As I looked through an advertising circular recently, something caught my eye. I didn’t particularly need the item, but knew I had to share the information with the rest of the family.

Someone – I don’t remember the store – had a DVD player on sale for $20. I drifted into old man mode and remarked that I could not believe a DVD player could cost so little even though these kinds of deals have existed for a few years now.

I guess the deal caught me by surprise because already have a DVD player. Since we don’t even watch them very often, I hadn’t checked out prices on new players for a while.

That didn’t stop me from thinking back to a time when buying a device to consume media didn’t cost less than a tank of gas. Of course, this notion amused our teenage daughter who finds discussions of things like typewriters and record players and VCRs a constant source of comedy.

So we started talking about the time when my wife and I bought a VCR together. We had been dating for less than a year. Our mutual love of television spurred this decision, quite possibly the first major one in our relationship.

Yes, we’re the kind of people who mark “jointly buying a VCR” as a major moment in our life together. Deal with it.

This was sometime before the spring of 1993. I don’t remember exactly when we made the purchase, but I do know that we used the machine to record the final episode of “Cheers” that spring. I worked nights back then so could not guarantee that I would see this important event.

We approached the decision very rationally and figured that we could easily justify the cost, which was significant back then for two folks not making a lot of money.

If we had a VCR, Maria could catch up on shows if she fell asleep in front of the TV. Then I could come over to her apartment the next day to watch the shows I missed while working. Better yet, we could watch our favorite programs together on the weekend if we wanted.

So we went to some big electronics store in Lancaster and took a leap of faith. I cannot stress how much this signified the strength of our relationship for me. If I made a TV commitment with someone, it was pretty serious.

The whole thing worked out wonderfully in the end. I couldn’t have written a better script. Oh, yeah, Maria and I stayed together too.

I have no idea whatever happened to that old VCR. In fact, we don’t even have one in the house. I thought of that recently as I came across a box of old video tapes while looking for something else in the basement.

I managed to sell the last VCR we had at a yard sale a couple of years ago. That meant I had nowhere to turn to look at those tapes, some of them which had no identification as to what they contained.

I guess I could always go to the store and buy a new one. That wouldn’t take as much of a commitment as it did 20 years ago, but it would probably cost more than a DVD player.