July 1987
Personal Video Technology
Sometime around 1985-86, JVC introduced the HandyCam. It was a hand-held video camera that used compact-sized VHS tapes that you could insert into an adapter and play on your home VCR. In 1986, the very idea of having personal videos of anything you wanted to record, had just become even easier. The HandyCam was much smaller in size and much lighter to carry.
I was making good money back then; and I wanted to move from recording archived audio memories on cassette tapes to making videos. I drove to the “American of Madison” store in Oak Creek, WI, one Saturday afternoon in the Fall of 1986. I went up there with the intent to get one of these brand new video cameras. The camera, one extra back-up battery, two boxes of blank tapes all totaled about $1400.00. Yeah, it was a huge investment!
I wanted to have video of our annual camping trip. In 1987, our original group of five guys, and our friend, Michelle from Illinois, all went up to Peninsula state park that July. I knew nothing about video recording or how to make interesting videos. Whatever I recorded was what we watched. I had no means of editing video tape.
Keep in mind, this was about twenty years before personal video recording was ever a thing like it is today. We didn’t have cell phones in those days. The only still cameras we had were pocket Kodak Instamatics. I did have a 35mm Canon camera, but after getting this video camera, I hardly ever used the Canon.
The one unfortunate reality of the antiquated technology of 35-40 years ago, is that the video itself is very poor. The audio was even worse. I did my best to boast the audio on the edit of this video.
So, who is in this video?
Me (Dave). I was 24 years old. Curt was 23. Mark had just turned 22. I think Mike was 21 and Joe was around 18 or 19. Michelle? Well, I honestly don’t know how old she was that summer. I’m going to guess she was around 18 or 19. (Mike and Joe’s younger sister, Dee Dee was briefly in the beginning of this video).
Michelle was a really good sport. She put up with a lot of garbage from those guys. I was always nice to her. She only stayed with us until her parents showed up the next day after we arrived at the park. Since there wasn’t much else to do, she hung out with us most of the week. After that trip, I stayed in touch with her until the end of that year. Mark and I moved to Florida the following February 1988, and I lost track of her. I found Michelle again on Facebook in September 2010. She has never seen this video before. I hope she enjoys it.
Door County 1987