You were a wild one, glad you are getting wise with age.

Another confession. I still haven't forgave my dad for selling our commodore 64. I had 300+ games for it. Played it all the time. Come home from school one day in about 1990, go into the spare room to fire it up and it's gone. He said no one played it and got I think $100 for it. Same with Solar Fire. I was bugging him for a new mountain bike. Come home from school one day and says we're going to buy a bike. I'm like sweet! Get home and go downstairs and realize he sold our pinball

I read a random comment on the internet today, not on this site, about how your internet connection also has some TV coming through it also.

Confess for the last 20 minutes I have been switching wires around and trying but did not work with what I have.

Not giving up yet, when I think about it again I will try with some different ideas.

Or maybe all that is a joke and I fell for it, who knows.

I don't compute?

I visit maybe 3 websites a day. Listen to more podcasts/sports shows daily

Confess that reminded me of back when I was 14 or 15 years old.

I had an awesome 10 speed, with a really good radio, speedometer with trip meter, 2 water bottles mounted, and a cargo bag.

I would fill the water bottles up with ice, go for a ride, and stop at a park and take the crown royal and Coke out of the cargo bag and be all set for the day.

So, this one time I decided I wanted to try something new, and instead of crown, I got hold of a fifth of jack.

That crap about killed me, I had to be rescued.

As punishment I lost that awesome bike forever, that I had spent my own money on with all the upgrades.

I was about to even add an electric motor to it, for going up hills.

And for even more punishment, to this day I still cannot drink brown liquor anymore, not even crown. I have the craps after just one sip.

Confess I did have a near death experience that day with the jack.

I did get a look at the bottle before it was tossed, and I had almost the entire fifth that day.

Anyway, I am glad that beer does not bother me.

Confess a few times in the past I have quit drinking alcohol for a while, and I have no clue why I ever did that.

Just no brown liquor ever again for me, hell no!

I love the brown liquor but confess I'm cheap so usually vodka for me unless it's the same price/on sale.

Confess I used to love it also, when I was a lot younger. Now it just makes me sick. (After it almost killed me that one time).

Looks like you will need a white shirt and slacks too

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I had built up a huge collection of nerf guns that I had given my daughter over the years. Decided to sell them at a garage sale. My daughter and I had to go on an errand, came back and found the wife had sold ALL of them - for 5 dollars. For ALL. We couldn't believe it.

Those guys are a bit informal?

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But depending on the day you play it's just casual clothes. Pennants (grade) is where they wear the whites. The ladies were known as white leghorns back in the day...

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But we've moved on now.

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It's huge here, 2000 registered clubs, seems every little town in Australia, first they get a pub, then a bowls club. But it's mostly a senior sport. Compare that to the USA where they have ten times our population and they have only 3,400 registered ten pin bowling alleys. If TV is any representation everyone in the US from Fred Flintstone to The Dude is playing bowls.

Also, the game consists of either 21 or 18 ends (or frames) and it's quite acceptable to have a beer at each end or after every second end.

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MyTypeOfFootyPunkin

Bowling's peak was in the 1950s and 1960s when the automatic pin setters were introduced. It declined pretty significantly up to about 2017, where it started to grow again to about 68 million bowlers in 2018. Ironically, what was once considered a more blue collar sport has grown into more of an upscale experience in a lot of cities. I have bowled at Fulton Lanes in New Orleans (picture below) which is two blocks from the Convention Center and very upscale, but also at the little local lanes in my Hometown too. Within a 20-30 minutes of me is at least 5 Bowling Alleys in small towns. I think it is fair to say most Americans have bowled multiple times, though not in leagues.

Pinball is growing too, and though I have to go a little farther (not counting my basement), within an hour are at least three decent places, and several smaller ones. If I lived closer to St. Louis, that number doubles. I am within a reasonable travel distance of at least five leagues.

