Rollicking Relics

Found an old student’s diary for the schoolyear 1982-’83. It’s quite amusing to see that I had hideous handwriting as a kid. The most interesting part is a list written in purple colored pencil:

Betamax Tapes

1. Annie
2. E.T.
3. Firefox
4. The Toy
5. Grease I
6. Grease II
7. Superman I
8. Superman II
9. Star Wars
10. Empire Strikes Back
11. Swamp Thing
12. Zapped!
13. Going Ape!
14. Oh God book I
15. Oh God book II
16. Running Scared
17. Rocky I
18. Rocky II
19. Rocky III
20. Willy Wonka
21. The Sword and the Sorcerer
22. Dragonslayer

Obviously, it’s a list of rented tapes that I watched during that period. The old Beta player lasted till the early ‘90s. It was inevitably replaced by the VHS player, which proved useful to me later because I was able to record favorite shows and music videos until the early ‘00s. But DVD became the widely used format, so I--and everyone else--had to adapt.

Anyway, I remember borrowing Beta tapes with the family during weekends at shops in the area, such as Video Bug, Junction Video, and Bijou. I’d also watch many cartoons, including He-Man, Transformers, Smurfs, Super Friends, GI Joe and others in the years that followed. Usually, three to five episodes were compiled onto a tape.

I don’t remember what “Going Ape!” and “Running Scared” are about. And I only vaguely remember “Dragonslayer” and “Sword and the Sorcerer.” But I do remember that there was sort of a barbarian movie trend back then because of the success of the first “Conan.”

But “Zapped!” I recall with fondness. Other films with some nudity that sort of shocked me as a kid were “Videodrome,” “Excalibur,” “History of the World,” and some action flicks and comedies whose titles I forget.

They didn’t warp my brain or anything. At least, not too much.