HA!... but'cha know there's gonna be an young'uns that'll be all like "VHS tape?"

VHS nothing, I still remember Beta tapes. Barely, yes, but I still remember them. x3

My Dad was very into Beta tapes. Think he recorded more on that medium than VHS.

I never recorded anything on a Betamax, they were pretty much phased out by the time I came across them. A few video rental stores (remember those?) still had them, but most of the stores had already switched over to VHS. Kinda like how I still remember 8Tracks, even though they had long since been phased out by regular cassettes (I even had an 8Track player once, thing looked like a small piece of luggage. You stood it on its side, opened it up and the single speaker took up the entire left side, while the 8Track slot was on the right. It came with a white mono earbud).

I also remember ZIP Disks and later the Data Disks, which were essentially smaller CDs. ….God I feel old.

Umm.. -hides stack of Beta tapes, movie camera- Dad also did a lot of home movies on Beta in my family. Hoping to get around to converting to digital sometime.

You had much more exposure to them than I did, then. I only remember them from the video rental places that still had them, never really used them myself. I just remember thinking they looked really odd, like you cut off part of a VHS tape. x3 I remember they used to use VHS boxes for them, too, and just put Styrofoam in the top to take up the rest of the space. I rented on, once, thinking I was getting a VHS tape, only to have it be a Betamax. I was so pissed off about it that the store gave me a free rental, because they had failed to label it correctly. x3

I honestly don't know why dad went with Beta and didn't really switch. Then again, I never really bothered to ask, just accepted it.

As for those boxes. Ya, I acquired a number of old Beta tapes in recent years that are in those VHS sized boxes. A 'Beta' sticker is placed over where it says VHS. There was also a hard plastic case version, which would fit the VHS pretty snug. For Beta tapes, there was a raised plastic part that held onto the spindles inside, so it wouldn't slide around. I remember seeing both formats in video stores back in the day as well.

You're old when you remember U-Matic tapes.

Several schools used that format. I don't think there were many sold for home use...

Kinda sounds familiar, but I don't think I remember those. I probably should be glad I don't, though. I do still remember actual floppy disks, though. The 5.25 B drive things, that were called 'floppy disks' because they were actually floppy, and the 3.5 A drive 'Hard Disks' were encased in a hard plastic covering. Before they started calling those things floppies, for some reason.

I barely remember seeing those things in elementary school for a little bit. I just remember the three pins on the spindles and wasn't the same thing as the machine my parents had at home, at the time.

Somewhere I have a VHS rewinder. It doesn't have a head or anything, it's sole purpose is to rewind tapes.

Yup, saved wear on the tapes.

If you didn't, they'd, be sure to charge you (in their later years).

It's the Ottsel! Beloved by all! Except the Video Store Clerk.

... Does any place still rent VHS tapes anymore?

save the kids or rewind the video on "druids guide to saving kids in a school bus"

It was ten years ago since there was even a video rental store in town, and the question still haunted him.

My video store charges me for failing to rewind Blu-Ray discs...

I still watch VHS tapes. Even in 2020.

Technically don't count as I'm old enough, but I grew up poor, so the family had to keep ancient decks of both VHS and Beta working.
This was before I was as good at fixing things as I am now too.
My mom was opportunistic at getting tapes, so we used both formats fairly heavily.
I personally love collecting vintage technology, and have the skills necessary to keep them working.
Don't have a Beta deck yet. Want to get one.
Have a VHS deck as old as me that I repaired (full belt-job), and two "shoulder-cam" camcorders. One needs a belt job, the other MOSTLY works except for a weird intermittent transport problem.
Have an 8-track/turntable, but don't have any tapes - I had one I got at a yard sale but I couldn't tell you what happened to it. Plenty of records. Have a reel-to-reel deck. Both 100% condition.

Fun fact: "Saving wear on your tape" by rewinding it outside of the VCR actually mostly applies to NEWER decks that have a real-time tape counter. This is because the VCR keeps the tape loaded into the playback position to run the timer, thus it's running against the transport when rewinding.
Older VCRs with the four-digit tape reel counter retracted the tape when you rewind, thus the tape isn't running against anything as it's wizzing past. The amount of wear on the inner mechanism is negligible - you're going to need to replace the belts in that deck LONG before anything else wears out from you rewinding.