Today we went to another birthday party at GattiTown. The Boy has been invited to quite a few here lately from his little league teammates. It’s not the party I mind, it’s not the wild, rambunctious kids popping balloons and threatening to smear me with cake (usually I’m the instigator so I bring that on myself), and I don’t mind that the party is typically at the oh-so-popular GattiTown. No, it’s the games they have there. Let me correct myself. It’s THE GAME they have there.
Let me describe this torturous, monstrous, machine of terror. It has a little spinning circular wheel kind of like the wheel from Wheel of Fortune, but on this wheel there are holes along the outside of the wheel with numbers next to them. A ball drops from the top of the game when you hit the button (you gotta time it right) and whatever hole your ball bounces into is how many tickets you win. There are lots of 1’s, and 2’s, and 3’s,(lotsa small numbers) a 10 hole, a 25 hole, a 50 hole, a 75 hole, then there is a 100 ticket hole and a jackpot hole but these two holes have a ring around them making them next to impossible for the ball to actually make it inside that hole. You can also land on a hole that earns you extra “balls” or turns. Each game costs 40 cents. What they don’t tell you is it’s more addictive than crack or heroin or chocolate (figure I’d better stick to something I know since I haven’t done those first two).
So, The Boy had a plan. He wanted one particular prize. And not just any prize. THE prize. He wanted a Kung Fu Panda stuffed animal, the big one. We already knew how many tickets it took (hint: 1,975)and they weren’t willing to accept my kidney, so we had to play “THE GAME OF HOLEY DEATH” as I’ve dubbed it, but The Boy loves it.
Just to be clear on your chances with this freaking wondrous game just 3 weeks ago we were there celebrating another teammate’s birthday and we loaded 50 bucks onto a game card and walked away with just 340 ticks. So, I wasn’t feeling so confident today. Our first try today The Boy swiped his card, hit the button, the ball dropped and it swooshed through the “1” hole without touching the rim and I thought “Oh, so this is how it’s gonna be, huh?” but The Boy was undeterred. He swiped the card again, hit the button, the ball dropped, bounced around and landed in the “jackpot” hole.
Okay, so I won’t give you the play by play version of his time at this game, but he hit the Jackpot a total of 5 times. He hit the “100” hole once. He hit the “75” hole 9 times. He hit the “50” hole 7 times. He hit the “25” hole 14 times. (he also won a lot of extra turns which was wonderful!) By the time he was done with his card an audience had form and was cheering him, even employees.
And…..guess who got the Kung Fu Panda stuffed animal?
