I guess this thread is for the older members of the Chamber. If you were born after, oh, 1986 -- then you probably have no recollection of this.

When did you (or your family) first get a VCR? My family first got one in 1985 and for years we were the *only* ones in the family who had on. My dad, I remember, used to unhook it from the back every time it wasn't being used.

Around the same time we were the first in the family to have one.

I think it was around 1987-88. Back then I remember video stores would rent them out.

It was sometime in the 80's. There were two types at the time, the vhs & the betamax. We got the vhs. It was a top loader with a corded remote.

CeCe wrote:

It was sometime in the 80's. There were two types at the time, the vhs & the betamax. We got the vhs. It was a top loader with a corded remote.

LOL

That reminds me that when my wife was just my girlfriend, her family got cable TV such as it was. The "remote" was maybe a little smaller than a shoe box with a double row of push buttons and was connected to the cable box with a fairly long cord but you were still tethered to the equipment.

CeCe wrote:

It was sometime in the 80's. There were two types at the time, the vhs & the betamax. We got the vhs. It was a top loader with a corded remote.

I remember the corded remotes, but I thought that was with betamax. When I was in elementary school, the school had beta VCRs that were huge and were in a brown wooden paneling. They had corded remotes.

We got our first VCR in 1986. The same night my parents bought the machine before we went home, we stopped at a neighborhood video store and opened an account. It was a big deal. The first movie we rented was Back to the Future.

Our family got on in the mid 80's but we only used it for watching movies, not taping things. Wasn't until probably 10 years later that we started taping things. I think I was either 18 or 21 when I got one of my own - can't remember which birthday but it was one of those milestone ones. I'm thinking 21 was more likely, as that's around the time I got into soaps - got a TV and VCR for Christmas/Birthday one year.

My family got one right around 1988 and it was so great. I recall that Mom had won a VHS of E.T. at the local market, and we couldn't watch it. So, that prompted her to get a VCR.

first got one mid to late 80's

We got our first one in 1987. My older cousin had one that he sold to my mother for $100. My mother bought 1 (and only 1) blank VHS tape. I remember I taped all my favorite shows on it, which I would watch and re-watch daily....then one day she ups and tapes over them with some junk. That VCR didn't last long....it wound up breaking and we didn't get a replacement until 1989.

What was cool about VCR's at the time was that it allowed people with non remote control TV's to pretend that they had one. Just put the TV on channel 3 and let the VCR control the stations.

For as long as I can remember we had one. And my memory goes back to two years old. So I'm guessing around '84 or '85. My dad always had the latest electronic devices.