It seems like it was a million years ago but in fact it was less than 20. In the early 80s my grandfather's cousin, "Cousin Freddie" owned one of the very first video stores called Video Plus. I was still in my single digit years back then but as I remember it, a video store was still a novel concept. A VCR was even a novel concept at the time. I distinctly remember the store had movies in both Beta and VHS. You would have thought we would have learned something by now about format wars but alas, 20 years later we will all have to suffer again though the Hi-Def DVD format war. Anyway, around the time I was 4 or 5 years old my Cousin Freddie and Cousin Jack had one of the first VHS camcorders set-up at Video Plus. As I was digging around yesterday in the spare bedroom, I found some archeological evidence of that ancient camera. The tape was a little fossilized but I managed to restore it in new digital glory. Unfortunately, it's not in dolby digital surround sound and there are no deleted scenes but it does represent one of my earliest and most fond childhood memories.
This little home video is a classic. It's the kind of thing you always hope to share with your kids one day. It's a pretty special memory. It was a guy's weekend, one late fall day somewhere around 1982. All of the men hanging out at the video store; me, my brother Randy, my Dad, and my Grandfather. The 3 generations all together experiencing new technology. My brother was clearly exited to be making his video debut, and I was just eager to imitate my older and much more outgoing big bro. Randy has always been a ham and his performance does not disappoint here. I on the other hand provide some classic footage that my friends, family, and soon my children will be able to make fun of for another generation to come. My father also demonstrated his early talent on the camera. Particularly his signature obsession with quick and frequent zooms. My grandpa, "Puppie" as we always called him, stayed in the shadows but nonetheless managed to make his presence felt. The video tells the rest of the story. Click on it below if you dare, but it weighs in at a about 25MB, so you may be waiting for it for a while.
