Rekindled Love For The Game

I was 17 years old when I bought my 1st pin in the summer of 1985. I was working for my dad in NYC as a freight elevator operator. On the 7 th floor of the building was an art printing company and the owner had a 1978 Paragon that was in the back by the freight doors. I bought it for $300. I played that game in our basement for years until I got married and moved out. When my Dad sold the house I moved the machine into my basement 15 yrs ago. I had children and priorites changed and pinball got left behind. The machine moved from my basement to my mother in laws garage and was forgotten for almost 12 yrs.

One day in the fall of 2010 my 11yr old asked to buy williams pinball hall of fame on Wii. It was the best $17 I ever spent! My love for pinball was back! How could I have left my machine in a garage!!! Suddenly I wanted my machine back in the basement where a stupid futon sat. The next day we picked up the machine and brought her home.

Over the last decade I had considered bringing it back home but had confused this machine with another I had picked up in 1986, Williams Tri Zone. It was literally put out on the curb! When I got the machine home there were some boards that needed repair. I called my pin guy walter and he took 3 boards and i went off to college and forgot about them. When I called Walter a year later his wife told me he had passed away and she gave all his pinball stuff to his friends. When dad sold the house I gave my Tri Zone to my best friend. I was always reluctant to bring Paragon back home because I thought she was missing 3 boards in the back. When I opened the head and saw all 3 boards I was mad at myself for confusing the 2 machines. It only needed a new mpu because some idiot didn't remove the batteries:)

Over the course of the next year I went pinball crazy. I seem to be acquiring a pin every 3 or 4 months. I drove from LI, NY to Erie PA for my Embryon. My friend Steven and I were skiing in northern NJ when I got a reply from my request for an embryon. We drove to Lake Erie that night and picked up Embryon the next morning. We drove home 12hrs against a nasty snow storm all the way across PA. That was the last time I'll travel that far for a pin.

I currently have 5 pins now stuffed in the same basement that the Paragon used to occupy by itself. Pins are like tattoos in that it's rare to only get one. I have no more room,(according to the wife,) for anymore yet I still search everyday for a Shadow!