Pinball wizard, there has to be a twist...

My father (Papa Polt?) at the age of 66, has bought himself a pinball machine. A Simpsons pinball machine, circa 1990. He was all excited when he was telling me about it:

Papa Polt: It even talks to you. It says, 'Eat my underwear!"
Me: Dad, its 'Eat my shorts'. That's what Bart says.
Papa Polt: ..whatever...

I don't think he's even seen a full episode of the Simpsons. And yet he got a Simpsons pinball machine. For $3,000! *SIGH* I told him I wished he'd stop spending my inheritance. He told me he used to be pretty good at pinball when he was younger. I reminded him there was a lot of things he used to do when he was younger, but could no longer do.

But then i got to thinking about it. My dad worked in a factory all his life, for nearly 40 years in the stock room. he would come home, smelly, and grimy. It would be like a furnace there in the summer and I'm sure it wasn't all that warm in the cold winters. And it was, sticky, sweaty grueling work.

He was never much of an emotional man (in fact I think the first time I can recall him saying he loved me was when i was flying to Europe at age 16, and he was convinced the plane was gonna crash and he thought that was the last time he was gonna talk to me). But he was a good provider. We were never rich, but we always had a roof over our heads, food ont he table, clothes on our backs. We even took vacations most years to the beach in New Jersey. Eventually we got cable, and a microwave, and a computer and all the other stuff as well. he never gambled his check away, or spent in on booze, or sat around the bars with his buddies getting all drunk. he never struck me or mom (hehe, I think if he did, he would have gotten the short end of the stick, cause either of us probably could have kicked his ass).

So I suppose if, in his mid-life (or at 66, I guess he's past mid-life...) crisis, he wants to re-live his youth through a pinball machine, he's entitled.

Eat my underwear, indeed.

POLT = listening to "When Worlds Collide" by Powerman 5000

I'm of a mind to make some moogie. - The Joker, Batman, the Movie