The Die was cast...

I've been fascinated with pinball machines since I was 5 years old in the late fifties and someone left a free ball on a game in the restaurant my mother and I were at. i pulled back the plunger and sent the ball flying, the lights started flashing and it started making all kinds of lovely sounds of bells and dings. On tiptoes I used both hands to push the buttons as fast as I could, like I saw the big men do. Very soon the ball went down the side without hitting it once with the flippers. However, I was rewarded with more noise and the sound of coins dropping into the coin return. About this time my mother finished paying the bill and while I was scooping out the nickels she grabbed my arm and with a slight panicked look on her face, she demanded the nickels and put them on the glass top of the machine and practically dragged me out of there. She said that it was illegal for children to play and I could have been arrested. Later when I could read better I understood the signs over other pinballs that said "No Minors!" (Back then some pinball machines were gambling devices that gave back money when you won). Anyway the die was cast and for many years after I could not walk past a machine without checking the coin return and pushing all the buttons hoping for a free play, or nagging my mom for nickels for the legal machines.

Its been a lot of years since then, I've played a lot of pinball in my life but not in the last 15 years or so. But i got the bug again a few months ago and I bought my first machine, a Checkpoint in very good condition. Then a few months ago I bought an Elektra machine in poor cosmetic condition and I've been putting in a lot of time fixing it up.