Since I still had access to my aunt's camcorder and didn't have plans that night, I decided to videotape my model train layout that sat in our home's basement. Aside from the HO scale trains, this miniature world contained plastic models of a church, movie theater, school, baseball field, Pizza Hut, used car lot, numerous factories, and a subdivision of tiny hand-painted homes illuminated by miniature lights that me and my dad assembled. As a shy 15 year-old, it was the thing I felt most proud -- not to mention, I actually felt in control of this little world. I chose each shot carefully and went to great lengths to capture the miniature world I spent years constructing.
A few days later, my friend John (who also collected model trains) asked to see the completed video, so I popped the tape into the VCR. The two of us watched from the beginning and I re-visited my brother's prom night. After the prom portion of the video, my beloved train empire made its debut on the giant console television that sat in my parent's living room. About 10 seconds into my train video, the movie cut to a seedy looking basement that showed my brother in a brown rayon Hawaiian shirt banging on bongo drums while a room full of burnouts strummed their guitars. My friend John perfectly summed up my thoughts when he said, "What the hell is this?" Confused, I didn't have an answer. I pressed fast-forward on the VCR only to watch the same scene play out over the next 15 minutes or so. "Why the hell did my brother videotape this awful jam session?", I wondered. Later that night, I demanded answers and my brother finally confessed that he wanted to show the prom tape to his history class and, for maximum effect, he wanted the tape to cut from prom to band practice. Alas, that meant my train video was taped over and all my hard work was reduced to a video of burnouts hosting band practice. This also perfectly encapsulates the relationship between my brother and me during those teenage years...