Memory Lane - 1989

Here we go folks, another trip down Memory Lane. My memory lane to be exact.

For sometime now I have wanted to transfer all my old VHS tapes to a format that was more secure (not fade away with time) and easier to access. I have copied a few to CD's but that was very time consuming and dangerous. I've accidentally erased parts of my some of my old VHS tapes trying to figure out how to transfer them. I'll never get that recipe back again as Richard Harris said in "MacArthur Park."

I had considered paying a service to transfer my precious VHS tape memories but at $25 a pop, that was just more than I could afford.  Plus, I didn't want to send my tapes to India (and that's where they go folks) and take a chance on losing my original tapes, which I read happens.  No thank you sahib.

A few weeks ago I was searching Amazon.com for equipment that could more efficiently process my video tape transfers I came across a place called Lotus Media.  All their reviews were excellent and they only charged $10 a tape. Viola! I took a chance and send forty-three of my old VHS tapes in that large cassette format out to "Kirk" (the owner of the company) in a large box via UPS, sealed tightly. 

Last week I received those tapes back with a tiny flash drive containing all my VHS tapes.  I plugged the flash drive into my computer and viola!  (yes, another "viola!")  This is what I found, looking at myself on sometimes too long tapes but none the less interesting.  

I'll be the first to admit the tapes are boring because they are too long.  However I plan to cut and paste those tapes in my account at You Tube and make a lot of small vignette videos. I'm just not sure how to do that yet, I don't want to lose any more of my original tapes.  I hope I can take a portion of the taped recording out and create a new video with all the bells and whistles like a beginning and an end.  I want to send them to my relatives and friends.  Unfortunately the friend you hear on this tape died a couple of years ago.  He would have loved to seen this video.

Looking at these videos I am again reminded at how fast life goes by.  This video was taken in November of 1989, twenty-eight years ago!  Wow, where DID the time go?  One thing is for sure, I won't be here twenty-eight years from now. But another thing for sure, my memory of my life will be here for all to see in You Tube, if they're interested.

Enjoy!

VHS Tape Transfers

My old VHS tapes to be transferred to a digital format - finally

Today I finally addressed a lurking concern that I've had for many years. 

As regular followers of my blog here know, I am an inveterate photo taker.  I've also taken many videos. I started taking videos in the late 80's. 

I had one of those huge VHS cameras.  You know the type, the ones that you put on your shoulder. The ones that often intimated the subject of my videos just because of the size of my camera.

Me in my videotaping days - location my father's roots Pigeon Roost, North Carolina - 1994

Since the onset of the ability to take videos with smaller cameras and now an iPhone, I long abandoned taking videos with that huge video camera.

Me preparing to go to the top of Green Mountain Cemetery to video tape my great grandfather Isaac Lewis's grave in Pigeon Roost North Carolina 1994 - this was before my distant relatives knew I was gay and banned from ever returning to this sight because I "practiced the gay lifestye". Good old homophobia alive and well in those beautiful mountains of North Carolina.

There were many drawbacks to taking videos in the old VHS format. Not only was the camera bulky and intimidating, the cost of the VHS tapes and storage was a problem. Also the length, since the tapes were two hours long. One tended to take videos that were too long and boring.  Hence, I tended not to look at the videos once I took them because they were to much trouble to pull out and then look for the part of the tape that I wanted to see.

Then came the digitized videos from a much smaller camera (Cannon) and now my iPhone.  I take much shorter videos, averaging 30 seconds to two minutes. A three minute video is unusual. 

Thus the last several years I've been very happy accumulating many short term videos, which I store on my computer, thus eating up a lot of hard drive space, a new drawback. But one that isn't as onerous as all those old VHS tapes that are just getting old and slowly deteriorating. 

A few years ago I checked into the feasibility of transferring my old VHS tapes to CD's.  I purchased one of those machines that do that.  Only problem there is that the procedure is complicate and very time consuming.  For instance, a two hour tape takes two hours to copy to a CD.  And, there is also the possibility that I can accidentally erase my original VHS tapes, which I did a few times.  Thus, I've been putting off transferring my many old VHS tapes until I "had time."  Like the wintertime.  But wintertime comes and goes and I still haven't done it. 

