heathyr:Most people I know had that one movie as a kid; that one movie that they would watch over...

[dragonlady7]

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heathyr:

Most people I know had that one movie as a kid; that one movie that they would watch over and over and over to the resigned acceptance of their parents. I’ve always thought that movie says something about a person. What was your movie?

I’ve been thinking about this one with some bafflement– was I just not a typical kid? why didn’t I have– why does nothing come to mind? and it finally just hit me

We didn’t own a VCR. How TF was I gonna watch a movie again. It was broadcast, the theater, or nothing. This isn’t a universal human experience not because of human nature but because of technological changes within my lifetime.

(VCRs existed, we just didn’t get one until I was twelve or thirteen.)

I had books I demanded to be read to me until last year or so my 75-year-old father spontaneously recited an alphabet book, 30 years after his youngest child learned to read to her own damn self, but that’s also still a thing kids do, so. 

Comments

[dine]

This isn’t a universal human experience not because of human nature but because of technological changes within my lifetime.

right! I read the opening line and went "I didn't have one" for just this reason - VCRs didn't exist when I was a kid or teen - I was in my early 20s before they started to be available (Betamax, anyone?) and TVs weren't even a guarantee in all homes - I think I was in second grade before my parents got one.

[dragonlady7]

I'm younger but my parents were kind of Luddites-- I didn't get a color TV until I was in kindergarten, which is kind of goofy because that was the mid-80s and you couldn't even get black and white TVs anymore by then. My mom had grown up with a color TV but then she grew up wealthier than we did.

But yeah. I saw that go by a bunch of times and was like was my upbringing really that weird? no, it was just longer ago. LOL!

[krait]

That would definitely put a crimp in Repeated Movie Viewing! Barring the aid of a patient VCR-owning relative, I guess. :D

[dragonlady7]

I don't think any of my friends got a VCR until I was well on in elementary school age, though. I can't remember; I had some bougie friends but it wasn't until I was going to teenaged sleep-over parties that it started to be a thing that they had tapes. When I was little at playdates and such that wasn't a thing yet. I'm quite certain my grandmother didn't get one until I was old enough to not be babysat by the TV.

I mean... I feel like most people didn't get a VCR in their house until the late 80s at the earliest, which means there are an awful lot of people alive and reading Tumblr who didn't grow up able to watch a movie over and over as a kid, lol.