Wednesday, May 06, 2020

This Too Shall Pass

People, mostly guys, of a certain age might know what is pictured here.

I can count the number of days I spent playing this. Literally.

It turns out single digits. When I got this, probably back in 1977 (?), it was all the rage.

Who wouldn't love something with the clunkiness of the first nerdy calculator that could only add / subtract / multiple / divide and only to eight digits and pair with with the excitement of football?

Well, my parents were early adopters of that aforementioned calculator (thanks 47th St. Photo!), and I had no affinity for the sport, so.........naturally, I HAD to have this. And oddly, my parents accommodated me. This was unlike them.

As a freshman, I was dying to fit in, which I didn't know at the time was NEVER going to happen. But in the failed attempt, a cool electronic gadget that people wanted, or wanted to be around, was my "in". Except, it wasn't.

Without me ever seemingly realizing it, this piece of gaming history went missing.   ........for maybe 30 + years. I'm sure at the time, I knew it was gone - but not sure if it was at my hand or some five fingered thief.

But somewhere at that 30 + year mark, at a Sunday dinner, I found it at my mother's house. Still looking brand spanking new. One new 9-volt battery later and it was as good as almost new.  ....and I still sucked at it.

And I shit you not, I immediately misplaced the Football I.

I wasn't even sure if it left my mother's house or if it made it to ours. Clearly it wasn't meant to be.


.......or was it ??

In the last week, we've been purging from the house. I don't know exactly where 710 found it, but he did.

So for like the 20th time in 43 years, I put in a new 9-volt and fired her up. 

It still works perfectly.

....and I still suck at it.


On a whim, I thought maybe I found a vintage game in which I could sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, even though it's not in the original packaging. As it turns out, I can sell it on e-bay from somewhere between $3.80  and $30.00.

Maybe I'll just look for it again in a decade and see if the value has gone up.



Song by: OK Go

2 comments:

anne marie in philly said...

some things never change. so you suck at football, but you are a good cook, a loving husband, and a caring furkid daddy.

Travel said...

How were you at Packman? I let video games largely pass me by.