Entertainment options for youth growing up in the early 70s were nothing like the plethora of options available for today's kids. The Atari 2600 gaming system wouldn't be available until 1977 and even then not everyone would have one. Television options were equally as abysmal leaving the only real option being hanging around with friends, bike riding, or playing ball.
Playing pinball was the highlight of the week. Back then one quarter would get you two credits of a 5 ball game. Dad would give my 2 brothers and I each a dollar every Saturday to do whatever we wanted. We got on our bikes and rode to the local public pool where there were 4 pinball machines just waiting for my $1.00. By today's standards, $1.00 may not sound like a lot of money, but that dollar translated to 40 balls of pinball, not including earned extra balls, earned free games and the oh so coveted Match!
If my brothers and I took turns watching each other play we could milk the $3.00 my dad gave us to 2 to 3 hours of pure entertainment. The problem was when the money ran out. We needed our pinball fix. How were we going to get more play time once the money ran out?
It wasn't long after we fed our last quarter into the machine that we realized something GLORIOUS. Most kids at the pool didn't realize for every quarter you got TWO credits. Most kids would play one game then walk away after the fifth ball. Cue the vultures.
After our last quarter we would hang around the pinball machines bouncing a flat tennis ball to each other, waiting for our prey. In no time our victim would appear with a shiny quarter. He would select a game and drop it into the coin slot. The credit kicker came alive, "BAM BAM."
Before the game started one of us would casually ask our prey, "Are you any good at pinball?" TRANSLATION: "Do you know you have two credits?" "Yea, I'm pretty good" meant both credits would be used. "No I'm not" meant one of us might get a free game.
The player would play his 5 balls and if they were unaware there was a second credit would then walk away. Being the youngest I asked my brothers, "If we play the second credit aren't we stealing?"
My older brother, who eventually became a lawyer, explained the "legalities" to us. "If they walk away, they forfeit the extra credit and we are legally allowed to play it." I was 7 years old at the time and had no idea what "forfeit " meant but I DID understand we were allowed to play the second credit. It was OK, because it was legal. So we played the forfeited games all summer and into the next.
It absolutely amazed my dad that with three dollars we would be gone all day. We never got around to telling him how we were able to do it. He wouldn't have understood anyway. He wasn't a lawyer. Our little scam worked great until one horrific Tuesday. The vendor supplying the pinball machines had come to rotate out the machines.
We couldn't believe it!
Evil Knievel! Solid state with the NASA digital displays, NOT the electromechanical digit counters, but the fancy digital displays you only saw when watching clips of the moon landing.
It seemed like an eternity while the delivery man set it up, but finally it was time. My brother went first, he dropped his quarter into the coin slot, "BAM." We looked at each other. We only got one credit! We immediately told the delivery man the machine was broken, we only got one credit.
"Sorry boys, inflation" the delivery man explained. I didn't know what inflation meant, but I quickly realized I wasn't going to get any more forfeits.
. . . and in a flash our racket was over. What once was 4-5 hours playing pinball was now 90 minutes. With that our childhood had ended.
Fast forward 50 years, I was with my son at the Wolf Lodge in their arcade. While he was off playing a Sponge Bob game I was looking at a Fast and Furious arcade driving game. A young kid came out of nowhere and asked me "Are you any good?"
'What?" I surprisingly asked.
"Are you good at this game?" the young boy repeated.
"No, terrible. AWFUL!" I replied. I paused for a moment and asked the boy "How about you, are you any good?"
"I'm pretty good" he replied.
I handed him the $10 I was holding and said "Go ahead, show me how it's done."
In disbelief he asked "Really?"
I said, "Yea, go ahead, it's legal."
