When I was young..

[JonPurpleHaze]

It was around 1968 when I fell in love with Pinball, our family embarked on a road trip to Pennsylvania to see my aunt Judy get married, my grandfather had a bar with a bunch on pins and spoiled my 5 brothers and sisters to many games while we stayed, I remember our parents complaining about the free snacks and pinball.

Sleeping was a challenge initially, the trains kept a rollin' all night long, you could feel the vibrations in the bed when they chugged along but after awhile they were soothing and different to us upstate NY suburban folks.

Some of my favorite memories are within that trip and as a family we were in about 40 of the 50 US States, including pristine lakes and rivers in the Rockies. The pinball was fantastic to me, all wood rails and beautiful in a different way than nature.

One of the scariest times in my life occurred on the way to my Aunt Judy's wedding, it was up a steep snow covered hill in PA behind a car/driver that was swerving over 3 lanes of a 2 lane highway with cliffs on the edges.

It still remains as one of my favorite trips, just found out that my Aunt Judy is probably gonna die within the next week.

 

[tiltjlp]

Sorry to hear of your aunt's impending death Jon, but at least you have some wonderful memories to remember her with, which I hope will soften your sense of loss. My introduction to pinball was in a family gathering place just up the street from you house, a German Beer Garden. Families from the neighborhood visited nightly in the early 1950s, more just to socialize than to drink. We'd always have sofda pop and snacks, and some nights even supper. One summer evening in 1951, standing on an overturned wooden beer case, I played my first game of pinball. Since I was only 5 1/2, I could barely see over the edge of the pinball machine, and surely wasn't very good at the game, but I still had a blast.

 

[faralos]

you aren't saying that PA drivers suck now are ya'?
I have the same problem growing up in North Jersey where
if you don't have balls and a suicide pact you ain't getting into that traffic lane!
living here now in Pa the drivers suck at best
either speeding on roads way too narrow
or crawling along every damn time it rains a bit!
anyways my earliest memories of pinball weren't until I was 17
and got my drivers license
then I could travel to all the cool arcades (one of the famous ones
was in Bertrands Island in Lake Hopatcong in North Jersey
back in the 70's before it closed(
Slydog43 now lives where the amusement park once stood
http://www.landingnewjersey.com/bertrand.htm
but they had a huge arcade there
but my most fave spot was the now closed Fun and Games
in Wllowbrook mall, Wayne NJ where i first fell in love with Flash by williams
and the (in)famous hercules megapin

 

[Coil_Smoke]

In The Begining.....

This reminds me of one of my earliest memories and yeah pinball was involved. When I was four years old we moved from Tennessee to Maryland. On our last trip back to Knoxville my dad pulled into a gas station. Me and him went into the gas station's office and there are two men playing the first pinball machines I'd ever seen. I was immediately intrigued and stood on a case of oil so I could see what was going on. I saw the silver ball bouncing around in the machine on the right. The machine on the left was covered with plywood so I had to wonder why is this guy playing it anyway. Suddenly my dad snatched me away. Then there was some discussion about the law/gambling and I got the feeling that something forbidden was going on. Later in life I had to figure a pinball machine with plywood instead of glass could conceivably be used as a gambling device. Those mysterious and forbidden aspects started me on this lifelong quest for pinball nirvana.

 

[Itchigo]

John, sorry to hear that. I hope we all can help you get through this tough time.

This may not be my earliest memory of pinball, but I do remember seeing Bally's Bow and Arrow at Worldwide Distributors in Chicago when it was new.

 

[sleepy]

Man, I'm sorry to hear about your Aunt.





Was pinball illegal in Pennsylvania in th 1950's or no?
I would guess that pinball in Pa Was legal since that's where I first played the game, but it was always in the shady backroom of a country roadside Italian Restaurant or under the tin roof shacks at a Kiddyland.

What fascinated me was the Christmas-like lights and color under glass, and that silver ball.

 

[faralos]

from what I understand pins were illegal everywhere until the 70's
but in NYC there were dozens of store fronts that had pinball machines
I remember playing them in the early 70's all over Times Square
before it got 'cleaned up'
I ain't from Pa so I don't know the laws here regarding pin use back then
I originally hail from North Jersey only moving here (PA) in '05 due to
a very ugly divorce

 

[LeeVanCleef]

It was around 1968 when I fell in love with Pinball, our family embarked on a road trip to Pennsylvania to see my aunt Judy get married, my grandfather had a bar with a bunch on pins and spoiled my 5 brothers and sisters to many games while we stayed, I remember our parents complaining about the free snacks and pinball.
.

Very sorry about your aunt, Jon. What a great story! Wish my grandfather had owned a bar! Gotta ask the obvious... do you remember what the machines were?

 

[sleepy]

I'd still like to determine the legality of pinball in 1950's-60's Pa.
I am recalling how the beer and alcohol was limited to beer gartens(sp?), ack, I meant the spelling for a German Beer Garden, and Italian Restaurants, and low-key non-descript closed door taverns hidden away from We the Children, while the sale of beer, wine and alcohol was limited strictly to the State Stores. The State Store was the State of Pennsylvania's alcohol store. If you wanted beer or booze, you bought it from The State at their State Store.
Which means that the alcohol revenue went to The State.
There were No Liquor Stores in Pa at all in the 50's and 60's and beer sold at supermarkets was prohibited.


