The Hungry Hungry Writer

VHS is officially dead. DEAD I say, DEAD!

I heard on the radio that after 30 years, the VHS format is officially dead. “Officially”. How is that determined anyway? Dead for who?

What does that mean? Supposedly, going into the store to find the latest release of this that or the other for a Christmas gift this season will be impossible. Stores will stop selling VHS format eventually.

That’s so weird. Just 21 years ago I was trying to help my mom decide on a VHS or Betamax player. We bought a VHS at a television-slash-appliance store for some serious bucks! I set it up, worked out the flashing date thing and owned that wonderful invention for several years: through the end of high school and through college.

Without it, my weekend home from college would have been so boring! Every week I looked forward to shows like: Who’s the Boss, Moonlighting, Miami Vice, Growing Pains, Family Ties, Cosby Show, etc. Those were great shows weren’t they?

Only nine years ago I tried to decided between Laser or DVD and realized Laser was on its way out. So I got my very first DVD player as a birthday gift! It was a Toshiba double disc player and it cost close to $500! I still have it! Some DVDs don’t even work on it though.

Then, four years ago, I bought a 300+1 DVD player. That means it holds 301 DVDs. I paid $250 for it. Our last few TVs have had built in DVD players: but I don’t like those because each had proglems. And last year we purchased a stand-alone DVD player for $89!

I don’t have a VHS player set up in my house. We have one, but it’s not even next to a TV anymore. TiVo has taken the place of that.

So, ‘good bye VHS!’ Ain’t that sad? I always hated waiting for those damn things to rewind anyway.

This reminds of that day we went to the TV/appliance store to buy a VHS player. I was a senior in high school. I remember the day so well: a Friday evening after ‘an incident’ at the mall.

And it was what happened at Eagle Rock Plaza that I remember so well.

I was walking out of Walden Books when, from behind, someone calls out, “MAGAS”; my last name was on the back of my class jacket. I turned around and there were three guys following me.

My school doesn’t really have ‘conflicts’ with other schools except for innocent competition with sister schools in the So Cal area. We were a small private school going from K thru 12 and I was in a graduating class of about seventy kids. These guys were obviously ‘public school’ kids.

I was 119 pounds, a scrawny 5’4” Filipino and very unassuming. Not too nerdy, not a jock type, just… unassuming.

I turned around and casually replied, “What’s up?”

Then these three guys had the nerve to say… “Your school sucks!”

I was like, ‘okay’, then turned around and started to walk away. Hell no I wasn’t going to fight these guys. I mean, they were right anyway – my school kinda did suck.

Under my breath I whispered, “Fuck you.” Yeah, you would have too right?

RIGHT?!?

Next thing I know one grabbed my arm, spun me around and another came up to me and said, “What did you say?”

I had planned on running before all this happened but you don’t run away like a scared little bitch just because someone says your school sucks… do you?

And I made the mistake of saying, “Fuck you” instead of, “And? So? What’s your point?”

Now I wasn’t like Mr. Martial Arts back then; that was a year later. I had some training in Tae Kwon Do and Shotokan Karate at the local “Y” but no hard core sparring really. I had sparred throughout the school year with two of my friends – Pedram (Peddy) and Jeff. ‘Peddy’ was a Tang So Do guy and Jeff just wanted to learn a few things so we’d go to Peddy’s house after school, put on some gloves, and spar. I was pretty good though; without having serious training on my side.

Now the question still lingered, “What did you say?”

I don’t know… maybe I was an idiot. Maybe I was… well… an idiot! Because what I said in reply was, “Fuck you!”

Again. I said it again. Yeah, I was an idiot.

So one guy has a hold of my arm and the guy in the middle comes up to me like he’s going to stick his face in mine to provoke me but I was already provoked. SO…

I stepped back a little and let him meet my foot in the way of a front kick right in the gut. I yanked my arm loose and came back with an elbow to the other guy’s nose.

I can still see it now: the blood just pours and he goes down crying, “Ahh-ahhh-ahhh!” The first guy I kicked was on his butt and the other guy lifted his arms up as if to say, “I didn’t do anything.”

That was like what… 3 seconds of pure adrenaline?

I took off and ran like a scared little bitch. You know, like a tiny female poodle running away to hide from the wrath of its owner: that kind of bitch.

I got into my Chevrolet Kingswood Estate Station Wagon, the one with wood paneling, and sped off, paranoid that someone was following me. I drove around and around and around, calming down, making sure I wasn’t tailed before I got home.

And finally I get home. And my mom says, drive us to the TV appliance store on Brand. And we bought our first VHS machine.

And that, as they say is, that; my VHS History.