However, the fastest growing sport in the US is Pickleball, but at 5 million players it still has a way to go to catch bowling

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Yes, i understand it is a popular sport there, but i also think there are a lot more casual bowlers than league bowlers if it's anything like here. Most people here have at least tried both forms.

You'd be hard pressed to find someone here, like ten pin there, that hasn't at least had a casual game of barefoot bowls on a summer Sunday afternoon. Where people on your side of the pond say things like 'Oh, so it's like bocce?'.

Now that's the way to bowl!

We hired a local dude to design our teams bowling shirts.. he nailed it!

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Yes, we're the Bowl-ers

I confess I was once on 3 leagues a weekend. Friday night. Saturday morning and Sunday night. That was back when I had fewer responsibilities.

My parents signed me up in a youth league on Saturday mornings when I was 5 or 6. That lasted about 2 weeks. I wasn't giving up my Saturday morning cartoons.

Another EJS dating misadventure but not the way it sounds.

I think we’re only going back to early fall of 2014. Dated this gal for about a year and some change. Met her late summer of that year and her and her family was on a bowling team. It was a league at one of those Brunswick zones. So it was basically the most informal league you imagine. Basically it was just a bunch of people committed to bowl every Friday. Nobody was competitive it was mostly drinking, socializing and almost everyone had rental shoes on. Most scores were modest. There’s always a couple people cracking 200s.

Since the league started before I met her and she lived on the other side of town I’d tag along to watch and have dinner. After the league I’d throw a few games.

Later in the season they got the idea that dad could stay home and I could sit in and nobody would notice cause there were so many people. So I did and they didn’t. Cool.

Cool except for one night I got hot. Went into the 10th frame with all strikes and get another. People are taking notice. Too many people. Got my 11th and look behind me and I have a crowd. Fortunately the staff weren’t among them.

So I’m standing up there with everyone cheering me on calling me Jerald or Gerard or whatever his old man name was and I’d be laughing if I wasn’t so nervous and couldn’t decide what I should be doing. I was about to go for it and mid swing I aim dead center for the first pin. Clunky impact. Awewww from the crowd.

Went back to her place dad is on the sofa(she still lived with her parents). I walk by and he asks how he did? I said good job you bowled a 297 tonight. Make sure to thank everyone for the encouragement when you go back next Friday.

With that went back downstairs with his daughter for my dessert.

Would she still be with you if you had pulled off the 300?

Hell no!

Rules to live by.

1. The first dance is always free.

A pig taught me that.

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That looks like the love child of a pig and Q*Bert and maybe an ant eater got in on the action.

That's Captain Goodvibes, the pig of steel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Goodvibes

He was a comic star in Tracks magazine when i was a kid and was every grommets hero. Never without a scoobie in his snout, or a chick or two on his arm, he was the coolest surfing pig ever to grace our imaginations.

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We had Cyril Sneer in Canada, he was a bad guy in our cartoon called "The Racoons" LOL

p.s. No fuckin' idea what he was supposed to be

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Cap'n was Fonzie wrapped in cool foil.

He'd crush Cyril by just happening to drop in on his wave and flattening him before scooping up his girl and his stash, all while slurping down an ice cold.

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He might be cool, but I can't stop seeing the swastika on the record center label.
What's up with that?

That's the native american peace sign (Navajo). Just adding that tidbit to give the benefit of doubt.

It's also an early symbol for Christianity. Odd how symbols can be changed.

Dan Brown knows.

Confess I have no clue who Dan Brown is, I just upvote all posts here because I like this thread.

Appears to be an author

Confess I am pretty sure I do not own a white shirt, and I know I do not have slacks.

I've never owned a suit. Don't have dress pants, dress shirt, blazer or tie.

Confess from the age of 21 to about 38 I wore a nfl jersey almost everyday. I think I had close to 70 jerseys. Went thru my closet a year or two ago and downsized to 7 or 8 keepers

Talk about a unfortunate name...

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I’ve never worn a tie.

Mostly Hawaiin shirts for me, no NFL jerseys.

