Battle Creek, MI
Hi Everyone,
You guessed it, it's that time of year for the "Dayhuff's 12 Hours of Pinball Party" on November 4th 2017 (it's always the first Saturday of November every year) from noon to midnight. This is an open invite to anyone on the group, plus anyone they might want to bring along with them that's into playing pinball. This is something that we started doing to try and get the local and some not so local pinheads together to play, talk and brag about pinball stuff for the day. This is a family friendly party so kids are welcome as always. Please make sure the kids know the rules though as they probably won't be reading this invite.
Each year this party has grown to such a huge amount of people coming through that it's hard to keep track of all the names and faces so name tags are provided at the door when you first arrive. They are located in the kitchen so please come through the front door or the garage when you first arrive to get yours since we all want to match up the name to your lovely face. Please be sure to find SuAnn and myself at some point, even if it's just to say hi.
OVER THE YEARS MOST OF YOU HAVE MET OUR OFFICIAL GREETER, OUR DOG DUSTY AND ARE USED TO GIVING HIM LITTLE SNACKS. DUSTY WAS REALLY SICK A FEW WEEKS AGO AND CAN NO LONGER HAVE ANY PEOPLE FOOD. HE COULD BECOME VERY VERY SICK FROM IT. PLEASE DO NOT FEED HIM ANY. I WILL HAVE BOWLS OF DUSTY TREATS SITTING AROUND THAT YOU MAY FEED HIM.
There is no monetary admission fee for the party but if you could bring a dish or some type of treat to pass that would be great. Try to stay away from a bag of chips unless it goes with a specific dip you're bringing or we will end up with 40 bags of unopened chips at the end of the night. Something homemade is always a big hit, cookies, rice krispie treats, or anything else you can think of is always fine with us. We always have a few munchies out to get things started and SuAnn will make meatballs and her world famous sausage dip as always. I'm providing about 10 different kinds of pop, bottled water and some diet stuff too, but if you want anything else specific make sure to bring it... and as always I'll buy the pizza from Pizza Hut around 6-7 pm for everyone. Please remember when the pizza gets here (and you'll know when the siren goes off) that everyone would like some. Please RSVP me back personally at [email protected] or by phone if you're coming and how many people will be with you. That way we can better plan for the amount of people that will be attending. At last years party there were about 180 people that came through...some stayed all day and some for just a few hours..., it's up to you and NO, I don't need any help setting up the games the night before or even three hours before the party...so no sneaking in early. Thanks anyway, but noon does mean noon.
Each year we have been doing official T-shirts to commemorate the event and will be doing so again this year. Jeff Rumsey came up with another really cool design for the back of the shirt this year and it looks great. So if you're wanting a shirt or even more than one please let me know ASAP since the cut off date to get it to the printers will be the 15th of October. I'll need to know how many shirts and what sizes. These shirts are made up ahead of time based on your request and can be picked up here the day of the party. I will NOT have extras the day of the party, if you don't preorder you won't be able to get one. Price is $20 regardless of size and I'm pretty sure I can get all the way up to 6x but I'll have to double check with the printer. Pretty soon I will have a link you can click on so you can see what the shirts will look like ahead of time. Remember the cut off date for just the shirts is October 15th. You can still RSVP for the party after that date but the sooner I know you're coming the better, and if you can't make it after you've RSVP'd then please let me know that as well.
As always there will be a Zen tournament this year on a preselected pin that has been kept a secret for the last month or two and only a small handfull of people know which pin it will be for obvious reasons.......
Joe Kace from Laseriffic Laser Engraving is already working on some cool trophy's ( but please don't bug him about what game they're for) for this years top two winners. As most of you know Joe does only the best in making all your aftermarket lighted up toppers, if you haven't seen his website you should check it out. Here's the link Laseriffic.com. There will also be other pinball related prizes for the runners up, remember you can't win something unless you play in the tournament...which is a pretty fun time and a great way to meet fellow hobbyist. If anyone wants to donate some sort of pinball prize for the tournament winners feel free to do so and it will be greatly appreciated. And of course you don't have to get into the tournament if you don't want to but it is free. The way the Zen tournament works is great because it gives everyone a fair chance to win no matter how good (or if you're like me), how sucky you are at playing. My own mother took fourth place a few years ago and she never played before in her life........LOL. Pete Mathis will be around to collect your names for the tournament, please be sure to stick around until the ending if at all possible, other wise your partner will be scrambling to find someone to take your place or worse yet have to bow out of the tournament because you left before it was over with. The entire tournament takes around 3 hours from start to finish...give or take and usually starts up around 5-6 pm.
