We had to say goodbye to an old family friend last week. Our VHS recorder/player died.

I’ve owned a VHS unit for more than 40 years. The dearly departed VHS machine was number three.

The first VHS player came at great expense. I purchased it from an advertising client who operated a large appliance and electronics store. I never asked for a discount but Bill always gave me one. The technology was relatively new at the time, early 1980s, and a major purchase for our young family. With the discount, it cost approximately $400.

This was a good VHS player but not top of the line. I couldn’t afford top of the line.

A remote-control unit was included, but it was wired. When it was time to watch a movie we strung out the approximately 15-to 20-foot wire across the family room floor.

Saturday night was our family’s movie night. My job demanded much of my time so we set aside Saturday night as family night with rare exceptions.

After lunch on Saturday afternoons, I took our two kids to the neighborhood branch library so they could stock up on books for the next week. Both were voracious readers.

Later in the afternoon, the kids and I went to the neighborhood video rental store where they could each pick out a parentally-approved movie. That often took as long as picking out books at the library.

One week I decided since I was paying for the movie rentals I should have an opportunity to select a film once in a while. I selected “King of Hearts.” The description printed on the tape’s cover made the movie sound much more interesting than we found it to be. I don’t recall having an opportunity to select a movie again, and I still get kidded about “King of Hearts.”

Several years later, that original VHS player died and we purchased another. Prices had gone down and the new unit had a wireless remote-control. By now we had cable television at our house and my teenage son became a video engineer. He recorded numerous movies and built a personal library of films (which I tossed out 20 years later.) That new VHS player probably recorded more films than it played in those years.

I suspect the wear and tear on that machine was responsible for its early demise. Prices on VHS players had gone down even more by the mid-90s and I purchased a higher quality machine.

A few years later DVD players had become more affordable, so I acquired one of those. That was about 25 years ago and that latest VHS player ended up just sitting on a shelf. I’m guessing it was used only a few times in the past decade.

Several weeks ago we discovered our hand-me-down DVD player (from my son) had bitten the dust. I looked online for a replacement and, wow, prices had gone down a lot since I last purchased one.

When the new DVD player arrived I set it up and my wife suggested I check the plus-25-year-old VHS player to see if it still worked. It didn’t.

I tested it several ways and each way confirmed it had given up the ghost. It now sits on a pile waiting to be tossed out when our community’s next trash-your-electronics day occurs.

Surprisingly, the decision to toss out the VHS player did not come easily. It reminded me of a technology that was embraced when my children were young. It reminded me of the excitement the kids showed when we went to the video rental store to pick out two movies for Saturday night. It reminded me of my wife baking frozen pizzas for our Saturday night repast and the four of us sitting in the family room, the kids on the floor, as we ate pizza and watched movies. By the time the two movies were done it was bed time and we sent the kids to take baths or showers so they were clean enough for Sunday school 12 hours later.

Those were good years, and the old VHS player reminded me of those good years. At least the technology was around long enough for me to get old and sentimental before I had to toss it out.

Arvid Huisman can be contacted at huismaniowa@gmail.com. ©2026 by Huisman Communications.