It's Troll Time!
MG's Mom says:
Troll - I just LOVE the Pop stories - reminds me so much of things my grandfather and my Daddy would say and do. Keep it coming!
I'm glad you're reading along. Plenty more of Pop coming, whether you like it or not!
A Nole Fan says:
I often wonder how those small conversations we have with our children, that seem innocent to us as parents, affect them. I can only hope that the conversations and teachings that we have today resonate with our children and stick with them as lifelong lessons.
So well said! And man, you hit the nail on the head. I often wonder if some of the things I say are on the money or just a bit too harsh. Sometimes I wonder if I'm shaping the kids or scarring them!
I am really enjoying your report!
Thanks for reading along, Tom. Glad you're enjoying it!
Troll....we're waiting by the bridge for an update.
Well the wait is over!
In our last episode, I told the story of how I learned the hard way about product placement. I mentioned in that story that my brother Mike picked out one of those cool, old fashioned cap guns that look like muskets.
Here's what they look like today:
They look pretty much the same except that now they're painted fruity colors. The one Mike picked out was the color of wood -- you know, like a real gun. But I guess we can't have that nowadays. We can't have our toy guns look too much like real guns. We have to have politically correct toy guns.
I guess I shouldn't complain -- I'm actually surprised they have guns at all and haven't replaced them with toy banjos.
So Leslie and I were enjoying a beer on the porch of the Pioneer Hall when we last left off. I went inside because I wanted to see this:
Any self-respecting Fort Fiend knows what this is -- it's Crockett's Tavern!
But long before it was Crockett's Tavern it was something else much better.
It was the second best arcade in the world.
Yes, you read that right -- Crockett's Tavern wasn't always Crockett's Tavern. It was once the home of the Wilderness Arcade! The
entire space from doors to doors that is now Crockett's Tavern and some of Trail's End Buffet was once the Wilderness Arcade.
And it was fricking awesome!
Mind you, when I first went in this arcade, it was like 1976 or 1977, if memory serves me right. That was before Space Invaders and Pac Man were even invented!
But the lack of digital computing didn't stop Mr. Disney and his merry band of Imagineers.
They made a bunch of
mechanical arcade games.
Yes, mechanical.
Like there was a cool game where the one of the Country Bears would swing back and forth on a metronome. Your job was to shoot him with a rifle!
A properly sighted rifle!
When I first encountered this game, I just inserted my quarter, picked up the rifle and started shooting wildly at the bear.
Couldn't hit him to save my life.
I was, after all, only 7 or 8.
Then another very nice boy, who was maybe about 10, came up and said, "Don't move the gun. Just wait for the bear to enter your sights and pull the trigger."
And I said, "Sights?"
"Yeah," he said, "sights. You don't know what sights are?"
And he proceeded to explain how to line up rifle sights.
Thirty seconds later I was shooting that goofy fat bear dead!
Imagine that -- a young troll learning the basics of riflery right there in the Wilderness Arcade!
There was also this very cool mechanical airplane game where you'd fly a little model biplane around in a circle. You could dive up and down and attempt to swoop through barns and under trees.
It was
mechanical! Pop being the avid aviator loved that game.
And then in 1981, it was right there in the Wilderness Arcade that I first witnessed what would become a video game classic for the very first time -- Donkey Kong.
I remember I was twelve years old and Pop gave me $2 to blow on arcade games. I got some change from the change machine and noticed a crowd of kids gathered around one particular standup game console.
So I went over to take a look.
There was a girl about my age playing the legendary Donkey Kong, and she was totally owning it. She maneuvered Mario up those ladders and over those barrels so expertly, I wondered how many hundreds of dollars of quarters she had invested to get that good.
I loved that arcade. Too bad it's gone. But I guess there's more money in booze than in arcade games.
If you're paying close attention, you probably remember I said the Wilderness Arcade was the
second best arcade in the world.
You know what the first best one was?
The one in the Contemporary.
Oh, man, did that arcade rule.
You know that cool shooting gallery at the MK? They had one at the Contemporary! The place was huge and jam packed with games.
They even had a little movie theater at the back of the arcade where they'd show old Disney movies for free.
To an 8 year old troll, it was like Mr. Disney was just giving away the world.
Anyway, I promised another Pop porch story in my previous post.
Our routine every night was to do our thing during the day, whatever it was -- MK, River Country, swim at the pool or at the beach, etc. -- and then have dinner at Trail's End (which was much different back then...more on that later).
After dinner we'd play a dollar or two at the Wilderness Arcade.
And if it was a really special night, Pop would say, "Come on, let's go over to the Contemporary!"
And then we'd spend the rest of the evening in the Contemporary arcade.
Well, one night after dinner, Pop ordered a tall Bloody Mary and found a nice rocking chair facing Bay Lake.
All three of us -- Mike, Lori, and me -- were just chomping at the bit to head on over to the Contemporary. So Mike asked, "Pop, can we go over to the Contemporary?"
And he said, "Yes, I suppose so. But let me finish my drink first."
So there he sat, rocking slowly back and forth with that tall Bloody Mary perched at the edge of the armrest.
Rickety-rock...rickety-rock.
I have that image of that full Bloody Mary with a celery stalk sticking out of it burned in my memory. It looked something like this:
Only it was in Pop's hand, at the edge of a FW rocking chair's armrest. And it was tall...and full to the rim.
Rickety-rock...rickety-rock.
Now as a kid, to drink a drink is to drink it. Sip, sip, sip, sip, tik-ahhhhh!
As an adult, you don't drink a drink, you nurse it.
And that's what Pop was doing with that Bloody Mary -- nursing it.
And there we three stood, staring at that drink, full to the rim and never touching Pop's lips. We were like a bunch of farmers sitting around, waiting for their corn to grow.
Rickety-rock...rickety-rock.
Finally, Mike spoke up: "Pop, are we going to the Contemporary?"
And Pop said, "Yes. In just a few minutes. Let me finish my drink."
Rickety-rock...rickety-rock.
Finally, Mike said, "Well what are you drinking it with? An eyedropper?!"
At last, Pop relented. "Oh all right," he said, and then chugged the rest of his Bloody Mary.
Now I've never chugged a Bloody Mary before, but I'd bet money it isn't a pleasant experience.
Of course I didn't care -- we were off to the Contemporary!
You've got a great eye for photography.
