This week I made it official. I retired my Hitachi VT 2000A VCR.

It’s been a long time coming. I bought it in 1988, while in college. Since then, I’ve watched approximately 4 million* movies on it. And even after I migrated to a DVD player and relegated the Hitachi to the kids’ basement playroom, it’s handled, without complaint, the best my sons could throw at it: dirty fingers and hands all over the body, Hot Wheels getting stuck in the playing mechanism, attempts to yank cassettes while  the machine was operating.

It’s been the iron man, the Lou Gehrig of VCRs: Shows up every day, ready to play. It’s a testament to good engineering and, especially, good workmanship (not to mention the merits of tin-lead solder). And after 21 years, it deserves a vacation. Thanks, old friend.

*Possible exaggeration.