Some of Stokes's tape collection consisted of 24/7 coverage of Fox, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, CNBC, and other networks—recorded on up to eight separate VCRs in her house. She had a husband and children, and family outings were planned around the length of a VHS tape. Every six hours, when the tapes ran out, Stokes and her husband switched them out—even cutting meals short at restaurants to make it home to switch out tapes in time. Later in life, when she was less agile, Stokes trained a helper to do the task for her. The archives grew to about 71,000 (originally erroneously reported as 140,000 in the media) VHS and Betamax tapes (many up to 8 hours each) stacked in her home and apartments she rented just to store them.
