A Reader's Digest Triple Feature
and one very lazy afternoon
One early (and lazy) afternoon this week, I settled in with this box set of Reader’s Digest National Park documentaries, a couple warm beverages, and a few books too. I’d been out that morning in the very sunny but freezing weather and I just wanted to take it easy for a few hours.
Just a couple weeks before, I was at a Charity Shop in Johnson City, Tennessee, and I came across this great box set. The store had cleared out one of the backrooms, and turned it into a Christmas decor room. Having previously been a stock room, there was other stuff left behind including a bin full of old classroom stuff. Some old pens and pencils, cork board banners, paper weights —it really looked like a teacher had retired in the 1990s and thrown anything in their classroom that wasn’t nailed down into this bin.
I wasn’t going to root through the whole thing, after seeing what it was, but I saw a few old maps that looked interesting, so I did. At the bottom of the bin was a couple Little Brown Handbooks, and this set of tapes.
I believe many of us, and certainly all of the readers of this blog have these talismans of nostalgia —objects that do so much more than just aid in remembering, but completely transport us back to a different time. For me, Reader’s Digest Home Video tapes are one of those such things. Other objects have a similar effect. When I leaf through the pages and pages of CDs I have in my Vaultz Locking CD Binder, I’m reminded of all the people I associate with each song.
These days especially, there are collectors chasing that feeling in every medium possible. Vinyl records, action figures, comic books, Bratz dolls, PC Engine Video Game HuCards, airplane barf bags (did you know most airlines no longer provide them on flights?), physical items are vehicles to the past for many of us and these tapes take me right back to my early school days.
Before we get into the tapes, please make sure you stay tuned until the last video! After the credits rolled on the Grand Teton And Glacier National Park tape, a shorter featurette started playing with some wonderful views of Alaska! This was certainly filmed much earlier than the release date of the rest of these videos, if I had to guess, the mid-80s, as opposed to 1992 for the rest, but I found it very interesting!
Enjoy!
Mount Rainer And Olympic: Great National Parks Presented By Reader's Digest
1992 | Runtime 66 Minutes
Begin your sojourn in Mount Rainier National Park by tracing the fire-and-ice evolution that gave the mountain its spectacular character. Learn about jökulhlaups, the great flash floods created when Rainier's twin forces - volcanic heat and glacial colds - collide. Below Rainier's imperial peak, discover vistas and valleys, waterfalls and alpine meadows, bobcats, cougars, raccoons and other wildlife. Meet Ranger Ron Warfield and later climb to the summit of magnificent Mount Rainier. At Olympic National Park, visit the resplendent Hoh Rain Forest and listen to Marilyn Lewis tell the story of her pioneer grandfather (the "Iron Man of Hoh"), who carved a homestead out of the wilderness. Continue to the park's glacier- sculpted mountains and to Marymere Falls, Soleduck Falls and Mount Olympus itself. Finally, discover one of the most dramatic stretches of wilderness coast in America, with its wondrous tide pools teeming with vibrant life.
Grand Teton And Glacier: Great National Parks Presented By Reader's Digest
1992 | Runtime 71 Minutes
Begin your wilderness getaway with the breathtaking vistas of Grand Teton National Park. Learn how the earth thrust up the Teton Range and how 19th- century trappers penetrated the wilderness. Relive the development of Jackson Hole and join a group of modern climbers as they face the challenge of an ascent. Discover the park's secrets from experienced Rangers who know its denizens and their private places intimately. Travel to Glacier National Park and see the impact of weather, wind and water on the park's myriad species of wildlife in their struggle to survive the harsh elements. Journey along the Going-to-the- Sun Road and encounter water- falls, a colorful profusion of wild- flowers, majestic mountains, refreshing lakes and many hiking trails. Then listen as Curly Bear Wagner, Cultural Coordinator for the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, reveals his tribe's special spiritual relationship with this magnificent land.
Bryce Canyon And Zion: Great National Parks Presented By Reader's Digest
1992 | Runtime 64 Minutes
One glimpse will show you why Bryce Canyon's intricately shaped, vibrantly colored rock formations captivate visitors year after year. See the park from unique viewpoints – glide over Bryce Amphitheater in a hot-air balloon, then go down into the canyon on a trail ride. Find out from Ranger Maggie McGee about the ancient geological forces that created "hoodoos," the park's famous towers, pinnacles and eerie statues of stone. In Zion National Park, explore magnificent Zion Canyon and hike its strenuous switchback trails. Visit Checkerboard Mesa, Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel, Kolob Arch and the Great Arch of Zion. See Zion through the eyes of early explorers and settlers in photos and dramatic reenactments, and then visit the Paiute Indian Clifford Jake, who will tell you how his forefathers "got songs from the mountains, the wind and the eagle."
"The Great Alaska Cruise" BONUS FEATURE
Well, that’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed the tapes! If you’re looking for more, please check out my page on Archive.org for the full list of digitized media. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message right here or drop a comment below. If you haven’t already, please check out this edition of Virtual Channel Surfing from earlier in the week or any of my other previous posts here. Thanks so much for checking out this week’s edition of Diptych!
See you soon!
—Forrest
I want a little television like that so bad...