Looking Back on Our First VCR . Review on DVD Vs. VCR

Just a few moments ago my mind took me back on a stroll down memory lane, one that was tangled in the wires of the old time VCR ''remote''. Does anyone remember these things? I can remember as a young girl watching ''Friday Night Videos'', yes my young readers, this was awhile before ''Video Killed the Radio Star'' on MTV, if only by a few months. Which it wouldn't have mattered anyways because I grew up out in the country and we were lucky to have three television channels.

After the show, the local channel went off the air (I didn't have any 24 hr. channels), and my siblings and I would watch movies on the VCR late into the night, provided we didn?t wake Dad up too many times and he would send us to bed. Anyways, back to the point of all the ''life-support'' wires streaming to and from the VCR. We had this great little device that plugged into our VCR which the manufacturers shamelessly labeled a ''remote''. It only came equipped with the ability to pause. Can you believe that?

Now we have DVD players that can hold multiple movies. Ours holds 5 and I can change them from my wireless remote and never leave the comforts of my couch. It's like we have gone from one extreme to the other. Now you ask, ''Bean...are you seriously able to vegetate on your couch while watching 5 movies without ever removing yourself from the couch?'' The answer is ''heck no'', I can't even sit through one without getting up for one reason or another.

I wasn't sure why my husband had decided we needed such a feature. It must be all the male hormones in him that gravitate him towards all the new and trendy gadgets that Circuit City has to offer. That evil store luring him every Sunday with the ad that comes in the morning newspaper right to our door step, bidding him greetings and new opportunities to drive me insane. I can?t tell you how many times I?ve debated removing the ad before he even wakes up, but I can?t do that to him even though it pangs me to leave it in there because it?s the first thing he asks for when he wakes up. Ahhhh, the things we will for in the name of love!

As a child we lived in fear of tripping over the wire of the VCR while getting up to raid the fridge in an ''unauthorized'' covert mission to obtain ''midnight'' snacks. If you could make it past the wire, half the battle was won. The other half was retrieving the snack without waking the parents whose room was right off the kitchen. With snack in hand, you only had to make it back to your ''Smurf'' sleeping back and miss the VCR wire and finally with any luck a successful mission was then complete.

I wonder what kind of miracle gadget will be the next ''have to have'' in 20 years and I wonder who will be writing about the absurdity of actually using a DVD player. For that matter, I wonder what lovely new must have, can?t live without gadget my darling dear will bring home today from Circuit City. What is it with this store and men?