A year later I tried experimenting to get it to work without calling attention to myself but that didn't last long, as I nearly started World War III when my aunt found me trying to get it to run! At only five years of age I made a vow to myself to never give up even if it took for ever in trying to find something close to what my uncle had. VHS came, and the Betamax left and I eventually learned VHS from other family members who wouldn't get so upset when I tried to learn and play with something new, and my parents got their first VCR in 1988 which was VHS.
Still, the interest nagged at me and I was reunited with a tape that my uncle recorded of me and my dad when I was a baby in 1977 in 1993 but no machine to look at the tape and all the commercials which were edited out, that was until two weeks ago when I got my first SLHF-400 and about 70 tapes. Wow! It was just like time travel! I popped in that old tape recorded in 1977 and from the color resolution it only seemed like so many days ago rather then 27 years. I've been planning on something to say to my uncle to tell him that he would never keep me away from Betamax even though it wasn't his.
When I find a job and my own place I am planning on getting that old Trinitron TV and his old machine just for keepsake. Right now, I am going through the tapes to find older TV shows, but haven't made it through all the tapes yet and probably won't for a while as I am planning on moving, and the Betamax and VHS move with me. I record shows on the Betamax that others watch and have probably never seen a Betamax before. Beta was better and I am a convert on that one.
Submitted 10 March 2004 00:40 GMT