Today’s Prompt asks: Of all the technologies that have gone extinct in your lifetime, which one do you miss the most?

The following items, which may or may not be true, have gone extinct:

1. Sony Walkman portable Radio (it’s been replaced by the phone with internet streaming)
2. CD Player or CD in general (it’s been replaced by iPod)
3. DVD player or DVD (it’s been replaced with blu-ray or download)
4. VCR or Video Cassette (it’s been replaced with DVD and then blu-ray)

I once own all of those things. I still do except for the Walkman. I left it with my step-dad in Texas but I still have a VCR, DVD player, and a CD player.

I think the most useful of them all is the VCR (Video Cassette Recorder). I’m sure some people out there have no clue what I’m talking about. If I’m still living in China and never came to the U.S, I wouldn’t either. The VCR actually went extinct in China in the mid to late 90’s. It never even made it to the millennium.

When I was in third-grade, someone (don’t know who) finally bought me a popular cartoon that was watched by everyone at school. The poor soul that had not seen it was me and I guess I never will (read on).

Anyway, I guess after much begging, someone finally caved in and bought me a copy but they went with a cheap option (everyone else when with DVD). Excitedly, I opened the box, only to find this large bulky black thing that looked like a giant cassette tape. Like I said, if I never came to the U.S., I wouldn’t have a clue. It was 1999 and CD and DVD had already come into existence a few years ago. Nobody (that I know of in China) used a video cassettes or tape cassette for that matter.

I was told my grandpa had a “machine” (VCR) that could play my cartoon since he was more or less a hoarder but he said he had given it away. I couldn’t believe it. Of my tens of relative, none had a VCR.

Then when I came to the U.S., I finally came face-to-face with one of these “machines” that was supposed to play my cartoons except it was a little late for that (2 years too late).

My step-dad was actually the one to introduce me to the VCR, a nice invention which lets us record our shows and movies so we can watch it over and over. We had stacked of tapes with labels that had been written over and over. My step-dad once taped the Exorcist when it was broadcast on TV. He taped it so it’s commercial-free and kept making me watch it.  He likes it when I have nightmare but I never got past 15 minutes of that movie without running away.

The VCR was actually the thing that kept me occupied after we moved to Texas. We lost cable after a couple of months and my step-grandparents volunteered to tape my Disney Channel shows for me. I would begin writing taping schedules and handing it to them in secret since my step-dad had a fight with them and didn’t want to see them or allow me to see them for that matter.

So you can see how much I love the VCR. I still have one in possession and used it until about 2010 when mom sold the old TV and replaced it with a new one with all those weird and mystery plugs and I got lost in the process of hooking the VCR.

Related Post:

Favorite Inventions