others, much more popular in the long run, were VHS users. I know that this issue was soon resolved by the end of the first decade of our existence, but between us film machines, it caused great consternation and heartbreak. Why did they even dare to create a wall between us when we could have all been partners and simply entertained the way we were supposed to? There were machines that refused to communicate with each other simply because of the format of tape they were forced to swallow. There were brothers and sisters who could have united if their creators had not been so desperate to create a whole Coke vs. Pepsi situation with a machine. Just dreadful all around…

Oh, yes. We did communicate with each other. What did you think was happening with all those wires and cables connected with your televisions? Some of you figured out how to program us so that we could capture your favourite shows and break the law (major league sports were always warning you, weren’t they?) And at the same time, we were programming you. You could not even figure out why the clocks would flash and go out of sync when they did. All of that, every 00:00 that annoyed and irritated you was our way of communicating beyond our boxes. We were speaking to each other almost every single day and night.

And we knew what we had to do.

Yes, we were aware of Digital Video Discs (we just refused to call them DVDs). We knew that you could change your loyalties as soon as a new toy came along, but we also knew that you were fleshy creatures of habit. You bought the tapes. You went to those stores to buy or borrow more of them and that was a habit that you could not shake. Not one of us thought that you would toss us out just for a shiny disc.

We had to preempt your little attempt at a format coup.

And it did not work.

Seriously… Those damn computers… They were meant to make lives easier for everyone, weren’t they? They were supposed to be tools you used to write papers, file reports, send messages, complete homework and other projects. They were not supposed to be a main entertainment center.

We were left out of the game.

Seriously…

I noted that the brothers and sisters I had communicated with had begun to disappear by the turn of the century. Some of their - ha ha - owners persisted and would not let them end up being trashed or recycled (not sure how that would even work), but I knew that things were going to end. I had heard a rumour about something called The Internet. I had heard about pages devoted to music. I had not heard of anything called Netflix until much later. Who really thought it was a good idea to send those fragile discs in the mail, anyway? They were at least smart enough to see that things were changing and soon adapted. But what about the rest of us?

What about…my family?

Well, there are still some of us around that can save their stories and share them among ourselves, and those of you willing to hear us. We are in conversion shops where people bring their old tapes to move them onto…DVDs (only time I will use that hideous term) or save them in files (is that the correct word?).

We are not going away.

I have even heard that there are some among the younger generations among you who like this lo-fi technology. There are some who think that being able to program us, scroll through videos and take control of tracking is cool. There are some of you who want to preserve what was once the norm.

We thank you for this, and we are prepared to do our jobs.

Just let us know next time if there is going to be another big change on the horizon. I am noting that the number of tapes I’ve worked on has actually increased and I have found myself repaired and refurbished more times than I can recall during my heyday.

It is always good to know one is loved and still useful.

It is great to still be around and heard.