EDIT: Which then made it strange that the local television still advertised Carling's Black Label Beer and Duquesne (pronounced "Dukane") beer. It was probably to increase State revenue. The Duquesne ads were a cartoon featuring a Napoleon character who would give us a "Thumbs Up" to drinking Duquesne while muttering and mumbling grufly in a low pseudo-French growl.

But alcohol isn't pinball.


EDIT: There is a centuries-old tavern near Vandergrift, built into a cliff and straight on across the intersection from the exit of a bridge overlooking a river. If a driver fails to turn right or left upon exiting that bridge, they will end up parked on the tavern bar. This tavern was closed the last time I saw it in the late 90's.

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

Very sorry about your aunt, Jon. What a great story! Wish my grandfather had owned a bar! Gotta ask the obvious... do you remember what the machines were?

Unfortunately, I don't remember what games were there, I've worked on this problem for a couple of decades by asking my 5 siblings and others that I know were there.

About the "bar", all 8 of us stayed and slept there on multiple occasions (mother, father and kids) and I recall all of the grownup's calling it a restaurant....
I guess it was a bar/restaurant but I only remember the tables holding cards, also don't know the legality of pinball in PA during the 60's but I'm guessing that this..

The machine on the left was covered with plywood so I had to wonder why is this guy playing it anyway. Suddenly my dad snatched me away. Then there was some discussion about the law/gambling and I got the feeling that something forbidden was going on. Later in life I had to figure a pinball machine with plywood instead of glass could conceivably be used as a gambling device. Those mysterious and forbidden aspects started me on this lifelong quest for pinball nirvana. 05-30-2013 08:54 AM

Was probably a bingo machine! I used to play them in the 70's in California and they were always in a back room or hidden in some manner.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Wow, bingo machines! I haven't thought about those in decades! I have a very vague memory of bingo machines causing quite the kerfuffle in Wichita when I was a kid. Law enforcement didn't give a damn about pinball, but they sure hated bingo machines!

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

Wow, bingo machines! I haven't thought about those in decades! I have a very vague memory of bingo machines causing quite the kerfuffle in Wichita when I was a kid. Law enforcement didn't give a damn about pinball, but they sure hated bingo machines!

Yeah, that was my guess, here are Nirvana's Bingo VP Tables:
Bingos

We had a User named Wally that used to keep us to date on Bingo machines that were very popular in Hawaii, I went to a place in Honolulu and played them!

 

[sleepy]

Was this bar that your Grandfather owned in East Pa. or West near Pittsburgh?

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

Was this bar that your Grandfather owned in East Pa. or West near Pittsburgh?

It was in Ellwood City near Pittsburgh!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellwood_City,_Pennsylvania
Ive been all over the state, never lived in it, my parents grew up in Butler PA, also near Pittsburgh and they wanted to get out when they were young...:whisper:

 

[sleepy]

Jesus Christ Man! Did they know Charles Boarts? He was my uncle and had a summer camp in Butler. I also have a cousin Judy and I'm hoping for the best in any event.

Have you ever heard of Willow Road Dairy, owned by the Hileman family?
Or Maybelle(sp?) Farms Dairy?

I was born in Kittaning Hospital and lived in Ford Cliff and near Ford City which is along the Allegheny River, but we were up on the high ground cliffs above the city which is in the basin.

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

Both of my parents were born in Butler, I have cousins that live in Butler, not sure of your references but I spent a weekend at my uncles cottage on the river tubing in the 90's and was too sore to drive to Ohio.

 

[sleepy]

As crazy as this may seem, the one thing that I miss about Pa are seeing the Fireflies in the evenings of early Summer.

Once we visited our relatives in '68 by plane and I tried to bring a jar of fireflies back to California, but they didn't survive the air pressure shifts in the passenger compartment I guess. I was very disappointed by that at the time.
The fireflies are great with plants because they live off the aphids and other pests.

The firefly is also the source of the invention of the Calumet Glow Stick, though I don't want to think about what the scientists did to study the bio-luminescence, but the stick is supposed to be synthesized from chemistry now, and not made from fireflies.

I saw them all the time at Disneyland when I owned an Annual Pass. People and kids smiling and waving these Calumet Sticks and necklaces in the evening air...

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

That's pretty lame when you have to go to Disneyland to see a darned firefly, I lived in CA and they are there..
RIP Aunt Judy, (1939-2013) she lasted much longer than anyone expected, was joking with my brother and me last week, I'll miss her.

Some IZ:
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[sleepy]

May she rest in peace.

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

Yeah, she is missed, died yesterday and it sucks but was expected.....



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Some more IZ (Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole):

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[sleepy]

I remember my old man. He developed sepsis in the rest home in '97 and the hospital gave him morphine and let him pass, but that was according to his wishes.

 

[sleepy]

Jackson Browne is from around here. His Father owned a liquor store on Barham Rd. in Studio City, up on the hill behind The Burbank Studios, Forest Lawn and Universal and about 8 miles from here. Back in the days when I spun records, I used to play him a lot.