I checked for services to transfer my old VHS tapes. There is a facility in Rehoboth Beach that will take my old tapes and transfer them, at $25 each.  That's too much money. I have at least forty-old of the old VHS tapes.  Also, I don't know where they send the VHS tapes.  I suspect they send them to India.  That's where they send old negatives to be processed.  And you don't get the negatives back. Don't believe me?  Try telling the Walmart photo center you want your negatives back.  They don't send them back.  Those negatives go to India and God knows what they do with them.  I ruled out that option.  Thus my old VHS tapes sat, patiently waiting to be transferred to a digital format all the while slowly deteriorating. 

Last Monday, during a slow period at work I searched the Internet again for a solution. Through Amazon.com I found a service that was receiving excellent reviews. And they were only charging $10 a tape!  Even better, they will transfer my VHS tapes to my flash drive.  Super!

I called "Kirk", the guy who runs that business out of his office in Washington state today. He spoke English without an accent. He was nice and very helpful, even suggesting that I send my tapes by UPS, media rate, because it would be cheaper.  

So folks, that was my big project today. Sorting out my forty-one VHS tapes today. Rewinding the tapes, which seems like it takes forever. Brings back bad memories of why I don't like VHS tapes. 

I have the tapes sorted out. I number them  and I'll take them down to the UPS store in Rehoboth Beach tomorrow.

This is going to be great folks! Not only can I easily access all my old videos, I can upload them to my You Tube account so future generations can enjoy them long after I'm gone from this earth. Also, I can freeze frame those videos and take individual pictures and bore you, my faithful blog readers with those images during one of my "Down Memory Lane" blog posts.

What Do I Do With All My Old Porn Tapes?

Now that's a simple question: what DO I do with all my old VHS porn tapes?

This is a question that has been haunting me for the past twenty years.  At one time, before the prevalence of access to the Internet, the only way one could "indulge" was by either renting or purchasing porn tapes.  

Back in the nineties I used to rent porn tapes when I work in Philadelphia.  I would rent the nasty relief tape at a video rental store a few blocks from the bank during my lunch hour.  I would furtively bring them back to my desk then to my home at the end of the day and return them the next day.  This was back in the day when you could only rent a VHS tape for one day.  Yes, this was BNF (Before Netflix).  I always worried I would leave the plain brown paper bag

that contained the tape at my desk and it would be discovered and I would be revealed for the perv that I am.  Never did happen, thank goodness.

I tried this for awhile then I changed because one day wasn't long enough to have access.  Plus I hated the stress of concealing the tape and worry about losing or misplacing the tape.  

Then one day I received an ad in the mail.  I don't know how they got my address but got it they did.  This ad was for purchasing VHS porn tapes.  Ah ha!  The only hitch was the price . . . . . . . . . . . . . $59.95 each.  I thought about it for awhile and decided to take the plunge.  

The first tape I received was about a pizza boy delivery (HOT! HOT! HOT!).  That was the first tape of many over the following years.  Interestingly the first tape I receive was the best of all I have received.  All told I think I purchased about (and I'm embarrassed to admit this) about thirty tapes.  There was one other tape which was pretty good ("Rawhide") but the rest?  I wouldn't miss them.  So what do I do with them?

A few years ago I gave some to a friend.  I thought I would hold on to the rest.  But guess what?  I don't look at them any more.  Don't need to anymore at this time of my life. I don't need any damn stinking porn tapes. Now what do I do with them?

The friend that I gave the tapes to has left.  Another friend suggested that I can give the tapes to a gay bookstore in Philadelphia, which is what I might do.

Giovanni's Room bookstore, Philadelphia, PA

  
I was concerned what would happen when I died.  And die one day I surely will.  I warned my sister-in-law that there are "personal items" that she would probably not want to look at when going through my belongings. Now that I am approaching my End Days, I think I would like to remove this one concern.  

I'm going to Philadelphia the day after my birthday in November.  I think I'll take those tapes with me.  

Problem solved.