beep zap zoom

Beep! Zap! ZOOM!





Beep! Zap! ZOOM!

by Oliver Mattson

(c) 2011



The Day was Saturday, the

best day of the week, thought Ollie.

Dad was listening to two radios, watching television, and talking on the CB radio and telephone, all at the same time.   It was a bit noisy.

Ollie came in and said, a little bit loud, so that Dad could hear him, “Dad, Can We Go an Arcade?”, “Right ON!”, Dad responded.  He quickly wrapped up his phone call, and they both headed to the kitchen.

Dad opened up the cabinet way up high, and pulled down the coin banks that thy had, especially for Arcade Visits.  He placed them down on the kitchen table, and opened them up.

Ollie picked up his coins and
Dad did as well.  They both grinned thinking about changing them into tokens, coins that allowed them to play games in special arcades, games usually ran on Quarters in most other  places.

Dad gave Ollie extra money in the kitchen, because he was helping more and reading more as well.  While Dad and Ollie talked about what games they wanted to play, and where they wanted to go, Mom came in from the back office, and turned off all the noise in the living room.

“What are you two doing in here with all that noise in there on?”, asked Mom.  “We’re talking about going to the Arcade!”, Ollie exclaimed.  “Do you want to go, too?”, Dad asked.
“Nope, I’d just like to listen to one piece of music from one band right now, have fun and be home before dinner, okay.", and headed toward the record collection as Ollie and Dad waved See-You-Soon to Mom, as they scooped up their play money and headed out the door.

When they arrived at the arcade, the sounds and noise of all the games kind of scared Ollie at first, because they used to have them up very loud, but once the music kicked on, which Ollie liked a lot, it started feeling batter and even made the games look better, Totally Awesome,  Ollie felt.


There was a large black machine that took dollar bills and coins and changed them into tokens to play the games.  Dad popped the money into the machine and the tokens dropped into the pick up scoop.  (*tinka-tinka-tinka-tinka* - the sound of Four tokens dropping down)

The tokens looked like they were more shiny than gold.  Some Tokens from some arcades used to have the things and characters from the games.  Some had pictures of Mascots and  Mice, some had pictures of Pizzas. Some Arcades had strangely shaped tokens that only their machines would take.

It was very neat. The whole world was in love with video games, and Arcades.  It was a brand new thing, and it was just wonderful.  The arcade they went to was stocked with great games, and tons of people.  Some playing, some watching and rooting for their friends and fellow players. They also had what Dad liked to play the most:  Pinball.

You see, Dad had been playing Pinball since he was Ollie’s age, and it only costed a nickel at times.  And he played it well.  Ollie stood by watching Dad play one machine for games on end only using one token for what seemed like the longest time.  Rolling the scores over and making the machine make a loud, LOUD *POP* when winning a “Special”, or free game.  Ollie got upset that he wasn’t as good as  Dad at games and told him about it.  Dad sat by Ollie and told his son, “Ollie, it takes time, practice and patience to be good at, or even be able to do Anything in life.  The only reason I’m any good at Pinball is because I keep going, losing is part of life, you can not quit, you have to continue to aim for the high score no matter what, and continue on, even though you’ve lost, there’s always another game.  I'm no good at those Video Games, right, but I keep trying, Beep! Zap! Zoom!"

“Okay”, Ollie said, looking a little puzzled.
“Let’s find a game you LIKE,  and that you feel like you want to get good at.  So they went around trying out all kinds of games.  First, Ollie tried a few space games, *BEEP-TSSHHH, BOOP-TSSHHH, BEEP-TSHHH, BOOP-TSSHHH, ZIINNNG ZIING ZIING BEEP*, he  didn’t know, but he had a pretty good score.

Then they tried some maze games, *BLOOPA BLOOPA- BLOOPA-BLOOPA -BEWEWEWWEWP-ZZZAPP*
But none truly made him feel good.

Then they tried out a couple of race car games, *VROOM-ZZZZOOM-SCREE-THUMP-ZZZOOOM*.
Which...  *ZZOOOOM-SCREEE-CRASSSHH BEEEDOOBEEDOO GAME OVER PLAYER ONE*, he was not good at at all.
They then went back to the pinball machine where Dad had gotten those high scores, and replays, and Ollie listened as he watched his Dad play, and his Dad taught him about Bumpers, and Flipppers, and Scoring Points, and how to win that one game.  Ollie tried it.  After listening to his Dad, he knew more about it, and quickly began to rack up serious points on the machine before Game Over.

“Way to go, Ollie.” Dad said with a smile, see, practice and keeping going are pretty cool, huh?”  “You bet.”, Said Ollie with a large smile.  They played pinball a few more games before calling it a day and deciding to head home.  On the way out the door of the arcade, Dad pointed out to Ollie one more sign that trying works, the Space game, which Ollie did well on, still held hi high score, even after at least six people played it after him.  “Way to go, son, you’re good, see, just keep trying.”

They arrived back just in time for Dinner, as they promised Mom, ate and went to bed.
As Dad turned off the light in Ollie’s room, Ollie asked, “Dad, I’m getting better, right?”.  Dad responded, “you bet, just keep trying like today, Beep! Zap! Zoom!, Okay?”
“Right, Gotcha. Good night, Dad, I Love you”, “Love You Too, Son, ‘night”.  And with that, we end that day.

That day was one that Ollie forgot about for a long long time.  You see, shortly after that, Ollie’s Dad passed away, and some bad things happened and a long long time passed, and Ollie forgot about some of those very special days that made him feel really really good.

One day, when Ollie was (sort of) grown up, (just older that’s all, he was still a little boy down inside, a bit lost), after he was feeling very very sad, and had not even felt like playing any games for a super long long time.
He was staring at the wall.  Something happened.
The memory of this day came back, strong, like  when you turn the faucet on in the tub full blast and it’s one of those noisy, loud, full of life, “Yep, I know THAT THERE is WATER!”, kind of situations.
An Energy pulsed through his brains and body.  It told him, to pick up a controller.  He Did.  It told him, to play.  He Did.  Beep! Zap! ZOOM!, He played.

Not with the worries of the day, about work, or money, or if he looked like he was doing right by the public, and making sure everyone was happy and comfortable.  Nope.  He played like a six year old boy genius, opening up old boxes and plugging in all sorts of games and systems to Televisions and Monitors and playing on the computer, even.

No matter what, he thought.  Those words, as simple then as they are now had far more meaning to them.  They told him to keep going.  To keep Learning, and Playing, and Doing.
No matter what happens.
Beep! Zap! ZOOM!

Publish Post

The End