The video arcade is dying. Arcades are going out of business all over the country. Another one of my childhood institutions goes the way of the big-block Trans-Am.
I can remember skipping out of high school at lunch to walk to the Space Station Arcade to play Donkey Kong and Stargate, Centipede and Galaga. The place was alive with energy (and, consequently, sweat), light, and early electronic sounds. And lots of people. I met friends there. I laughed and talked about cars and girls. I actually took a date to an arcade once. And she had fun!
Video game playing was a community event back then (did you ever think you'd get so old that you'd have to say "back then"?), and you always had an audience. There was no sitting in your underwear on the couch in the dark. This was a social activity.
Just as we stay home to watch movies and concerts on our big screen TV's at home (complete with popcorn and clean floors) we now have one more excuse to be alone.
I feel like the generation before me must have felt when they started losing drive-in theaters.
2 comments:
I remember drive-in theaters and the sensory overload that went with them; mosquitoes, fogged windows and of course, being stacked like cord wood in the back of my father's station wagon. Good times........
The best thing about drive-in movies was wearing your jammies there and waking up at home. Sigh.
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