None of the dress pants, shirts, blazers or ties ever.

Confess though, several years ago I did wear some of that stuff for about 3 hours, but was not my stuff.

My best friend loaned me some stuff when I went to Chicago to testify for the FBI about a crook that had ripped me off, and a whole lot more people also on eBay.

The crook got 60 months Federal pen, I thought that was light.

Oh, and dress shoes, HELL NO! Never owned any. Would never wear any. I wore black cowboy boots to court, and that is dress for me.

Confess I have cowboy boots, but never wear them except when going to a country music nightclub/bar, which has been many years ago now.

I have not worn the cowboy boots in probably over 15 years now, and in that time I have worn out a whole lot of flip-flops.

Confess a few times a week I look at the new sign ups here, and sometimes I spot a new member very close by, and I always hope they get active here, but never seems to happen.

And not so much more about getting together and playing each other pins anymore, but really it would be cool to meet some people close by, to just go to the lake tubing. (The pinball stuff would be awesome also).

I miss all that. Just driving the boat around on the lake pulling people on the 3-person banana tube. Or even the other tubes where I would haul ass and make waves and they would go 15 feet in the air.

Confess I never let anyone ever pull me on a tube, if I had just a few minutes ago caused them to go 15 feet in the air.

I never had any kids. I never wanted any kids.

But in the past, I did love when I would date girls with well-behaved kids and take them to the lake and give them a great day tubing.

Confess at times I have thought about going to the beach area on the lake, and see if I could spot a family that would love to do some tubing, but can only afford the beach, just to help them have a awesome time out on the lake.

My girlfriend has grandkids that I would love to take to the lake, but the mom is a b*tch, and does not even let my girlfriend see her kids.

I cannot stand that mom either, and it is a shame, those kids could be having a lot of fun on the lake.

I have a pretty good boat, that used to get used a lot in the past, but now it has been sitting for a year again now.

I used to fish a lot on the lake, and I caught and ate so many fish that I still will just give fish away if I catch anymore.

I really just want to get the boat and the banana tube back on the lake cruising around and having a good time.

These days I sometimes think about just selling the boat, but Hell No!

In the past I had so much fun on that boat that I was thinking I will always love this.

I just wish my girlfriend would get interested into learning how to drive it, so I could have some beer and relax.

I spent most of my career in suits or military uniforms. In the last five years though, my preferred work clothes are polos and beige slacks. I wear a softshell jacket in the fall and early spring to extend polo wearing season. I keep an "emergency" blazer, shirt and tie behind the door - only have to wear it a couple a times a year. I have several suits in my closet but not sure what I can comfortably fit into now...

I only get dressed up a couple times a month. Only for board meetings. I normally wear Old Navy/ American Eagle shorts and t shirts or jeans and t shirts.

I think about 2/3rds of my clothing is either sports teams, or golf shirts..and a few beer shirts

Oh, HELL NO!

Anyway, I confess that my go to game has always been TWD.

Anyone here that reads what I type knows that.

So, when Stern came out with Godzilla, I thought who gives a crap, not my theme.

Then I kept seeing that game as #1 for weeks and weeks.

I liked Elvira a whole lot, but it was a tad cramped, and hard to see some areas, and it got repetitive, so I let it go for the money and space for a Godzilla.

When I first took Godzilla out of the box, I thought it looked pretty bare, compared to the Elvira I had just parted with, and I was a tad disappointed.

By the 3rd game I had seen enough cool features that are not noticeable just looking at it, that I was like HELL YEAH!

I now know why that game is #1 here. It is addictive.

TWD is still safe, but not as sure about Oktoberfest now, if something else comes out that I want, and need the money and space.

A game like Elvira is super cool to me, until I have seen so much that it gets to be like over and over now.

The Walking Dead pro is just a good old game, fun every time.

Oktoberfest is awesome for having so many things to try for. And it is a tad hard, the ramps anyway.

(And the fact it is beer and amusement park themed helps).