Each year the party is in the late fall for a few different reasons but the main one is that it's just to dang hot out in the summer and then comes Expo...and well, we're all just too busy doing other things plus it's soooo much cooler. Even though it's cooler outside it still tends to warm up on the inside what with the games, lights, people etc... so dress in something comfortable that will keep you cool when you're rubbing butts with someone you don't know. LOL.
Now for the RULES, and yes we must have a few basic rules (because lets face it, without rules...there's chaos) to avoid some past issues. First, please make sure you have a good time and play as many games as possible, you have less than nine minutes per game to hit them all in 12 hours. IF something breaks down ( yeah like it won't happen...LOL...) please let me know ASAP and this year I'll have sticky notes and pens so you can even leave a note on the glass letting me know what's going on with the game, and I'll try to get it fixed when it's not so crowded or while everyone is chowing down on pizza or sooner if possible. For instance if a ball is stuck in the game feel free to open the game and take care of it yourself, just PLEASE be careful with the glass and let people around you know what you're doing...we don't need thousands of pieces of glass all over the basement, especially during a party. Please no drinks or food on the games, under the games is fine or even balanced on your head if you're that talented or just leave your soda on a coaster upstairs as I'm sure nobody will mess with it. Ha ha. Please remember there are separate garbage cans for trash and empty soda bottles and cans. With close to 200 people coming through there is a lot of garbage to take care of. Remembering to throw your trash away and put the empty soda cans in the correct receptacles will be helpful and much appreciated. The bin for the empty soda cans and bottles will be located next to the cooler with the water and diet soda and the garbage cans will be in front of the microwave and the kitchen sink area. Please no smoking in the house. There is plenty of fresh air to pollute outside or in the smokers lounge (garage) which might have a game or two set up to play as well. Parking is available up and down the street but please don't block anyone's mail box or driveway. I've not had any neighbor issues with these partys yet so let's not start now.
OK, with all that BORING stuff said ( and if you're still reading this and even still awake ) lets get onto more important stuff like the list of games that you're in for. Even though it's really not all that important to some, others like to know. This list is ever changing so don't hold me to it.
Revenge From Mars, Terminator 2, Secret Service (new this year), DE Batman, King Kong, DE Simpson's, DE Star Wars, Tales from the Crypt, Gun's and Roses, Batman Forever, Apollo 13, Monopoly, Simpson's Pinball Party, Elvis, Circus Voltaire, Champion Pub, Cactus Canyon, WHO Dunnit, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Big Bang Bar remake, Pinball Magic, Cueball Wizard, Spirit, Haunted House, Black Hole, Rocky, The Amazing Spiderman, James Bond, Charlie's Angels em. version, Canada Dry, Fast Draw, Central Park, Nags, Blackout, Barracora, Wizard of Oz, Blackwater 100, Special Force Girl's, Gilligan's Island, Judge Dredd, Twilight Zone, Theatre of Magic, Shadow, No Good Gofers, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Monster Bash, Williams Indiana Jones, Funhouse, The Getaway (HS II), Taxi, Big Guns, Banzai Run, Superman, Iron Maiden, Orbitor One, Bally's Rolling Stones, Kiss, Centaur, Fathom, Spectrum, Wizard, Nip-it, Fireball Classic, Six Million Dollar Man, Bally's Playboy, Harlem Globetrotters, Mata Hari em. version as well as the Evel Knievel em. version, 1931 Baffle Ball, 1932 Bally Hoo, 1933 Worlds Fair Jigsaw and M. Redgraves 1871 + 1876 Parlor Bagatelle's, and of course the HERCULES, hey doesn't everyone have one of those in their basement? Plus other fun stuff like, Spy Hunter, Dragon's Lair, 1968 Space Pilot, 1957 Ten Strike Bowler, two Rush the Rocks, 1938 slot machine, 1958 Skill Roll, jukebox and pop machine. If you're still curious how I managed to cram all that into my tiny basement you can go to U-tube and type my name in and see video's that Marcus Anderson and others have shot over the years, it's really cool to see how much the basement has changed over the last few years.
When you call or email with your RSVP, I'll give you my exact address if you don't already have it for GPS'ing. It's pretty simple though. Remember you MUST RSVP no matter what and if possible PLEASE use my direct email address which is [email protected] since it just makes my life easier.
I guess that's about it.. We hope to see many of you again this year, and hopefully many new faces this year as well.
Thanks
John and SuAnn Dayhuff
Battle Creek, MI.
269-979-3836
. John said there will be name tags too. 
