What the F is a VCR?

I can honestly say I never thought I'd have to mess with a VCR or VHS tape again.  I was wrong - so, so, wrong.

For my Mom's birthday, I'm copying all of our family's old home videos over to DVD for her.  These tapes are one of my Mom's prized possessions and are the key to our family history. When I first signed up for this project, I had obviously forgotten about what a pain in the butt these tapes can be.  Right off the bat, the frickin' VCR broke.  Any idea how difficult it is to find a functioning VCR these days?  Super hard, considering that more and more people have no idea what the 'eff' a VCR is.  

After venting some of my frustrations with a barista from a local coffee shop and witnessing her confusion as I spoke of the long lost technology, I realized that nothing about this task would be easy.

As amazing as technology is, and God knows I couldn't live without it,  I can't help but feel overwhelmed by the sudden and unavoidable extinction of many gadgets past.  Could children of the 90's, like the coffee shop girl, really have missed the allure of the video cassette?  This deeply saddened me and kind of made me panic.  Was I getting .. old? 

This trip down memory lane got worse before it got better.  It dawned on me just how many things Grace would never come in contact with, let alone use. Below are a few.

• Personal music stereos, aka, The Walkman -Yeah, right.  If you need her, Grace will be rearranging her Apps on her iTouch.
• Non-digital cameras -  Film?  Wtf is that?  Shake it like a Polaroid picture?  Isn't that an Outkast song?
• The Yellow Pages - Why do they still deliver these annoying things?
• Trips to the Video Store - Actually go there?  Nah, lets just download it.

Just the other evening, as I paused Desperate Housewives and scurried off to get a soda and hit the bathroom, I realized just how much things have changed. Long gone are the days of well orchestrated bathroom breaks and a few less sips of soda.  Back in the day, if you had the guts to guzzle that second soda, you were faced with a difficult decision later - miss critical plot points or piss your pants.  Let me tell you how many dramatic Full House montages I missed while using the little girls room.  No pausing and no mercy.  These days, grab that Big Gulp and get to pausin'.

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