To me anyway, just looking at Godzilla, I had to look it over again, I thought I had received a pro in a premium box. But then after a few games I realized just how awesome that game is.

Confess when that bridge starts going wild the noise drives me nuts, but the fact I can see the entire playfield, and it is fast and forgiving makes it a fun game.

One thing that really impresses me, is the fact the code in the game or something knows when I get a seldom cheap drain, and it gives another ball instantly, even if I have been on the same ball for a few minutes.

The only thing I do not like about Godzilla is the fact I cannot find the extra ball light on the playfield, so I can watch for it to be lit, like all my other games.

I do sometimes get an extra ball, but I have no clue how.

Godzilla does not have the awesome factor that Elvira has, but the playfield shots and the cool Godzilla song by Blue Oyster Cult makes up for that.

Confess I never cared much about that song, but I like it a whole lot better than the song in Elvira, it is a tad old for me, and I am pretty old.

I have no clue yet if I will keep this game forever or not. So far TWD is the only game that I have ever known right off the bat was forever, and I have never watched but one episode of that show, I hate that show, and only watched one time after getting the pin, just to try to understand more about the game.

Confess the most popular game I ever had here was AC/DC, and I loved it also, except all the cheap drains, and after 2000 plays I only had 3 extra balls the entire time. My friends still miss that game, but I don't. Well, I do a little.

The best ramps ever on a game are the ramps on Metallica. That game was also awesome for frying Sparky. It was the first game I ever bought when I got back into pinball after years away, and it was the last to leave.

Confess I just got tired of the music, and I actually like several of their songs.

For me and my girlfriend anyway, Houdini was the worst, and we did not keep it long at all. It had a few fun features, but got old in a hurry, and the tight shots did not help, nor did the creepy girls always giggling in the background.

I liked the Iron Maiden pro and wanted to keep it longer, but those damn pop bumpers in the way of hitting the left ramp just finally got on my nerves.

And speaking of stuff getting on my nerves, well I can hit the hard right shot over and over on TWD, by accident, but when the extra ball is actually lit, Hell No.

Confess it was actually nice to make a long post about pinball.

(Confess the first thing I noticed about Godzilla, was the fact that flipper rubbers would fit over the out lane posts, just like they did with Elvira, but there has been no need for that, half the time this game is awesome and throws out another ball anyway when that happens).

(my other games have never had any flipper rubbers over the out lanes, but even TWD could use them, if there was room).

Confess most of the time I re-read all I just typed before hitting the send button to make sure no errors, but not this time, this post is way too long, even for me.

If you read all this I hope you get some achievement points.

I can’t hit that shot ANY time

I confess I think if Little Johnny was local I’d use him as a place to store extra machines at his place so he could enjoy them. Then his girlfriend would start coming up on me yelling that I can’t bring any more machines over. Then Little Johnny will be like HELL NO and come after her with a roll of duct tape for the duration of the movement of the machine.

I wore hi viz to work as an operator for many, many years. Now i'm retired i wear a pair of Brooks trainers out every year and i dress in track pants and cool long sleeve shirts in the winter and workout shorts and cool t shirts/singelets the rest.

Being a poser i am into full print t shirts and i wear some that only just allow me entrance to public houses, but always bright and lairy. Lots of pinball shirts too, i collect shirts and have bags of them.

I hit that shot every time that I aim for the right ramp.

And when I aim for the right ramp, I hit that shot instead.

Confess I love playing pinball, but I am all over the place.

One play I will get a new high score, then the next play I will get a new low score.

Confess they should also start making code to record the low scores also. It could be very funny.

In the early days of solid state pinball. At a Bally school we were told they were looking into negative scoring too. So if you had a really bad game you could still accomplish something.

LTG : )

Sometimes i tell players here it's a shame that plain posts don't register a score like the little standups. Sometimes me or someone else will spend so many shots hitting posts that the game goes into ball search.

I wish Deadpool had a high score for post champ.