At The Arcade

A couple of pals and I went to the grand opening of a throwback video game arcade. Man there were some ridiculous looking goons in there. I had terrible acne a a kid, but wow..I didn't realize in 2018 it was still a thing. Funnier yet, MAYBE they didn't have acne UNTIL they stepped under the neon lights.

BUT, I gotta tell you...it was awesome. The memories flooded back of all the great times my friends and I had wasting away in darkness..NOT gay'ing out. Though I miss that feeling of limited quarters (since it's a pay first and play unlimited place)...it was a nice return to what is most simple.

I vividly remember the arcade near my house. I'd have to trek through a wooded path that went to Montgomery Road that went to the Kenwood Mall. There was an offshoot strip of stores there that had a video rental place and tuxedoes. Crammed in between was the arcade. If you weren't looking for it, you would definitely miss it.

That arcade became obsolete when video games went to homes. Which was tragic but economically sound. My Mom would have a dish of quarters that I'd take to buy Wendy's hamburgers (which was nearby) and hang out playing video games. At a certain point, I think $5 in, you got to feeling like you did waste money you could've gotten baseball cards or comic books. That sinking feeling was rough. But then you also stood around and enviously watched the other kids play. You struck up conversations here and there. The older kids didn't really give you the time of day. And as an Asian kid in Ohio, they must've been extra confused. As there were very few in that area.
It occurred to me that the video game arcade isn't really about playing the games. Yes, they are incredibly amusing, especially the simplest ones (Asteroids). But...I really believe it's about community. Arcades gave people like me a place to go where we can watch people...try to do something. I think it's inherent in us to collectively save the Princess or drive a race car to the finish line, or shoot space aliens and save Earth. In that safe sense, we are together as a community. Shared only the thought that we all want to distraction from our lives.
Typical of the latch-key child I was, it was a great moment to just meet new people and learn things as well. Many times you learn other kids play musical instruments. This is how bands are started. Or that they have a collection of some kind. That's how we completed our own...by trading. This is all lost in today's youth that don't have a community other than online. In the spatial internet, there isn't the comraderie of personal interaction. Being online means things are constantly mis-read.
Any way, I loved being at the arcade again. I geeked out on the two machines I loved as a kid "Bad Dudes" and "Funhouse" pinball. Can you believe it? Out of the three pinball machines they had there..."Funhouse" was one of them, it was meant to be.