Other than one of those cheap plastic pinball boxes like Sears would sell, I don't remember how I was introduced to pinball. I grew up in a small town; There was a place where the kids hung out that always had a couple of pins. But we moved to the big city when I was 10 years old in 1962. and I don't remember ever going into that hangout until I started to go back and visit my best friend from 1963 to 1969.

My first recollection of pinball is when we moved into a rented house and my dad told me there was a pinball machine in the basement. It was a woodrail. The coin push unit had been jimmied so you could push in for a free play. I don't remember what that pin was; I remember that the play field dominant color was a creamy light green.

I liked playing that pin. I did not love playing it. When my cousins would come over we would play and work for that Special to light up. The rest of the time I was out on the streets with my bicycle.

One time in 1963, we stopped at a roadside restaurant and there was a pin. 5 balls for a dime. Years and years later, like 2013, and I was getting reacquainted with pinball, in the depths of my mind that pin floated to the top and I remember it was Gottlieb Slick Chick but what I remember most about it is that some of those pop bumpers did not work.

I played several other pins during the 60s but the only one I can remember by name is Moulin' Rouge.

I graduated high school in 1970, joined the navy, started hot rodding cars, hitting the bars, and smoking the rope.

The next time I remember playing a pin was when a Williams Fire was placed in the convenience I would stop at when coming home from my 2nd shift job. That would have been in 1987.

So, I liked pinball. I did not love pinball. And I certainly was no Wizard.

2012. This is when I first saw a visual pinball on Youtube. I did not know what it was but I was fascinated. Once I figured out what was going on I built a visual pinball machine. Then I bought a beater Bally Playboy. Then the Playboy broke and sat idle for a few months before I learned to repair it.

In the meantime, one of the games on my visual pinball machine was Stern's Big Game. At first I did not like Big Game very much but it started growing on me.

In November 2015, I located a for real Big Game in Oklahoma City. And then I discovered Pinside. People were talking about these classic Sterns. I paid attention. Now my little house is full of these old Sterns.

And I am having a blast.