My pinball story

I played pinball as a kid but never really knew what to do other than keeping that silver ball in play. I remember playing high speed at a local pizza joint and having a great time. Fast forward 20 years or so and I have a son, wife and one on the way. Life flys by so fast. We find out we're having another boy and I couldn't be happier. My wife ended up getting really sick from her pregnancy. When I mean sick, I mean really sick. Most people have heard of postpartum depression, well my wife ends up getting a condition called prepartum depression. This goes on for months. I am trying to keep my family together, take care of my wife, 3 year old son, and pay the bills. Luckily I went to a friends house I haven't seen in years and we get to talking about life and everything else. He then says come downstairs, I just got a pinball machine and asked if I wanted to play a few games. Riverboat gambler. As I am playing I forget a little bit about all of my problems that are going on and I go to that place as a kid in the pizza place. What a great distraction. Even just for a few moments. I started looking into getting my own machine shortly thereafter. After a few weeks of searching I purchased my first pin, black rose. Black rose and I spent every night together for the next 7 months. I would put everybody to bed early and go downstairs and play pinball for a few hours every night. What a great way to spend some time. I could have went out and drank my problems away or done worse. Pinball saved my sanity and helped me keep it together when times were tough. My wife has since recovered and our newest son is now 11 months old. I am now the happiest man in the world again and I would contribute it partly to playing the silver ball. Now I have traded and sold other machines thru the help of pinside. I have also joined the Pittsburgh pinball league. Through that I have met a ton of great people in this sport and now and I have caught the bug. Just remember "it only takes 1 great ball to win".