BEEP ZAP ZOOM REV A 4 26 11

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.



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!



The End