For multiple reasons, I was thinking of my hometown today. For one, I was there today. For another, I was reading a book that was talking about video games. That got me thinking of the two pinball arcades in my town. The 70’s were a great time to be a kid. Pinball and video games were the rage and my small town actually had two pinball parlors.
Two quick stories:
First, I remember a petition being passed around my junior high school asking if we wanted a pinball parlor in town. I’ll be honest, I voted no because it was going to bring in “bad teens.” And by that, I meant the kid that smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets (think a smoking Fonzie).
The second is that before it opened to the public, the first pinball place had a special opening for invited guests. Because my father was on the village board, we were invited. Maybe you had to be there, but being a kid who is given unlimited quarters to play all the video games they could was the absolute best thing that happened to me that year and probably for years after.
I am becoming a grumpy old man, but it was better in my day. You rode your bike, hung out with friends, saw all sorts of other people, and had a great time. None of this sitting in your room playing online.
Of course, as Atari and Intellivision came in, the pinball craze waned and eventually both places closed.
Fortunately for me, I found D&D about that time so my good times with friends continued.