While driving past a Blockbuster I thought about how hard it will be to explain VHS rentals to my kids. My guess is that by the time my kids can have a conversation with me (they are due April 21) Blockbuster will be out of business. To them the thought of having to drive to a store, and not instantly download or have it delivered to you in the mail will seem barbaric. Think about trying to explain VHS rentals?
It would go something like this…
Dad: When I was a kid we used to have to drive to the store to rent videos.
Reese and Hayden: We’re surprised they had cars when you were a kid. Are you sure that you didn’t have to walk up hill both ways in the snow to get these videos that you speak of (I envision my twins talking at the same time and being witty and sarcastic)?
Dad: No. But we did have to pay 5 bucks for these things called VHS tapes.
Reese and Hayden: 5 bucks? That’s ludicrous! We buy movies for less than that today. What did VHS stand for?
Dad: I don’t know. I never bothered to ask. I just know that we would get charged extra if we forgot to rewind them.
Reese and Hayden: WHAT?! What is this rewind that you speak of?
Dad: These VHS tapes would play and then you had to wait half an hour for it to rewind. Oh and it gets worse. These VHS tapes sometimes would get trapped in the VHS player and all the tape would come undone and it would ruin it forever.
Reese and Hayden: Dad it must have stunk to grow up in a world like that.
Dad: It did.
I feel kind of bad for Blockbuster. I mean at one time it seemed like such a sure thing. It did a great job of transitioning from VHS tapes to DVDs. Imagine if in 1998 or so that you invested everything in a Blockbuster franchise. You would feel like screaming “I’m the king of the world!” Just a few short years later and you see all of your competition shut down. They folded not because you were beating them but because of things like Redbox and Netflix. New things that are now apart of our lives.
I wonder what things that I bank on now will be irrelevant in a few years. Things change. Sometimes things change quickly. I was reminded about this when I read “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” When the author wrote this having lots of chariots and horses meant that you ruled the world. In the 90’s it could have read some trust in Blockbuster, or some trust in Walkmans, or some trust in stirrup pants. Things change, but God doesn’t.
What product will your kids not be able to fathom?
Shake it like a Polaroid picture!!! A WHAT!!!!!!
A phone with a cord!
As I am older than you, my list is much different than yours. How about black and white TVs? How about telephones with a rotary dial? Computers with 4k of RAM? Dang it was a primitive world back then. It would be futile to try to explain these concepts to the younger generation as they would never understand.
Tvs without remotes. We had a tv that was encased in fake wood when I was growing up, it was like a piece of furniture.. It was so exciting when we got a VCR and could use the remote on it.
A kitchen without a microwave or dishwasher. We didn't even have central air conditioning when I was a kid. I know — it was horrible. We had one window unit in the living room.
The computer with the blue & red screen. All you could do was type & print (or, once we got a friend who was a computer hacker, we could play some DOS games!). Home phones, NOT having cell phones, when everything in the grocery store had a price sticker and the cashier had to type in each price! Full service gas stations also seem to be of the past (almost). Tape players… fun to think of things that our kids won't ever know!
Rick and I love this comedian that talks about explaining video games he grew up with to his kids – you know – the large ones that were set up at pizza places or the oh so ancient arcade…it might go something like this:
We played this one game and you were a round yellow circle and the circle ate dots and fruit and got chased by ghosts!
Or in this other game, you were a frog and you had to cross the road without getting hit by cars…
With all the virtual reality games today, playing the simple games of our childhood will sound pretty silly but they still rocked!
Great post Rob!
Cassette tapes and records. They have no idea.
Cyndy, I remember those. Our first TV with a remote had a place where you could store the remote inside the TV. That was high tech.
Melissa, I remember trying to have personal conversations on the corded phone in the kitchen. That is going to be hard to explain.
Steve, a funny comment and one that fits. Score.
Seekingpastor, but they should. I might make my kids listen to tapes just so they can experience it.
The arcade is such a crazy idea for kids to understand. Paying money to play a game and then when you die you have to pay more money. That's crazy.
Susan, I missed out on this one. I'll need to google it.
Meema92, have you ever tried to explain the window unit to a kid?
Daniel, I remember all of that stuff. I was young, but I remember it.
Um…We still have a VHS player AND movies. Just never converted all of them over to DVD. I mean…we have the Indiana Jones series on vhs…You can't get rid of those…and to buy them all new seems wasteful. That said, our vhs player also has a DVD player with it.
I was 10 years old before I realized TV's didn't come with plyers to change the dials and aluminum foil could be used for more than balling up on the end of the rabbit ears. BTW, my parents always had a remote control: "Geoff, get over there and move it to channel 13."
The Video Home System is what VHS stands for… now if you remember it, you can tell them.
Pagers, pay phones, fax machines… the list could go on and on.
Before VHS there was Beta. There was only one place to rent movies and they were expensive. And to buy one was outrageous. Rotary dialed phones, party lines, dressing up on Sat. in you Sunday best (gloves & all) to go downtown shopping. I could go on forever. Window A/C's are a good one. (well except in LA where they have alot). We had on unit in our Dining room. So on hot nights all us 4 kids slept on the floor there. I guess maybe our parents did too. Drive-inn movie theatres. Thanks for letting me reminese.
I forgot a good one. 2 Channels on TV in black & white
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